How it works
OpenAI's desktop app normally runs against a personal ChatGPT subscription. Pointed at the AI Reserve gateway instead, the same app runs on your company's account: the portal's guided connect creates a key scoped to you, writes the app's settings file, and verifies the connection with a live request. You never handle a key or edit a file.
Your company account, not a subscription
The models behind ChatGPT, served through AI Reserve. No Plus or Pro plan, nothing on your card.
A guided connect does the setup
The portal mints a key just for you and writes the app's settings file itself. Nothing to see, copy, or store.
One bill, per-user attribution
All usage draws from the organization's AI Reserve wallet, and every request is attributed to you in usage reporting.
Revoke anytime
The connection is a managed key in your portal account. Remove it there and the app disconnects immediately.
Get set up in 3 steps
You need about five minutes. If anything fails along the way, see Troubleshooting below.
1. Install the ChatGPT desktop app
Download it from openai.com/chatgpt/download and open it once. If the app asks you to sign in, a free ChatGPT account is fine — your work AI runs through AI Reserve and doesn't touch that account. Already have the app? You're set; just make sure it's up to date.
2. Run the guided connect
Open the portal's connect page and sign in with your work email, then
click Connect. When the browser asks, choose the .codex
folder — the page shows exactly where it lives and gives you the path to paste.
Everything else is automatic: your key is created, the settings are written, and the
connection is verified with a live request through the gateway.
3. Restart the app and start a new chat
Fully quit ChatGPT (don't just close the window) and open it again. Switch to the assistant — the Work tab, labeled Codex in some versions — and start a new conversation. AI Reserve shows as the provider at the bottom of the pane: you're now running on your company's account.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| The app doesn't show AI Reserve | Fully quit and reopen the app, then start a new conversation — existing chats keep the provider they started on. Still nothing? Re-run the guided connect; it repairs the settings file. |
| The folder picker won't take my folder | Browsers refuse to grant access to your whole home folder — an easy slip. Use the paste-the-path guidance on the connect page to land exactly on the .codex folder inside it. |
| The connect fails at verification | Your work email isn't active on your organization's AI Reserve portal yet. Ask your admin — the moment it's active, re-running the connect fixes everything. |
| You live in a terminal, not an app | The same connect configures OpenAI's Codex CLI — both read the settings file described below. |
What gets configured
The connect writes an AI Reserve provider entry into ~/.codex/config.toml —
the settings file shared by the ChatGPT desktop app and the Codex CLI, which is why one
connect covers both. Your previous file is backed up beside it as
config.toml.aireserve-backup.
model = "gpt-5.5"
model_provider = "audacity"
[model_providers.audacity]
name = "AI Reserve"
base_url = "https://api.aireserve.com/v1"
wire_api = "responses"
experimental_bearer_token = "<your managed key>"The key lives only in this file and in your portal account, where it appears as CODEX-MANAGED-KEY under API keys. Re-running the connect rotates it; revoking it in the portal disconnects the app immediately. Building API integrations too? The full gateway documentation — SDKs, wire formats, and the Code CLI — lives in the developer documentation.