OpenAI DevDay 2026 set for September 29 in San Francisco with eight international exchanges

OpenAI has announced DevDay 2026, its annual developer conference, scheduled for September 29 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Applications are open now through July 10, 2026, with accepted applicants notified by late July and 14 days to complete registration at $650.

What's new

Beyond the main San Francisco event, OpenAI is launching DevDay Exchanges — regional satellites in eight cities spanning every major AI market: Bengaluru, Tokyo, Seoul, Paris, Berlin, London, São Paulo, and Mexico City. These will run later in 2026, details to be announced.

The event format at Fort Mason includes:

• Technical sessions on APIs and tools
• Hands-on demos and workshops
• Direct access to OpenAI product and research teams
• Networking with other builders

For those who cannot attend in person, the opening keynote will be livestreamed free, no sign-up required, with session recordings posted on openai.com afterward. Limited scholarships covering registration (and potentially travel and accommodation) are also available.

The target audience is specific: engineers, technical founders, researchers, creators, and technical leaders actively building with AI tools — not business or general audiences.

Context

OpenAI first held DevDay in November 2023 in San Francisco, unveiling GPTs, the Assistants API, and a series of model updates in a single dense session. DevDay 2025 continued that pattern with a focus on agentic tooling and Realtime API capabilities.

The 2026 edition arrives as OpenAI's developer platform has expanded significantly — GPT-5.5, Codex, the Realtime API, and a growing suite of enterprise tools are all live. An S-1 filing is in progress, and investor attention on the developer ecosystem is high. The international exchanges are new for 2026, signaling a push to deepen the developer community outside the United States.

Why it matters

DevDay has historically served as OpenAI's single most concentrated API and tooling announcement moment of the year. Developers who attend typically get early access to new capabilities, direct feedback channels with product teams, and a preview of roadmap direction that shapes what gets built on top of the platform in the months that follow.

The eight-city exchange program is the most concrete sign yet that OpenAI views its developer community as a global asset, not a US-centric one. The tight application window — six weeks — and competitive selection process suggest OpenAI is aiming for a technically dense audience rather than a mass-market event.