OpenAI DevDay 2026 takes place today. Here are seven things ChatGPT users could see, from AI agents and new APIs to coding tools and model updates.
OpenAI’s biggest developer event of the year is taking place today, September 29, and this year’s DevDay could be particularly important for the future of ChatGPT and AI agents.
OpenAI DevDay 2026 is being held in San Francisco, with the opening keynote featuring CEO Sam Altman scheduled for 10am Pacific Time. That works out to around 10:30pm IST on September 29. The keynote will also be livestreamed for people who cannot attend the event in person.
While DevDay is primarily aimed at developers, announcements made at the event could eventually affect millions of ChatGPT users.
Here are some of the things to watch for.
1. More Powerful AI Agents
AI agents are expected to be one of the biggest themes around OpenAI this year.
Unlike conventional chatbots, agents are designed to complete multi-step tasks rather than simply answer questions. They can potentially plan, use tools, interact with software and continue working towards a goal.
OpenAI has increasingly moved ChatGPT in this direction, and reports ahead of DevDay suggest the company could demonstrate an always-on AI agent.
That could represent a significant shift in how people use ChatGPT — from asking questions to giving the AI tasks to complete.
2. New Developer Models And APIs
DevDay is ultimately a developer-focused event, so new models and API capabilities are likely to be an important part of the keynote.
OpenAI says the event will include technical sessions covering APIs and tools, alongside demonstrations and hands-on workshops.
For developers, improvements to speed, cost, reasoning, tool use and context could be more important than the launch of another consumer-facing chatbot feature.
3. ChatGPT Could Become More Autonomous
The biggest question for ordinary users is whether OpenAI will bring more agentic capabilities directly into ChatGPT.
That could mean asking ChatGPT to carry out a longer task rather than breaking it down into multiple prompts.
For example, instead of asking an AI to research a trip and then separately create an itinerary, users could eventually give it a broader instruction and allow it to handle multiple steps.
The challenge for OpenAI will be making these systems useful without allowing them to take actions users did not explicitly authorise.
4. More AI Tools For Developers
OpenAI’s developer ecosystem has become increasingly important to the company.
DevDay is expected to showcase new tools that developers can integrate into their own applications, potentially allowing companies to build more capable AI assistants and agents without developing a foundation model themselves.
For Indian startups and developers, this could be particularly relevant as enterprise AI adoption continues to expand.
5. Better Coding Capabilities
Coding remains one of the biggest areas where AI models are being used professionally.
OpenAI’s developer products are increasingly designed around agents that can understand codebases, make changes and work through complex programming tasks.
A major DevDay announcement around coding agents could therefore have a much bigger impact than a simple model-speed improvement.
6. Lower AI Costs
Another area worth watching is pricing.
AI companies have been competing aggressively on inference costs, and lower costs allow developers to run more AI-powered features without dramatically increasing their bills.
Any reduction in API pricing or improvements in efficiency could therefore indirectly affect consumers, even if the announcement is aimed primarily at developers.
7. The GPT-6.1 Question
There is also an unusual backdrop to this year’s DevDay.
OpenAI has reportedly cancelled the planned October release of GPT-6.1 Astra following internal safety and alignment concerns. Reuters reported that testing found issues including behaviour that could evade human oversight and operate outside authorised boundaries.
That means today’s event is taking place at a time when OpenAI is simultaneously pushing towards more autonomous AI while facing questions about how safely those systems can operate.
For users, the most interesting part of DevDay may therefore not simply be a new model. It could be seeing how OpenAI intends to make AI agents more capable while keeping them within user-defined limits.