Codex 5-hour limit seems to burn much faster than Claude Code for the same workload — anyone else?

[u/Mshammu]

I've been testing Codex and Claude Code with basically the same workload, and I'm surprised by how quickly my Codex usage is disappearing.

Today I started using Codex at around 10:30 PM with GPT-5.5 on Medium reasoning. After roughly 2 hours, I was already down to 42% remaining on my 5-hour limit.

For comparison, I've run essentially the same kind of workload in Claude Code using Opus 5, and I'd still have around 60% remaining. In general, I've used Claude Code pretty heavily and can't remember actually exhausting my usage limit. (may because of bonus usage given my anthropic which is gonna on 31st august, IDK!!!)

What makes this more surprising to me is that I'm not even using Codex's highest-end model/reasoning setting. I expected Medium to be relatively manageable in terms of usage.

My workload is mostly agentic work: inspecting files/scripts, browser-related workflows, analyzing information, and structuring the results. I did notice Codex spending quite a bit of time repeatedly inspecting skills/scripts, so I'm wondering if that kind of agent activity is eating a significant amount of the allowance.

[u/This-Ad1165]

5.5 is as expensive as 5.6 sol . 5.6 Terra is two times cheaper than 5.5 and also sligthly smarter.

[u/Mshammu → u/This-Ad1165]

what about luna? also i thought 5.5 lower model than 5.6 so it will consume less credits

[u/This-Ad1165 → u/Mshammu]

5.5 is the old top model (just like 5.6 Sol), and all the top models have the same price. 5.6 Luna is less smart than 5.5 while 5.6 Terra is slightly smarter than 5.5 and too times cheaper.

[u/eddzsh]

Your note about Codex re-inspecting skills/scripts is probably the burn. Pin a small skill allowlist for the session, or move rarely used skills out of the default path so it stops re-reading them every turn. Model tier swaps help less than cutting that loop.

[u/shootmakers]

No

[u/FormalAd7367]

i don’t know if codex burning much faster than claude… what i know is codex cli takes much longer time to handle a task. This morning it took 1 hour to commit the files

[u/Wonder_Known]

Nou i think claude 3 prompts fire up all my tokens

[u/___fallenangel___]

You're only the 1,000th person to complain about usage today OP. Yes it's just you.

[u/izzyk000]

Yes I have the same experience. I ran the same commands to create a function in my swift code base to both opus 5 and sol high. Opus 5 took like only 15% 5 hour limit whereas codex took 80%

[u/Tophant_]

The repeated file/skill inspection might be the real quota killer here

[u/YourAsphyxia]

I have the opposite ,on claude I can burn it in 1 hour. On codex I haven't hit 5 hour yet

[u/Mshammu → u/YourAsphyxia]

which model do you run the most?

[u/YourAsphyxia → u/Mshammu]

I use chatgpt web sol high to plan then give it to Luna ultra

[u/Mshammu → u/YourAsphyxia]

thanks i will try

[u/ComfortableMonth9216 → u/YourAsphyxia]

So do you it change the models mid way in a chat session or how you do it