Codex-Proxy + OpenClaw: Power Your Self-Hosted AI Assistant for Under $6/Month

The Problem: OpenClaw Needs an API Key

OpenClaw is one of the hottest self-hosted AI assistants right now — it connects to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and more, running entirely on your own machine. But there's a catch: it requires an OpenAI API key, and those per-token costs add up fast.

A busy OpenClaw instance handling messages across multiple chat platforms can easily burn through $50-200/month in API fees. If you're also paying $20/month for ChatGPT Plus for personal use, that's two separate bills to OpenAI for essentially the same models.

Codex-proxy addresses this gap. It's an open-source project (GitHub: icebear0828/codex-proxy) that bridges your ChatGPT web subscription and the OpenAI API format. Point OpenClaw (or any OpenAI-compatible tool like Cursor, Cline, n8n) at codex-proxy instead of the official API, and your flat-rate subscription handles the requests.

What Is Codex-Proxy?

Codex-proxy is a lightweight reverse proxy that accepts requests in the standard OpenAI API format (/v1/chat/completions) and translates them into ChatGPT web interface calls. From the perspective of any client application, it looks and behaves exactly like the official OpenAI API.

The project is open-source under the MIT license. It runs as a Docker container or a standalone Node.js process, and the configuration is a single YAML file.

How It Works

The technical approach is straightforward. Codex-proxy maintains authenticated browser sessions with ChatGPT and uses them to relay API requests. Here's the step-by-step flow:

Setup Guide (Windows, Mac, Linux)

The Docker method is the cleanest way to run codex-proxy. If you don't have Docker installed, the Node.js method works just as well.

Prerequisites

• • Docker Desktop (recommended) or Node.js 18+
• • A ChatGPT Plus, Team, or Enterprise subscription
• • Your ChatGPT session token (we'll extract this below)

Step 1: Get Your Session Token

Step 2: Docker Deployment

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/icebear0828/codex-proxy.git
cd codex-proxy

# Create your config file
cp config.example.yaml config.yaml
# Edit config.yaml with your session token(s)

# Build and run
docker compose up -d

After startup, the proxy listens on http://localhost:8080 by default. Test it with a quick curl:

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4o",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

If you get a normal API response back, the proxy is working. The response format matches the official OpenAI API exactly.

Step 3: Windows-Specific Notes

On Windows, Docker Desktop with WSL2 backend is the smoothest path. If you're running without Docker:

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start the proxy
npm run start

# Or use PM2 for background running
npx pm2 start npm -- start --name codex-proxy

Multi-Account Rotation

This is where codex-proxy gets genuinely interesting for power users. Instead of routing all requests through a single ChatGPT account, you can configure several accounts and let the proxy distribute the load.

# config.yaml
accounts:
  - name: "account-1"
    session_token: "your-first-token"
  - name: "account-2"
    session_token: "your-second-token"
  - name: "account-3"
    session_token: "your-third-token"

proxy:
  port: 8080
  strategy: round-robin  # or least-connections

With 3 accounts on ChatGPT Plus ($20/month each = $60/month total), you get roughly 3x the throughput of a single account. Compare that to the official API where $60 buys you about 4 million input tokens with GPT-4o — which a busy development workflow can burn through in a week.

Connecting Codex-Proxy to OpenClaw

This is the combination that makes the economics work. OpenClaw is a self-hosted AI assistant that connects to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and other messaging platforms. It needs an OpenAI-compatible API endpoint — and codex-proxy provides exactly that.

Instead of paying per-token through the official OpenAI API, OpenClaw sends requests to your local codex-proxy, which routes them through your ChatGPT Plus subscription. The result: your AI assistant handles conversations across all your messaging apps at a flat monthly cost.

OpenClaw Configuration

# Before (official API — per-token billing)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-xxxxx
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1

# After (codex-proxy — flat subscription cost)
OPENAI_API_KEY=any-string-works
OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/v1

For a full walkthrough of OpenClaw itself — installation, messaging platform setup, and security considerations — see our OpenClaw review and setup guide.

Other Dev Tools (Cursor, Cline, n8n)

Since codex-proxy speaks the standard OpenAI API format, connecting it to most developer tools requires changing just two settings: the API base URL and the API key (which can be any string — the proxy handles auth via session tokens).

Cursor

Cline / Continue

n8n / Custom Apps

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="any-string",
    base_url="http://localhost:8080/v1"
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
)

Cost Comparison: Subscription vs API

The math depends on your usage volume. Here's a realistic comparison for GPT-4o access:

The break-even point is roughly 2-3 million tokens per month. Below that, the official API is actually cheaper. Above that, codex-proxy starts saving meaningful amounts — and the savings scale linearly with usage since your subscription cost is fixed.

Limitations and Risks

Codex-proxy is useful, but it comes with trade-offs you should understand before depending on it.

Alternatives Worth Considering

Codex-proxy isn't the only way to reduce AI API costs. Depending on your situation, one of these might be a better fit:

For most developers, the practical answer is probably a mix: codex-proxy for your personal development tools, the official API for any production workloads, and a service like Claude Pro or Gemini 2.5 Pro as a complementary model for tasks where they outperform GPT-4o.

FAQ

Final Verdict

The combination of codex-proxy and OpenClaw is arguably the most cost-effective way to run a personal AI assistant across multiple messaging platforms in 2026. For roughly $6/month (a discounted ChatGPT Plus subscription), you get GPT-4o powering your WhatsApp, Telegram, and Slack bots — a setup that would cost $50-200+ through the official API.

Beyond OpenClaw, codex-proxy works with any OpenAI-compatible tool: Cursor, Cline, n8n, custom apps. Docker deployment takes under 5 minutes, and multi-account rotation adds genuine value for heavier workloads.

The trade-offs are real, though. You're operating in a terms-of-service gray area, latency is noticeably higher than the official API, and session token management adds ongoing maintenance. This is a tool for personal use and internal workflows, not customer-facing production systems.

If you're running OpenClaw and spending more than $30-40/month on the API, codex-proxy is worth trying. Pair it with a discounted subscription from GamsGo (code WK2NU) to maximize the economics, and keep the official API for anything mission-critical.