Coin Newsweek – February 25, 2026 – OpenAI has unveiled a significant performance enhancement to its Responses API with the introduction of WebSocket support, specifically engineered to accelerate complex workflows that rely on frequent tool calls. According to the company’s developer documentation, this new mode delivers approximately 40% faster execution for long-chain tasks involving more than 20 sequential tool calls.
The WebSocket implementation addresses a fundamental limitation of traditional HTTP-based API interactions. By establishing persistent, bidirectional connections between clients and OpenAI’s servers, the new mode eliminates the overhead of repeatedly establishing new connections for each request in a sequence. This architectural shift proves particularly valuable for applications requiring multiple back-and-forth interactions with AI models.
Complex workflows that chain together numerous tool calls have historically suffered from cumulative latency. Each tool call—whether querying a database, performing calculations, or accessing external services—typically required its own round-trip connection establishment. With WebSocket persistence, these sequential operations flow more smoothly, dramatically reducing total execution time.
The 40% performance gain cited by OpenAI specifically applies to “long-chain tasks containing more than 20 tool calls.” This improvement threshold suggests that developers building sophisticated multi-step AI applications will benefit most dramatically from the update, while simpler, single-call applications may see more modest gains.
Beyond raw speed improvements, the WebSocket mode introduces support for incremental input processing. This feature allows developers to stream input data progressively, rather than sending complete payloads at once. For applications dealing with large datasets or real-time data streams, incremental input can further optimize performance and user experience.
OpenAI has also ensured that the WebSocket implementation maintains compatibility with its Zero Data Retention (ZDR) specification. This enterprise-focused feature guarantees that no data is stored on OpenAI’s servers after processing, addressing privacy and compliance concerns for organizations handling sensitive information. The WebSocket mode supports low-latency context reconnection using previous_response_id, allowing sessions to resume seamlessly without sacrificing data privacy guarantees.
The combination of persistent connections and ZDR compatibility represents a significant technical achievement. Typically, maintaining session state while guaranteeing zero data retention creates tension between performance and privacy. OpenAI’s approach using response IDs to reconstruct context without storing conversation history elegantly resolves this tension.
Session duration is limited to 60 minutes per connection, a constraint that balances performance benefits with resource management. For most long-chain workflows, 60 minutes provides ample window to complete complex operations, while the limit prevents abandoned connections from consuming server resources indefinitely.
The Responses API has become increasingly central to OpenAI’s developer ecosystem, enabling applications to leverage the company’s most advanced models for complex, multi-step tasks. The addition of WebSocket support reflects OpenAI’s ongoing investment in infrastructure that enables sophisticated AI applications at scale.
For developers building AI-powered tools, the performance improvement translates directly to better user experiences. Applications that previously felt sluggish due to cumulative API latency can now respond more quickly, making AI-assisted workflows feel more natural and responsive. Tasks that required noticeable waiting periods may now approach real-time interaction.
The tool calling capability that benefits from this optimization allows AI models to interact with external systems, databases, and APIs. A model might call a tool to look up information, then call another tool to process that information, then call a third tool to act on the results. Each step previously added latency; WebSocket dramatically reduces this cumulative overhead.
Enterprise developers, in particular, will appreciate the ZDR compatibility, which allows organizations with strict data handling requirements to benefit from performance improvements without compromising compliance. Healthcare, financial services, and legal applications often require such guarantees, and OpenAI’s attention to these requirements expands the addressable market for its API.
The 60-minute connection limit provides ample time for even the most complex multi-step workflows. Most sophisticated AI applications complete their operations well within this window, making the constraint largely academic for practical use cases. The limit primarily serves as a resource management boundary.
OpenAI’s documentation suggests that developers should implement reconnection logic to handle the 60-minute limit gracefully. By using the previous_response_id mechanism, applications can seamlessly establish new connections when needed, maintaining session continuity without disrupting user experience.
As AI applications grow more sophisticated, the infrastructure supporting them must evolve accordingly. OpenAI’s WebSocket enhancement to the Responses API represents exactly this kind of infrastructure evolution—a thoughtful optimization that addresses real-world developer needs and enables more ambitious AI-powered applications.
Source: OpenAI developer documentation
Disclaimer: This content is for market information only and is not investment advice.
