OpenAI introduced Workspace Agents in research preview for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers plans. The agents are shared across an organization, run in the cloud so they keep working when their owner is offline, and integrate directly with Slack, Salesforce, and other connected tools. Powered by Codex underneath, they can prepare reports, write code, draft replies, and run long-horizon workflows. Free usage runs through May 6, then credit-based pricing kicks in.
Workspace Agents are positioned as the successor to custom GPTs. Where custom GPTs were essentially saved prompt configurations, Workspace Agents have execution capability, persistent state, and admin-controlled scoping — admins can decide which connected tools each user group can reach and who can build, share, or use each agent. That moves OpenAI's enterprise story from 'hosted prompts' to 'governed automation', which is where Microsoft Copilot, Anthropic, and Google Gemini Enterprise have been competing.
The pricing model is the tell. Credit-based billing for agent runs is the same shape Anthropic uses for Claude in Cursor, what Microsoft Agent 365 launched with on May 3, and what Google has been quietly testing in Gemini Enterprise. The whole industry has converged on consumption pricing for agentic workloads, because no one — buyer or seller — yet knows how much an autonomous agent will actually use in production.
A note for learners: when you build with Workspace Agents, expect the same governance challenges that hit RPA in 2018 — orphaned bots, unclear ownership, agents that quietly rack up costs after the person who built them leaves. The technology is new, the org-design problems are old. Pair every shared agent with a human owner and a usage budget before turning it on.