cd /news/artificial-intelligence/chat-gpt-codex-empowers-my-solo-dev-… · home topics artificial-intelligence article
[ARTICLE · art-34936] src=dev.to ↗ pub= topic=artificial-intelligence verified=true sentiment=↑ positive

Chat GPT Codex Empowers My Solo Dev Journey

A solo developer is using OpenAI's ChatGPT Codex as a coding partner, paying about $7 a day to accelerate app development. The developer creates local, privacy-focused apps that have been downloaded by hundreds of users, arguing that AI tools are worth using to solve genuine problems despite ethical concerns.

read2 min views1 publishedJun 20, 2026

There are so many factors that go into an app. Market demand, the code, the visual assets, the UI/UX, the functionality, the problem it solves, and so much more...

The fact that I basically have a coding partner that I pay about $7 a day to work with me for many, many hours and help me turn my vision into a reality is one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

It takes away that stress of "Can I solve this bug quickly, or am I going to be working on the same issue for a week straight?"

It's simply gone.

Now, I know there are privacy concerns and other factors people always raise as reasons not to use AI to build your apps. Honestly, I hear you, but in my opinion, as long as you're not collecting personal data from your users and your apps are local (like all of mine are), then I don't find that to be a strong argument.

As far as stealing creative work from other people to craft your own... that I'm on the fence about, simply because I'm still learning.

That being said, I'm having the time of my life creating safe, local apps that hundreds of people are down and using. I'm paying for a tool that's readily available to anyone. And if I don't do it... the next guy will, and I'll miss my chance. You gotta get it while the gettin's good. And at this point in our society, the gettin' is REALLY GOOD.

So PLEASE , if you're solving genuine problems or making a user's experience better in any way, I think it's worth it. Because, as I said, if you don't, the next guy will. And I'm not missing my chance to do something I completely enjoy and get so much fulfillment from. It's just not happening. And I'm not sorry.

More apps and app updates will be coming in the near future.

We're not going anywhere!

── more in #artificial-intelligence 4 stories · sorted by recency
── more on @openai 3 stories trending now
sponsored brought to you by zahid.host 4,200+ EU-deployed projects
reading about agents? ship yours in a single git push.

Run your AI side-project on zahid.host

EU-based hosting, git-push deploys, automatic HTTPS, no cold starts. Free tier with a custom domain — perfect for shipping the agent you just read about.

$git push zahid main
Live at https://your-agent.zahid.host
Get free account → Pricing
from €0/mo · no card required
LIVE [news/chat-gpt-codex-empow…] indexed:0 read:2min 2026-06-20 ·