Windows Desktop 26.707 app-server private memory grows to 23 GB shortly after restart

[figurinero]

Summary

Codex Desktop on Windows is showing rapid user-mode private memory growth in the main codex.exe app-server process shortly after launch/restart. In this case, the growth is not primarily from duplicated node.exe MCP child processes: the single codex.exe process reached about 23.2 GB private memory while all node.exe processes together were under 0.4 GB working set.

This appears related to recent Windows Desktop memory/performance issues, but the observed failure mode is specifically codex.exe app-server private memory growth rather than kernel pool retention or duplicated stdio MCP pools.

Environment

• App: Codex Desktop / ChatGPT desktop Codex surface on Windows
• Codex package path/version observed:
  • OpenAI.Codex_26.707.8479.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
  • ...\app\resources\codex.exe
• App-server command line observed:
  • codex.exe -c features.code_mode_host=true app-server --analytics-default-enabled
• OS:
  • Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
  • Version: 10.0.26200
  • Build: 26200
  • Architecture: 64-bit
• RAM: about 32 GB (TotalVisibleMemorySize=32896208 KB)

What happened

The user reported that Codex had started consuming about 23 GB RAM even though they did not have an intentional task running and conversations were no longer loading/rendering correctly.

A first process snapshot showed:

codex.exe PID 12848: Working set about 12.49 GB, high CPU
ChatGPT renderer processes: each under about 0.6 GB

The same codex.exe process briefly dropped, then began growing again quickly. A 14-second sample showed steady growth:

01:15:38  WorkingSet 3.50 GB  Private 3.52 GB
01:15:40  WorkingSet 3.65 GB  Private 3.66 GB
01:15:42  WorkingSet 3.87 GB  Private 3.89 GB
01:15:44  WorkingSet 4.06 GB  Private 4.07 GB
01:15:46  WorkingSet 4.27 GB  Private 4.28 GB
01:15:48  WorkingSet 4.47 GB  Private 4.49 GB
01:15:50  WorkingSet 4.66 GB  Private 4.68 GB
01:15:52  WorkingSet 4.82 GB  Private 4.85 GB

After the user killed/restarted Codex/ChatGPT, the new codex.exe process started normally:

codex.exe PID 22700: Working set about 0.13 GB, Private about 0.08 GB

But it reproduced shortly afterward. During the follow-up observation, the same process grew from small values to multiple GB:

01:18:32  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.08 GB
01:18:36  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.08 GB
01:18:39  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.07 GB
01:18:42  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.07 GB
01:18:45  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.07 GB
01:18:48  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.07 GB
01:18:51  WorkingSet 0.13 GB  Private 0.07 GB
01:18:54  WorkingSet 0.17 GB  Private 0.12 GB
01:18:57  WorkingSet 0.33 GB  Private 0.29 GB
01:19:00  WorkingSet 0.61 GB  Private 0.57 GB
01:19:31  WorkingSet 5.23 GB  Private 5.20 GB

A later snapshot from the same restarted process showed:

codex.exe PID 22700:
  WorkingSet: 21.61 GB
  Private:    23.21 GB
  CPU:        210.27 sec
  StartTime:  2026-07-14 01:17:31 local time

At that moment, the related process group was not dominated by child Node/MCP memory:

Process group totals:
ChatGPT    Count 7   Total working set 1.02 GB
codex      Count 1   Total working set 21.63 GB
node       Count 5   Total working set 0.37 GB
node_repl  Count 2   Total working set 0.02 GB
pwsh       Count 3   Total working set 0.26 GB

The only intentional activity during the reproduced observation was lightweight diagnostic PowerShell process inspection from the Codex session. No project dev server or large repository command was running as the apparent source of the memory.

Expected behavior

codex.exe app-server should remain bounded while idle or while handling lightweight process-inspection tool calls. It should not grow from under 1 GB to more than 20 GB private memory shortly after restart.

Actual behavior

The single codex.exe app-server process grew rapidly to more than 23 GB private memory and consumed significant CPU. This made Codex hard to use and the user reported chat/conversation loading problems.

Impact

• Codex Desktop becomes unsafe to leave open on Windows because the machine can approach memory exhaustion.
• Restarting the app temporarily lowers memory usage but the growth can return quickly.
• The issue can occur without a visible long-running user task and is difficult for the user to attribute from the UI.

Workaround tried

• Killed/restarted Codex/ChatGPT.
• Memory reset initially, but the new codex.exe app-server process reproduced rapid growth again.

Related issues

This may be adjacent to, but distinct from:

• Windows Codex Desktop appears to trigger sustained kernel pool growth via file/pipe/filter-driver activity #31212: Windows kernel pool growth / file-pipe-filter-driver activity
• Windows Desktop app-server repeatedly spawns duplicate MCP stdio process pools (183 node.exe / 13GB private memory) #31499: duplicated MCP stdio process pools causing many node.exe processes
• Codex Desktop high CPU from unbounded active thread metadata and local history/list processing #24510: high CPU from local thread metadata/history processing
• Windows 26.429 desktop becomes unresponsive with long threads, MCP auto-start duplicates, and non-Git workspace warnings #20867: Windows Desktop unresponsiveness and MCP/rendering concerns

The distinguishing data point here is that the memory growth was concentrated in the single codex.exe app-server user-mode private memory, while Node/MCP child process memory remained small.

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• [Windows Desktop 26.707.8479.0] New windows still fan out full conversation snapshots for every streaming thread #32722

Powered by Codex Action