OpenAI’s Codex usage has more than doubled in Australia in the month since launch.
What’s happening: OpenAI has expanded its startup credit program in Australia, increasing the cap from USD $15,000 to USD $50,000, approximately AUD $70,000, per eligible company, alongside 10 complimentary ChatGPT Business seats including access to Codex, its agentic coding tool.
Why this matters: For Australian startups and early-stage businesses building AI-powered products, the expanded credit program significantly reduces the cost of accessing OpenAI’s frontier models.
OpenAI has more than tripled the credits available to Australian startups through its local program, increasing the cap from USD $15,000 to USD $50,000, or approximately AUD $70,000, per eligible company.
The announcement came at the opening of OpenAI Startups Week, a series of events running from 16 to 20 March across Adelaide and Sydney bringing the company’s global startups team to Australia for workshops, builder sessions and technical deep dives.
Eligible startups also receive 10 complimentary ChatGPT Business seats per company, including access to Codex, OpenAI’s agentic coding tool designed to support multi-agent development workflows. The expanded program provides Australian startups with early access to OpenAI’s latest capabilities across its platform, including multimodal models and Codex. OpenAI first rolled out its startups program in Australia last year, ahead of the official launch of its Sydney office in December 2025.
Since then, OpenAI’s local team has distributed more than AUD $1.6 million in API credits to Australian startups building with the company’s technology, according to Thomas Jeng, OpenAI’s VC Partnerships Lead for APAC.
“Since launching the program in Australia, we’ve already provided more than AUD $1.6M in API credits to local startups building with OpenAI’s technology,” Jeng said. “Having a local team on the ground means we can work directly with founders and developers to ensure they have access to the latest AI capabilities.”
He added that the expanded program is designed to support both product development and skills building within founding teams. “We’re excited to see how this expanded program helps Australian startups accelerate not only the products they’re building, but also how their teams develop new AI skills and workflows,” he said.
Why Australia, why now
OpenAI’s investment in the Australian startup ecosystem comes as the company positions the country as a significant opportunity market. OpenAI-commissioned research suggests that if Australia fully harnesses AI, it could add $142 billion to the economy annually by 2030, according to the company.
Internal OpenAI data shows the top five per cent of Australian power users utilise around eight times more advanced reasoning and coding capability than the median user, pointing to a significant productivity gap between early adopters and the broader user base that the company is actively working to close.
Jeng highlighted the quality of the local ecosystem as a key factor in the decision to expand. “With companies like Canva and Heidi Health, Australia is home to one of the most dynamic startup ecosystems in the world,” he said.
The expanded program is being rolled out alongside a week of in-person events hosted with local partners including Square Peg, Side Stage Ventures, Relevance AI and Stone and Chalk.
Codex and the agentic shift
Alongside the credit expansion, OpenAI highlighted the rapid uptake of Codex in Australia. Usage of the agentic software development tool has more than doubled in the month since its launch, according to the company.
Codex is designed as a command centre for agentic software development, allowing coding agents to operate in parallel across multiple projects so that teams can complete complex development tasks significantly faster. The tool connects directly to the broader trend toward AI agents that has dominated technology news this week, from NVIDIA’s GTC announcements to the Atlassian workforce restructure tied explicitly to AI capability investment.
For Australian startups and small businesses with development needs, the combination of expanded credits and access to Codex represents a meaningful reduction in both the cost and the time required to build and iterate on software products.
For Australian founders who have not yet accessed the OpenAI startup program, the expanded credit cap makes it significantly more worthwhile to apply. The program is available to eligible early-stage companies and provides access to the full OpenAI platform including its latest multimodal models.
OpenAI Startups Week continues through 20 March, with remaining events including a workshop with Square Peg on optimising multi-agent workflows, a builder lounge at Stone and Chalk’s Tech Central Innovation Hub and a founder breakfast in collaboration with key.ai. Details for each event are available through the OpenAI website.
All figures and program details sourced from OpenAI’s official announcement, 18 March 2026.
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