The official OpenAI Developers account (@OpenAIDevs) announced at 1:46 a.m. KST on August 21, 2026 that it had "added a new Exa plugin to ChatGPT Work and Codex, with access to more than 100 billion websites, papers, and documents."
Search startup Exa (@ExaAILabs) posted at the same time from its own account, with a 7-second demo video, that you can install it via "Codex → Plugins → 'Exa' → Install."
What changes
Codex and ChatGPT Work already had their own web search. The Exa plugin widens that reach with more than 100 billion websites, papers, and information on people and companies. To install it, find "Exa" in the Plugins menu of the Codex app and click once.
Reactions in the replies to the official thread were mixed. One person said that "now when Codex cites a paper that doesn't exist, at least it will cite a paper that does," while another worried that "it will just burn through usage limits faster."
Why only ChatGPT Work and Codex
It does not yet apply to regular ChatGPT (Free or Plus). When someone asked in the official thread why it isn't in regular chat, there was no direct reply. Rolling out to paid business and developer plans first is a pattern that has repeated with other recent OpenAI features, such as Computer History and cross-app memory.
What to check before relying on it
Because the plugin reaches so many more external sources, check how fast it uses up your usage limit before using it for real work. Some users warned in replies that "you could use up your limit in a day." It's also worth comparing early on whether the result ranking is actually better than the existing web search.
What still needs confirmation
The "more than 100 billion websites" figure comes from Exa itself, and it hasn't said how it counts sites with very large page counts. Official documentation and pricing have not been confirmed yet.