SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI launched a desktop application for ChatGPT on Linux this week, bundling ChatGPT Work and Codex in a preview release that extends the platform across all major desktop operating systems.
The move puts OpenAI roughly a month behind Anthropic, which shipped its Claude desktop app for Linux in late June. Anthropic's app supports Ubuntu 22.04 or later and Debian 12 or later.
Linux has been a highly requested platform for the desktop app, OpenAI said. The company launched ChatGPT desktop apps for Mac and Windows in July, coinciding with the introduction of ChatGPT Work.
The new app supports Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 LTS, Debian 13, and Fedora 43 and 44. It ships with native.deb and.rpm packages for both x64 and ARM64 architectures.
The Linux version includes OpenAI's in-app browser and supports Chrome extensions, matching its macOS and Windows counterparts. Core ChatGPT and Codex features, including Voice, are part of the initial release.
One capability absent at launch is Computer Use outside the in-app browser, meaning ChatGPT cannot natively interact with desktop applications such as OpenOffice or GIMP. That gap also disables Appshots, Record Replay and voice requests that involve desktop applications or external browsers. Browser-based workflows, including the Chrome extension, remain supported.
Linux users previously had access to OpenAI's coding tools through the Codex CLI, the company's IDE extension and Codex cloud, establishing a developer base on the platform before the desktop app arrived.
The inclusion of ChatGPT Work and Codex targets enterprise users and professional developers—the segment most likely to convert to paid subscriptions and drive API usage. Broader adoption in those segments supports OpenAI's subscription revenue and offsets the company's heavy compute costs.
