Maude vs Codex Remote in the ChatGPT app

OpenAI's answer to "Codex on my phone" is Remote, inside the ChatGPT app. From your phone you can start chats on another computer, send instructions, approve actions and review output, and you get notifications when a task finishes or needs you. It's official, it's polished, and if you have a ChatGPT plan with Codex, it costs nothing extra. If your Codex work happens on a Mac or Windows machine that's always on, start there.

The questions this page answers are what happens when the computer you want to use is a headless Linux server, and what Maude does differently.

At a glance

OpenAI details are from the Remote connections, developer commands and pricing pages, checked on 2026-10-01.

How Codex Remote works

The host is a computer running the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS or Windows, signed in to the same account. Your phone talks to that app. OpenAI's docs are direct about the condition: the host has to stay awake, online and signed in. On a Mac laptop, that means lid open and power connected. If the computer sleeps, remote access stops until it wakes.

The desktop app can also open SSH projects: you add a host to your SSH config, install Codex on it, and pick remote folders in the app's settings. Commands then run on that remote machine. That gets your code onto a Linux server, but the always-on desktop app is still in the middle.

Linux and headless servers

For a server with no desktop, OpenAI documents an experimental CLI path. codex remote-control start runs a local app-server daemon with remote control enabled, and codex remote-control pair prints a short-lived pairing code. The Remote connections page itself still describes Mac and Windows desktop hosts. Two open GitHub issues track the gap: #31183 reports that headless Linux hosts couldn't be re-paired after the mobile and desktop apps moved to a QR/PIN flow, and #35928 asks OpenAI to reconcile the two docs. This is moving quickly, so check those threads for the current state before you plan around it.

Maude starts with the server. You add a Linux or macOS machine by address, a pasted ssh … command, or a QR printed by curl -fsSL https://maude.pilotdev.fr/setup | sh. The app deploys its own daemon over SSH and installs Codex at a tested, pinned version, checksum-verified. Then you sign in from the phone, either with a ChatGPT device code (the same flow as codex login --device-auth) or with an API key. OpenAI requires device-code login to be enabled in your ChatGPT security settings first, or by your workspace admin. The server dials out to Maude's end-to-end encrypted relay, so it works behind NAT or a firewall without an open port. SSH is the fallback. Our guide to running Codex CLI on a VPS covers the whole setup, with or without Maude.

Approvals and notifications

Both let you approve from the phone. Codex Remote lets you approve commands and other actions and notifies you when a task completes or needs attention. Maude shows Codex's approval requests inline in the session and in its inbox, and sends push notifications with Allow and Deny buttons, so short approvals don't need the app open. You can switch Maude's notification categories on and off. More in our guide to approving agent permissions from your phone.

Other agents and handoff

Codex Remote is for Codex. Maude runs Codex alongside Claude Code, OpenCode, Grok Build and Antigravity, several sessions at once, across servers. While a session is idle you can switch it to another agent. The new agent gets a brief with the plan, the files touched, the git state, the recent conversation and the last instruction, and switching back resumes Codex's own session. Each session also has a file viewer, git (review the diff hunk by hunk, commit, push, open a PR when gh is installed) and a real terminal.

Price

Codex Remote costs nothing on top of your plan. OpenAI's Codex pricing page lists Codex on Free, Go ($8/month), Plus ($20/month), Pro (from $100/month), Business ($20 per user per month) and Enterprise/Edu, with usage limits that vary by plan. Maude is $2.99/week after a 3-day free trial or $59.99/year after a 7-day free trial, and you still bring your own ChatGPT plan or API key. You also pay for the server, which can be a small VPS; see the best VPS for coding agents.

Who should pick which

Pick Codex Remote if you use Codex on a Mac or Windows computer that can stay awake, you want the official app, or you want to pay nothing extra. It's the simplest setup, and it comes straight from OpenAI.

Pick Maude if you want Codex running 24/7 on a headless Linux server or a spare Mac, without a desktop app in the loop or your laptop kept awake. It's also the pick if you want Claude Code, OpenCode, Grok Build or Antigravity in the same app, or Maude to install and update Codex for you. See Codex on your phone for how it works in Maude, and our roundup of coding agent phone apps for other options.

Frequently asked questions

What changed

• October 1, 2026 — First published. Codex Remote, the experimental codex remote-control CLI and Codex plan prices checked against OpenAI's docs; GitHub issues #31183 and #35928 open at the time of writing.