Glonce

OpenAI says Dots should expand in Europe within weeks at Berlin DevDay

productsThe Glonce editorsThe Decoder🔥54Glonce rating54Impact40Novelty30Relevance95Surprise25Players90Credibility80
OpenAI says Dots should expand in Europe within weeks at Berlin DevDay

At DevDay Exchange 2026 in Berlin, OpenAI mostly repeated announcements it had already made in San Francisco. A few new details did come out, about the European launch of its AI assistant Dots, about Codex usage, and from the Q&A session.

Romain Huet, OpenAI's head of developer experience, said Dots should become more widely available in Europe "in a few weeks", following talks with regulators. For now, Personal Pro accounts in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK are still locked out of the service, while certain business accounts can already get access.

On Codex, OpenAI said weekly active users in Germany have grown twentyfold since January 2026. The Decoder notes that in June it reported a more than sevenfold increase based on the company's own figures, and that OpenAI again did not share absolute numbers. OpenAI also says nearly one in five desktop users uses skills for documents, presentations or spreadsheets, which means they are using the coding tool for general office work.

In the Q&A, someone asked why OpenAI still has no model that understands video sequences the way Google's Gemini does. Management said customers have barely asked for it, so the company has not prioritized the feature beyond single-frame analysis. The panel also again blamed extreme resource demands for shutting down the Sora video generator in March, saying customers mainly wanted coding models and agents. OpenAI did not rule out bringing Sora back later.

There was a side note on hardware. Because agents run on their own virtual computers and AI-generated code is growing fast, demand for traditional processor power is rising too. To cut CPU load, OpenAI has a dedicated team that combs through its internal codebases every week.

The Decoder's own reading is that the event showed how tightly OpenAI wants to lock developers and businesses into its ecosystem. With the Agents API, OpenAI runs the agent infrastructure itself. Plugins and web apps give developers more ways to offer their own products on its platform. The pitch is less technical work plus access to what OpenAI says are 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users. The Decoder compares this to earlier app stores: developers build the apps, and OpenAI supplies the infrastructure and the distribution channel. It argues that keeping the underlying runtime, Codex Harness, open source does not undercut this, since developers can read and run the code but will likely have a hard time switching ecosystems later if they rely on managed services, platform-specific integrations and ChatGPT for finding customers.

Key facts

  • Romain Huet, OpenAI's head of developer experience, said Dots should become more widely available in Europe "in a few weeks" after talks with regulators; Personal Pro accounts in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK are still locked out, while certain business accounts can already get access.
  • OpenAI says weekly active Codex users in Germany have grown twentyfold since January 2026, without sharing absolute numbers; nearly one in five desktop users uses skills for documents, presentations or spreadsheets.
  • Management said customers have barely asked for a video-sequence model, so video work stays at single-frame analysis; the panel again blamed extreme resource demands for shutting down Sora in March and did not rule out its return.
  • The Decoder argues the event was about platform lock-in: the Agents API, plugins and web apps, and access to what OpenAI says are 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users.

Why it matters

Little in Berlin was new, but the details show where OpenAI is putting its effort. Coding tools and agents come first: the company says that is what customers want, and it uses that to explain why Sora was shut down in March and why video-sequence understanding has not been prioritized. The Decoder's larger point is that OpenAI wants developers to build their businesses directly on its infrastructure, much like an app store, rather than just call its models.

Who it affects

Developers and businesses in Europe are the main audience. Those on Personal Pro accounts in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK are still locked out of Dots, while certain business accounts can already get access. Developers weighing OpenAI's Agents API, plugins and web apps are the group The Decoder says could find it hard to switch ecosystems later. Teams who wanted video-sequence understanding like Gemini's will not get it from OpenAI for now.

How to use it

Nothing new is launched here, so there is little to act on today. Business customers in Europe can check whether their accounts already have access to Dots; wider availability is expected in a few weeks, according to Huet. Developers can look at the Agents API, where OpenAI runs the agent infrastructure, and at plugins and web apps for offering their own products on OpenAI's platform. Codex Harness, the underlying runtime, is open source, so the code can be read and run independently. OpenAI notes that nearly one in five Codex desktop users already uses skills for documents, presentations or spreadsheets.

How solid is it

The facts come from OpenAI's own statements at the event, reported by The Decoder. The Codex growth is relative only: a twentyfold rise in Germany since January 2026, with no absolute numbers, and OpenAI again did not share them. The 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users figure is OpenAI's claim. The Dots timing is a soft "in a few weeks", not a date. The lock-in reading is The Decoder's own assessment, not something OpenAI said.

Risks and caveats

The Dots timeline depends on talks with regulators, and no firm date was given. OpenAI did not rule out bringing Sora back, but nothing concrete was said about it. The Decoder's warning is that relying on managed services, platform-specific integrations and ChatGPT for finding customers will likely make a later switch hard, even though Codex Harness is open source. The Decoder also notes that most of the event repeated earlier San Francisco announcements.

“anyone who relies on managed services, platform-specific integrations, and finding customers through ChatGPT will likely have a hard time switching ecosystems later.”

— The Decoder