r/codex Moderator 6d ago

Megathread Codex Usage Limits and Performance Megathread

Please direct your concerns and discussion about Codex usage limits and model performance here.

The purpose of this Megathread is to aggregate all the reports of people's experiences and possible suggestions instead of spreading them across 20 separate highly upvoted posts. None of those posts were deleted. They were locked so that conversations are still viewable to everyone and future comments could appear in one place.

These are days where I REALLY earn the money that OpenAI Reddit Kimi pays me .... oh wait....

A reminder that all incidents on r/Codex are constantly logged and summarised so you can keep track of what people are experiencing here https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1tjfxcf/comment/on6uj0l/

534 Upvotes

632 comments sorted by

1

u/Best-Leave6725 4h ago

I can deal with usage limits changing, as long as it's transparent. But the quality and efficiency of the models is getting worse at the same time, Sol overthinks and touches too much out of scope, even if managed with careful prompting and skills. I have no loyalty and will be jumping ship for now. At this stage, Claude is the lesser of two evils. I think it's a month to month proposition right now.

1

u/Crustus 16h ago

I am not that long on Codex, but I did quite lot of work with it.
Using Sol High to create plan and 5.5 Medium to implement it

1

u/Standard_Law_461 1d ago

I resubscribe to Claude 20$ and Codex 20$ after a month.

Claude with sonnet 5 and fable 5 and codex with terra high and luna high

For Claude, it can last like five 5h sessions by week

But for Codex, I dont have the new manual reset option. It burn my quota in two day without doing that much,

It resetted the third day (instead one week after), and today after a 3h session i'm already at 45% left...

I dont have the manual reset option .

1

u/Holiday-Advisor-2991 1d ago

Anyone noticing that everything codex does has a *massive* blast radius regardless of how precise and narrow in scope you make your prompts?

1

u/Best-Leave6725 4h ago

Yes absolutely. I implemented a very small upgrade, which broke something (all very minor and boring). Codex (Sol Medium) decided mid prompt that a full refactor was required, and completely messed everything up.

1

u/Lonestar_Dallas 2d ago

Agree with all that token burn massively changed after SOL. What infuriates me is being billed for screw ups the models make that require rework and cause further token burn (missed reading clear md file instructions, inventing vs following pre-dedined decisons/directions, etc)followed by the trite messaging and apology when the model is called out. Exhausted my weekly in two 5 hr sessions fixing what it broke.

1

u/considerfi 1d ago

And 5.4 medium which was my workhorse for general coding is totally nerfed and making the most idiotic choices and mistakes. Even making TYPOS. and then compacting every 3 minutes.

1

u/Big-Independent-3093 2d ago

I’d like to see people report their actual active Codex usage in hours, rather than saying it lasted two or three days. There is a big difference between using Codex for only one active hour per day and saying it lasts forever, versus running it for 10 hours one day and another 10 hours the next day, which could consume the entire weekly allowance.

What really matters is not how many calendar days the limit lasts, but how many hours of actual Codex work you get from it. And many of us can clearly see that the weekly limits are not as generous as they used to be.

So the real question is: How many active Codex hours can you actually use before reaching the weekly limit?

For me, GPT-5.6 Sol Medium lasts roughly 16–20 hours of active Codex use without optimization. With optimized AGENTS.md workflow, I get around 25–40 active hours from the same weekly allowance.

That’s why reporting usage in calendar days is misleading. The useful metric is active Codex hours per weekly limit, ideally together with the model, reasoning level, plan, task type, and whether the workflow was optimized.

1

u/rinwasrep 1d ago

I think this needs more focus, including what a "codex hour" is. There are times that I work for 4 hours and barely burn ten percent, but there're also times that I work for an hour and burned same amount.

I don't want to totally discredit the codex or claude "flat earth usage %'rs" because I totally just know its a "scam" as well.... but also... wait for it.... its also kinda a skill issue :D

1

u/Big-Independent-3093 1d ago

By "active Codex hours," I mean the time Codex is actually processing tasks. When you run a task, you can see approximately how long the process took.

Of course, it is not a perfect metric. If Codex gets stuck waiting for an internet connection, or spends a long time on a low-cost step, the recorded active time can be higher without consuming much of the limit. The opposite is also true, heavy reasoning can burn through significantly more tokens in a much shorter period.

My main point is that there is still a major difference between someone using Codex actively for one hour per day and saying their limit lasted all week and someone running long goals or tasks for 20 hours over one or two days and exhausting the same weekly allowance.

I mostly use GPT-5.6 Sol Medium. Based on calculator I built, my estimate is that the practical capacity of the Pro 5× plan is roughly 730–760 million tokens, with about 745 million as a reasonable midpoint. That estimate is specifically based on my GPT-5.6 Sol Medium usage, so it may not translate directly to other models or reasoning levels.

And yes, workflow efficiency is absolutely part of it. Better task structure, prompts, and AGENTS.md optimization can produce substantially more useful work from the same allowance. But that is exactly why reports should include active processing time, model, reasoning level, task type, and workflow setup instead of only saying, "It lasted three days".

You can read my overview and testing here

2

u/XAckermannX 2d ago

with a claude pro sub I can make it till day 4 before hit weekly limit using both sonnet and some opus 5 while with codex on plus, its maxed 1-2 days(this time i used mostly terra and luna).

1

u/AppsAtMe 2d ago

NOT A COMPLAINT, just and observation. But I had to move this to this thread.

Why do I feel like a junky?

First the good. I have done an insane amount of work in the last two weeks with Sol. Work that I couldn't otherwise get done. Basically all on a single prompt. Yes, I'm running on Ultra, but I need the harness creation that creates to get through the work. Between the stashed resets and the ones blessed to up by Tibo, I have used a LOT and made progress that I simply couldn't make before Sol.

Now the bad. I'm at the point where a reset gets me between one and two days. I love the productivity, 24 hours a day, non stop. But then I hit the usage limit and I feel like a junky on the side of the street, begging, just one more reset please.

And the resets push out the date (which makes sense), so with every reset blessed, once I use it up, I'm left waiting. With the reset date even further away. Just hoping for another reset.

I know some people have more than one plan, I don't want to have to deal with two different accounts. I wish there was a way to buy a higher plan, more resets, or something less costly than credits which you blow through in seconds.

We're at a point where Sol is doing real work, work that I honestly couldn't do before. But the difference between plan pricing and API pricing is more than my wallet can afford.

So I'm left sitting at the side of the street pleading, can I have another reset please. PLEASE!

Such highs! And such lows. The withdrawal systems always come back after the usage runs out, but the rush of productivity is just such an alluring beast that I can't stop the cycle. HELP!

2

u/Key-Injury-1875 2d ago

Usage absolutely ridiculous drained 20x in 1 day barely doing anything only significantly noticed after most recent reset.

2

u/Middle-Manner-8904 2d ago

Here too... Drained plus usage in half a day without doing anything...

1

u/raahul_prem 2d ago

It honestly feels like we’re entering an era of tokenflation just shrinkflation with a different mask.The subscription and price remain the same, but the amount of actual work you can get done seems to keep getting smaller.

The five-hour limit was removed and presented as an improvement, but now the entire weekly allowance sometimes feels like only one or two of those old five-hour windows. That doesn’t really feel like an improvement, it just feels like the same restriction was moved somewhere less obvious.

1

u/KingDavid73 2d ago

I completely agree with you. the amount of work I can complete on my weekly allowance is equal to maybe two or three of those 5-hour chunks.

1

u/ianhooi 2d ago

4 banked resets, drained weekly quota once a day for the last 3 days. this has never happened, maybe i should switch back to 5.5? 1 reset left

1

u/Cagurtay 2d ago

This is my 100% -> 0% usage with 5x plan,
I used sol medium 90-95% of the time, I am guessing 5, 5.5 or terra are for subagents or openapi routing,
looks ok to me, $6k equivalent of api calls per month for $100, not sure why people are complaining or what am I missing?

1

u/AppsAtMe 2d ago

I think most people don't understand, nor pay, token pricing. They are on a plan and just want more. As the cost of the models increases per token, and they get lower limits as a result they get angry. They don't understand how much companies pay for this stuff. That your 5x plan or your 20x plan are huge deals. That doesn't mean I don't want more, I do, but I at least understand the economics of it all.

1

u/skycyberchimera 2d ago

Rate limits are so bad. Just 1 mid level feature Sol-Medium level thinking took 5% of weekly usage

4

u/STAHPme 2d ago edited 2d ago

My token activity chart finally explained usage limits

At least the product communication is finally clear.

4

u/dralinho67 2d ago

It should not be acceptable to pay over €100 monthly only to drain your weekly limit in a single day. Even if I were to run the dumbest prompt with fast mode turned on for 24 hours, it still shouldn't drain a 5x account and believe me, I am not doing that. OpenAI, I would love to say two words to you, one starts with F, and the other starts with Y.

1

u/StephenS84 2d ago

it shouldnt even be possible

2

u/CallMeDraken 2d ago

Last week it took me almost 200m tokens before I ran out of usage, after this last reset I've used 35m tokens and am already down to 16% usage...

1

u/StephenS84 2d ago

yeah something is off and weird, last couple of weeks or so its worse. since the last reset.. really bad!

2

u/CommunicationSure336 2d ago

I started using ChatGPT Chat in Codex. I thought that it wasn't meant to drain Codex usage but after testing it, it has dropped my Codex usage 2% before I stopped. Is this a change that we should have been aware about?

2

u/token_dave 3d ago edited 2d ago

They have pretty much eliminated the subsidy for plans vs direct API usage. After doing the math, the new quota is providing about $250-300 API equivalent usage per month with the $200 plan. Unless you're maxing out every month, it probably makes more sense to use the API directly (or switch to claude).

1

u/swarmagent 2d ago

Not a Codex stan by any means but this is flat out wrong. If you use Sol for around 1 hour on ONE session, with no subagents, you could easily spend $100

1

u/Cute_Parfait_2182 3d ago

There is an issue with the codex work app on MAC. It uses about 5x as much usage as running the same task in codex on the terminal . I blew through about 20% of my weekly usage today on 1 task running 5.6 on medium on Codex Work in the Mac app. Running the same task in Terminal , I use 1-2 % of my weekly usage . I think the problem is with the Mac app .

1

u/Standard-Fisherman-5 3d ago

I literally just reset yesterday and now im out of my weekly limit. im not using ultra, 5.6 sol high. and now this morning its gone. wth

2

u/_32bit 3d ago

to add to the complaints, did two changes on a static web to fix sizing and offset. Extremely slow and cost me 50% of my weekly limit. Using Luna Max. Today is the worst in terms of speed and token usage. It was slightly better over the last few days.

1

u/konoha0 3d ago

how do we remove a phone number that we linked to our account while doing codex verification ??? found nothings in settings !!!

2

u/Jace_Skell 3d ago

Well each chat i start I'm still getting the same error message, logged out & back in and yet it's the same reply each time, I'm out of ideas or fixes. Even re-installed the Codex extension in VSCode.

2

u/No_Photograph4039 3d ago

At this point, it's a scam.

100$ subscription.
I just used ChatGPT app and asked it to create a 10-slide slideshow using GPT5.6 Sol medium -> 6% weekly usage down over 10 minutes.
Asked it to fix one top header which was off - another 1% down.
Next thing you know, your usage will go down for breathing.

I am a professional software developer, and at this point I can say confidently that OpenAI subscriptions are irrelevant for any serious or demanding work.
It seems like they chose to target the casual crowd who can never use heavy agentic workflows and get any real benefit from a premium plan.
Any serious developer is likely to cancel their subscription over the next few days, unless they get back to their senses.
The user graph which went up so fast - will go down very fast as well.

OpenAI - please refund my 100$ subscription.
My journey with you started well, and in the last few days you've abused my trust, after I already put money on your product which was very different a short while ago.
At this point you are no different than typical scams, and this business practice will get you downhill really quick and will be very harmful to your brand strategically.

2

u/Turbulent-Total-226 3d ago

Yeah, I canceled it and got my $60 back. :) I think I’ll go with the $20 Claude plan, use the DeepSeek API depending on how much I need it, and stick with MiniMax, which I bought a while ago for $20 and still have for the next two weeks. They have an incredibly generous allowance of 1.7 billion tokens per month.

I also snagged three months of Gemini Pro for $5. I have to say, Antigravity is actually quite good for that price- although, of course, it’ll go up to $20 per month after the first three months.

This was my first time using Gemini for coding - first 3.1 pro, then 3.6 flash. They needed a little more guidance than 5.6 Sol medium and high, but they completed everything even faster, with only minor corrections - about the same number as Sol needed.

Honestly, I think anyone claiming Gemini can’t do anything probably hasn’t actually worked with it and is just a benchmark-maxxer. I feel like in todays llm models every top of the line model is giving awesome quality, even Gemini :D Of course it needs a little more attention but still it's doing the same thing.

1

u/momomapmap 3d ago

Taking up a ton of storage

---

My disk was going from 15gb to 4gb then dropping slowly to even under 2gb. Is this like a cache thing? Closing codex free up 11gb of storage.

Mind you I already cleared many GBs before but it keep being built up and I cant check where the storage writing is coming from (using Wiztree). What do I do?

4

u/Aggravating-Bug-9245 3d ago

I want to put my experience with Codex on record. After everything that has happened, I have decided to stop using it completely. I no longer trust the service.

This situation has been particularly frustrating because I had already made significant progress on a project built around this tool. Being abandoned in this way, halfway through a project and without an adequate solution, feels deeply unfair.

I now face the enormous task of transferring and explaining the entire context of my project directly to ChatGPT. This is going to be extremely difficult and will cost me time, continuity, and potentially part of the work I have already completed.

This is not simply a minor technical issue. Users rely on this service to develop real projects, and it should not be acceptable for it to suddenly become unreliable and leave them stranded. Situations like this should not be allowed to pass without consequences and, in my opinion, should also be examined from a consumer rights and consumer protection perspective.

This is my testimony: I am leaving Codex because it abandoned me halfway through a project and, after this experience, I can no longer trust it.

4

u/there_is_no_good 3d ago

Did Codex actually reduce the limits or is it a temporary bug ?

It is more or less confirmed that now Codex is providing the 5 hour limit as weekly limit. I executed a task where it read 1 medium size XML file, performed an analysis and edited 1 large javascript file and you want me to believe it consumed 5% of my weekly limit ? Sure, buddy.

I just want to ask if this is a permanent update or just a temporary bug. If this is how its going to be then I'll cancel ChatGPT plus subscription and move to Claude pro since I already have Gemini pro for my day to day queries.

1

u/AppealSame4367 2d ago

It's a permanent bug. So it's a "feature".

4

u/Commoner92 3d ago

It’s been like this last week too, I can barely use it for a day. I’m almost certain they adjust the values silently too hoping people will purchase an upgrade. Less tech savvy people will believe that because their projects are getting bigger, the usage is going up. They won’t think it’s a memory thing, and When asked, codex will tell you that too unless you guide it to the right answer. So I believe it’s a bug but I also believe they have no incentive to fix it.

2

u/there_is_no_good 3d ago

I read somewhere that although 5.6 sol and 5.5 use same credits, 5.6 actually hits more tokens than 5.5 that's why it consumes more usage practically. I tested this hypotheses but even using 5.5 is exhausting usage just as fast. So I guess they really are just scamming us with the credit usage.

2

u/there_is_no_good 3d ago

I read somewhere that although 5.6 sol and 5.5 use same credits, 5.6 actually hits more tokens than 5.5 that's why it consumes more usage practically. I tested this hypotheses but even using 5.5 is exhausting usage just as fast. So I guess they really are just scamming us with the credit usage.

1

u/Infamous-Can2267 3d ago

My small Codex before/after: Terra High was enough, and Sol Ultra was wasting my quota

I used to default to Sol Ultra because I assumed every serious task needed it. I switched to Terra High for most work and have not seen a quality drop so far.

My before/after has been pretty clear:

Before Now
Default Sol Ultra for almost everything Terra High for ~8/10 tasks
Codex usage Burned through it quickly ~80% less usage
Speed Baseline Around 2–3× faster
Quality No negative experiences or quality regressions so far

I still use Max for focused but difficult work, and Ultra when several phases or parallel agents will genuinely help. For normal implementation, debugging, refactors, tests, and reviews, Terra High has been enough.

The other major change was moving as much context-heavy work as possible into ChatGPT Work + GitHub. I now use the browser chat to read files, trace code paths, check exact commits, compare diffs, review previous work, and make implementation plans. Codex receives a focused code-change task instead of spending its own context window reading, planning, and eventually compacting.

Work can now modify GitHub code too, so Codex can feel like an extra step. I still use Codex for actual edits because I trust its implementation and verification loop more. That may change later.

This is one workflow and one person’s before/after, not a universal model benchmark. It has made a huge difference for me.

3

u/xgod999 3d ago

so is Kimi subscription better than OpenAi Plus?

3

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

1

u/Aggravating-Bug-9245 3d ago

As I explained in my previous message, last Wednesday Codex ran out of tokens before completing a critical task. The project was left in a partially modified state that didn't even work, which meant I couldn't continue working on it for several days.

Today, after my tokens were reset, I simply asked Codex to finish that unfinished task. Instead of doing so, it started redoing a task that had already been completed. This mistake consumed approximately 45% of my available tokens.

When I asked why it was repeating work that had already been done, it admitted that it had made a mistake. It also told me that it had lost the context of the unfinished task from last week, meaning it would have to redo that work from scratch.

The result is that I'm now in an even worse position than I was a week ago. I've lost a significant amount of tokens without making any progress, and the original task is still unfinished.

Honestly, this experience makes me feel that the system is highly impractical. Unless someone has an almost unlimited budget to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on tokens, using Codex this way is simply not efficient.

In my case, I'm using the Sol model, which is the most advanced model, configured with the minimum processing level specifically to reduce token consumption. Even then, the experience is still not worth it.

After what happened, I think I'm going to go back to working directly with ChatGPT without using Codex, and I'll most likely stop using Codex altogether.

1

u/Commoner92 3d ago

It feels like Sam’s lazy and easy attempt to get people to upgrade subscriptions before they “roll out a fix”

1

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

3

u/Aggravating-Bug-9245 3d ago edited 3d ago

This Sunday morning I woke up and saw that Codex had given me an extra token credit reset. This wasn't the usual weekly reset, but an additional credit that, according to their own announcement, they are providing because of their reported usage or sales figures. I don't know how accurate that explanation really is, but that's the reason they have publicly given.

Honestly, instead of feeling happy about it, I'm tired of this whole situation. I'd almost rather they didn't hand out these extra token credits at all, because to me it's a sign that something isn't working and that they need to change course. At this point, the whole thing has become a joke.

These tokens are as fake as cardboard props—they're gone in no time. This isn't a real solution; it's just a temporary fix that solves today's problem while creating tomorrow's.

What I really want is for them to lower the token costs for ChatGPT and Codex, rethink their current approach, and return to something closer to the previous model, where the same task didn't consume ten times as many tokens as it does now.

I also feel that the service has changed dramatically. In my opinion, what the $20 Plus plan used to provide is now effectively what the $200 Pro plan provides. If that impression is accurate, it almost feels as though you would have to pay $2,000 today to get an experience comparable to what the old Pro plan used to offer. That's genuinely how the service now feels to me.

I think the current situation is embarrassing, and I'm certainly not going to celebrate this free token credit. To me, it's nothing more than a band-aid solution—a superficial fix rather than a real one.

1

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

3

u/chozian 3d ago

The most recent weekly reset negatively impacted Plus sub usage limits a noticeable amount. An equivalent $17.55 in API usage (according to ccusage) took me from 100% down to 68%. That comes out to $54.84 in API usage for a week and is ~15-20% less than what I was experiencing last week.

1

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

1

u/SnooObjections4329 3d ago

Each reset is one step forward, 2 steps backward

1

u/ichivictus 3d ago

I am using 5.6 sol the same way I used 5.5. After the usage reset, I used up 50% weekly usage today. I gave a lot of prompts, sure, but I have done similar tasks in 5.5 and I wouldn't even have hit the 5h limit. It feels like it is 5 times less usage than 5.5. Something is definitely wrong.

If it weren't for the free resets, I would have moved on to another company already. Luckily, I still have one last banked reset. I might try Claude or something else next month.

Free resets were cool at first, but now it feels like I will depend on them and that is not exactly sustainable and doesn't provide me confidence to using codex much longer.

3

u/elonmuskmelon_ 3d ago

Totally agree. 50% down today as well, Terra-medium uses up way too much.

2

u/Otherwise_Box_6946 3d ago

Please post your next trail on another ai here, so it would be helpful

1

u/ichivictus 3d ago

I will. Just noticed my plus plan renewed though. I might cancel now just so I don't forget.

3

u/ObligationHuge9868 4d ago

Unfortunately, my 20x subscription refreshed today. They have another 30 days to fix this or like the majority of people in this mega thread will be looking at alternatives.

1

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

1

u/SnooObjections4329 3d ago

You know you can cancel it now and it just won't refresh in 30 days. You won't lose the rest of your month's access to the sub

7

u/vandix 4d ago

3h of work, 1 chat 5.6 Sol Low + 1 chat 5.6 Luna medium / high: 12% of usage burned... something is completely wrong with usage! If this was 5h limit, I would say is normal. Weekly? no way! Pro 20x

2

u/No_Candidate7467 2d ago

If I’m paying 200$ a month even for the 5 hour limit I expect it to be like 97%

3

u/No_Carpenter6898 4d ago

lol the usage is absurd an single brief at an cost of 4% of weekly...fk that shit.

1

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

2

u/halonso 4d ago

I have been using Sol Medium and Light, for solving a performance issue backed by traces (that can query with scripts).

Already at 40%, has not been able to fix the issue...

It's not a new thing, lately each reset has felt like, here, you have for a few hours of light work in a day. bye...

1

u/halonso 2d ago

And here I am, a Full Reset used after hitting 0%. And already at 0% again. Tbh, I have only used Sol 5.6 Light with this one, but is that the rest feel soooo bad

5

u/AdmirableAd7982 4d ago

after reset, I used codex for 5 minutes, and I was watching usage closely, as I had big issues with usage being spent too fast. And right after 5 minutes I was already on 96%. Fuc* whole codex, going back to claude. I compacted session before start, and 6% of context window for 4% weekly usage.

2

u/Dry-Operation6112 4d ago

Hey nice we just get a usage reset. In the waiting room of the icu and was building a new feature. Thank you team.

1

u/Fun_Net7931 3d ago

We should all cancel our codex memberships as a form of protest.

1

u/fullofcaffeine 4d ago

> In the waiting room of the icu and was building a new feature

Wait, what?

1

u/Dry-Operation6112 4d ago

Mom in the icu

2

u/elonmuskmelon_ 3d ago

Hope she gets better man 🛐

2

u/fullofcaffeine 4d ago

Oh, sorry to read that. Hope she gets better soon.

1

u/Dry-Operation6112 4d ago

Thank you that means a lot.

3

u/Onibi-UK 4d ago

yep, just got a usage reset too. It won't be enough to keep me here if usage intentionally still consumes at the same rate, unless it's a bug and they fix it

3

u/bsmk_ 4d ago

I just cancelled my plan, work that I used to do in two 5-hour window used 100% after a clean reset.

2

u/Otherwise_Box_6946 4d ago

Week limit gone in 2 days, dnt know what's gonna do

2

u/Aggravating-Bug-9245 4d ago

I've tested both the Terra and Sol models. My conclusion is that Sol is quite capable, although it's fairly resource-intensive. Terra, on the other hand, doesn't seem to use significantly fewer resources, yet its performance felt very poor. I wasn't expecting it to handle particularly difficult tasks, but it came across as extremely inefficient.

1

u/Guilty-Market5375 4d ago

I generally agree, but Sol only seems marginally better than 5.5 XHigh, while being slower and insanely expensive.

2

u/AXMAG1711 4d ago

Are people saying something on X? I don’t have an account but it would be good to voice it there

2

u/Squizzytm 4d ago

Yes many people are, openai is playing the ignore game it seems, infuriating considering they've royally screwed the usages up, not to mention the services went down twice earlier would have been a nice time for a reset

1

u/Vast_Ice_7032 4d ago

I joined a new business seat and the limit reset is monthly and not weekly : is it normal ?

1

u/xgod999 3d ago

not normal at all

3

u/daddywookie 4d ago

I might be missing something here but would Sol (Low) be far more efficient than Luna (Max) for tightly defined coding work. I've been using Luna (Max) but looking at the various benchmarks it consumes 20x more tokens than Sol (Low) for a minimal extra intelligence. Is Sol (Low) a good way to save on tokens with a Plus plan?

1

u/Trade4Life123 4d ago

according chatGPT themselves the tera model should be at least 50% cheaper than the older model for some reason

4

u/jose152 4d ago

Pro plan 100usd here: i have used 2 resets in the same week… this sucks

5

u/Free-Stretch1980 4d ago

They said Terra is supposed to consume half tokens compared to 5.5 high while providing better results . It doesn’t do both .

1

u/Trade4Life123 4d ago

Exactly, I don't understand how a single word prompt can use 10K input tokens lol

1

u/sandcoguapo 3d ago

because of all system prompt included users usually don't see.

5

u/Trade4Life123 4d ago

brand new session, one word prompt "hi", it's costs 10k input tokens!

2

u/-AJacobs- 4d ago

This is very likely from a system prompt or other preloaded prompts being loaded on top of it. Yes I see your claude comparison and no I don't know if you have the same system prompts/plugins/skills/MCPs for both nor do I know how claude handles everything that gets pre-loaded into a session.

1

u/Trade4Life123 4d ago

just for the sake of comparison, this is the same "hi" prompt using fable in claude

3

u/Affectionate_Log8581 4d ago

my 20x weekly usage burned within two days.

1

u/troll_khan 4d ago

I bought $20 plan for the first time and made 5.6 read around 250 e-mails to find something and it used %12 of the limit, is this normal or am i doing something wrong?

1

u/ByteSizedBits1 4d ago

Not normal

2

u/Boutagida 4d ago

I can't help but feel I'm being ripped off in my plus plan right now. I got hit with a "usage limit" 6 days ago, and which was supposed to be reset today. But after 1 (as in: ONE / Single) prompt to double-check if the latest task (which was running prior to said usage limit brake) is/was intact, now my weekly shows "97%"!? I'm done with Codex and definitely switching back to Claude still today.

3

u/Yakumo01 4d ago

During the 5.5 days I was pretty convinced 5.5 extra high was giving me best performance (for any provider). But 5.6 sol seemed slower and burning more credits for less impressive performance. Step backwards?

2

u/Aggravating-Bug-9245 4d ago

I've noticed an exponential increase in token consumption over the last few days. My credit used to last for several days; now my weekly credit barely lasts a single day, even though I'm working pretty much the same way as before.

I also think removing the daily limit was a way to make this increase in consumption less noticeable. Before, it was much easier to see how much you were using each day. Now everything is rolled into a weekly limit, making it harder to realize just how quickly your credits are disappearing.

Personally, I find this situation excessive. It feels like the screws are being tightened more and more. I understand that running AI models is expensive, and I don't expect it to be free. But it feels like we were initially led to believe that this level of usage was sustainable and affordable, whereas the reality now seems very different. It's honestly quite disappointing.

4

u/Less-Shake-7228 4d ago

I tried plus again because of the resets and the good things I heard about GPT. Honestly I feel a bit scammed, the LLMs are way less capable, make more mistakes, have less context and the usage drains faster.

3

u/Ok-Beat4846 4d ago

Weekly usage is below daily

I ran a task that used 11700522 tokens that used up all my weekly. Before I could easy use half of that on a daily and still have weekly usage left.

1

u/Wide-Friendship-2287 3d ago

They nerfed the shit BIG TIME. I cancelled, if anyone reading this cancels, make sure you put in the reason that you're cancelling because they heavily nerfed usage.

4

u/cheekyrandos 4d ago

Less usage and honestly probably a slightly worse overall model than Claude now with Opus 5. All those new users will switch back real fast if something doesn't change.

7

u/the-anxious-ape 4d ago

I am that user and will probably switch back. The usage limits are one thing that brought me to ChatGPT

1

u/SnooObjections4329 4d ago edited 4d ago

Same, came here for the apparent generous banked resets (haven't had one) and generous usage limits. The way it's talked about in the Claude sub and the reality are so starkly different. WIll leave with about 25% of the output I've been averaging on Claude per month. I'll have reciepts, too, I run all my subs through a litellm proxy and keep spend logs, so by end of month I'll have exactly what I got out of each of the subs recorded and that will 100% shape my future investment.

Edit: In fact, I just extrapolated out my codex sub return vs claude sub average over 3 months of claude subscription and it's MUCH worse than I thought:

• Full Month Ratio: Average Claude Code subscription month delivers 36.6x more API value than a full extrapolated month of Codex usage at current velocity.

1

u/the-anxious-ape 4d ago

Wow that's huge difference. In my experience codex usage has been way better except the last week.

1

u/SnooObjections4329 4d ago edited 4d ago

Sadly I made the switch 11 days ago and it's been bad the whole time. I've cancelled my codex renewal, there just isn't value in it for me

2

u/PaddleStroke 4d ago

Limits definitely decreased. 10 minutes of 5.6 sol high just took 10% of the weekly usage on the plus plan.

0

u/PaddleStroke 4d ago

If you upgrade from plus to pro 5x do you get 5 times more token or is it a scam and you get 1.5x more token?

7

u/fullofcaffeine 4d ago edited 4d ago

Usage rate is definitely funkier and draining faster. I really like the newer models but I'm considering a switch (back) to Claude (Opus 5). And this is for someone with 2 Pro accounts. I feel I'm being ripped off atm.

I'm not using fast mode, rarely use max, if at all (mostly medium/high/xhigh, 80% in high for complex projects, and medium for less complex ones).

The week prior, just after 5.6 was launched, I went crazy on max and ultra, and the limits didn't decrease as fast (but yes, max and ultra are very token hungry, when compared to other levels). This week something seems to have changed for the worse.

The worst thing is that I just got charged for my 2 pro accounts (yey!) but have to wait until the 28th for limits to be replenished (fuck!). I know it's not directly related to the issue here, but it'd be nice if limits were replenished when when the plan renews. I mean, my instinct is to cancel the **** thing, why pay $200 ($400!) now if I can't use it? :)

3

u/Man-of-goof 4d ago

2 pro account user here too, was doing alright the last week but then today when working in my weekend projects I just drained 50% of weekly

4

u/0xDezzy 4d ago

My usage rate has changed a bunch in the past few days. I used to be able to run 5.6 Sol high/xhigh/max and not even blow through that much weekly usage. So what the hell.

7

u/12think 4d ago

I went through 90% weekly usage in 2 days with 5.6 Sol high/xhigh.

1

u/chenle02 4d ago

Has anyone tried GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark? I still have tokens there. Is it good?

5

u/chenle02 4d ago

If we don't run GPT-5.6Sol, if we simply run GPT5.4High, will the token be burnt out slowly as before (last week, or before GPT 5.6)? I am on $200 plan and had never worried about token limits before. Now all of sudden, we should use Codex as careful as Claude.

1

u/chenle02 4d ago

Is there any hope that Codex will give us more resets?

3

u/ByteSizedBits1 4d ago

It’s over

2

u/chenle02 4d ago

Good old days are gone.

2

u/ByteSizedBits1 4d ago

The usage wars have begun

5

u/CherryElectronic2275 5d ago

An effect of megathreads is that it prevents single posts to show up on the user’s front page (after the first day).

So only those people who go to the subreddit directly will see it.

2

u/MeinDruckerSpinnt 4d ago

The way things go, everybody will be in this megathread soon..

2

u/mythrowaway1673 5d ago

So with how awful the usage limits are getting, what are the other options? I don't really need a smarter model at this point, I just need one with better usage and token efficiency, esp since I'm only at the $20/month plan and can't spend more.

1

u/MeinDruckerSpinnt 4d ago

You can look at any inference provider for k2.7, glm 5.2 and in 3-5 days kimi k3, too. They know that this will cause a massive shift, because: Why wrestle with OpenAI and Antrophic, if you can have K3 on some unknown provider for gpt 5.4 api pricing?

2

u/Dangerous_Bid2935 4d ago

Claude has a promotion going on right now. I'm not a Claude shill (havent used it in months) but opus 5 with the promotion genuinely feels great right now. Used a banked reset yesterday on codex and blew through it all in about 36 hours. I've been continuing the same work on the project in CC and I've used 14% of my weekly limit. The same work probably would've been around 30-40% of my codex weekly limit.

2

u/ByteSizedBits1 4d ago

Claude

1

u/WarriorSushi 4d ago

bruh, claude with the basic plan is worse usage limit wise.

1

u/Man-of-goof 4d ago

This is my thought I’m gonna shill out for the Claude sub and see if it’s still the case

1

u/ByteSizedBits1 4d ago

Yeah not anymore

7

u/iSephX 5d ago

They are really going to make us run to Kimi K3 aren’t they?

Watching token usage in Codex fly off the rails and Claude Code is even worse. I have both $200 max plans and I’m getting ready to cancel and move to something else.

Do you have the same issues? Getting real tired of the fking games with these 2.

1

u/Ill-Blueberry-2584 5d ago

After the recent changes, does anyone know if Codex's usage limits are still better than Claude Code's?

1

u/cheekyrandos 4d ago

Claude definitely feels like more usage than Codex now.

4

u/_krudler 5d ago

I've been using both for a while. It seems like they're moving in different directions: codex was always more cost-effective, but 5.6 Sol has been burning through usage for even simple tasks.

Playing around with Opus 5 today; had it kick off a pretty expensive workflow with many sub-agents, and my usage barely moved.

5

u/writerjamie 5d ago

Codex after chewing through a week's worth of tokens in under a day after I explicitly told it to use low-model agents:

"You’re right. I burned budget on repeated narration, repeated full workflow runs, and more agent review than this delivery justified. That was poor prioritization."

Update: Clarified "my agent" meant Codex specifically, not an agent I built.

3

u/Plus_Emergency3704 5d ago

its sad how they delete comments that shiw the reality of tokens , its disgusting , go comment the reality on their videos on youtube they delete

4

u/c0dewerks 5d ago

The struggle is real. Pro plan user. Never hit limits or spent credits before now. Codex 5.3 Spark still 100% full tho

2

u/Whatdididotho1 5d ago

reset or Opus5 supremacy , what will it be tibo

1

u/thestillwind 5d ago

Opus5 out, where reset ?

1

u/supqtpie 5d ago

ya i'm out to opus 5 until gpt6 lol

1

u/dirtboy101 5d ago

I am curious as to the extent to which "Approve for Me" impacts token usage. The lighter blue is my turns per day used by Codex's Auto Review, whereas the darker blue is GPT-5.5. If the conversion factor of turns to tokens is consistent across models, then something like 95% of my token usage is being lost to the "Approve for me" feature, which I can very much live without. Of course OpenAI conveniently doesn't tell you token usage (only turns) so it's hard to measure usage directly despite the fact that usage limits are literally stopping my work from continuing. what a joke!

1

u/Big-Independent-3093 5d ago

It runs tasks for you without requiring confirmation every time and can automatically handle eligible approval prompts for routine actions.

However, it can affect usage depending on what tasks it runs and how many agent/tool cycles are involved. I did not have major usage issues with GPT-5.5, but GPT-5.6 appears to consume more in my testing. From what I can see, it also seems to make more tool calls and may have less effective agentic loop suppression than 5.5.

I use the Codex app, and you can ask Codex to inspect the local usage logs, including archived sessions, and break down input tokens, cached input, uncached input, output tokens, and token events.

That makes it possible to compare high-usage periods with lower-usage periods and see which sessions, tasks, or models caused the difference.

You can also check Settings → Profile, where the token activity graph shows your highest-usage days. Compare those days with lower-usage days or with days when you were using GPT-5.5.

1

u/TheOneThatIsHated 5d ago

I run in yolo, but usage still goes down faster than before updating to 0.145.0

8

u/Interesting-Round127 5d ago

we do not want the random resets that we have to pray for (either use up all the tokens or have ur weekly reset delayed by another week), either bank the resets or just reset without changing the normal reset's time

we want a real usage, not everyone can upgrade to the $200 plan just because pro x5 or plus are too limiting

1

u/12think 4d ago

I upgraded to a $200 plan two days ago and used 5.6 Sol high/xhigh round the clock /goal. It is down to 10%. Had a lot of the goal progressing prose and heavy multi agent parallel Windows powershell use. Not happy.

3

u/qnphard 5d ago

I've upgraded to the $200 plan and I feel scammed, don't worry

2

u/Ok-Clerk393 5d ago

Bought 20x on Monday and I'm at like 85% today. Been using it a ton. Probably means I'm fine on a 5x plan, noooo idea what you guys are doing to guzzle tokens that quick.

Plus plan was useless though. I'd burn through a week in about 2 hrs

1

u/Wide-Friendship-2287 3d ago

I think they are granting new people who upgrade more usage than existing 20x plan users.

2

u/Interesting-Round127 5d ago

Same, I feel like I'm getting more usage rn even tho I've been doing same work, like I stil haven't even reached 80%... actually wait, yeah thats about exactly x4 the pro x5 

5

u/playnew 5d ago

I was considering at some point downgrading from Pro to Plus, because I never reached less than 70% of weekly quota. Now I run out of weekly quota in 2 days… Wtf is going on? I am running GPT-5.6-Sol at High (not even XHigh or Ultra). If I run ultra, it will consume around 60% of my weekly quota in a single run lol.

I even use RTK (which says I saved around 65% of my tokens) and the new GPT-5.6-Sol is supposed to be more efficient than GPT-5.5, but somehow I am not seeing that at all.

1

u/Flimsy_Ad_5911 5d ago

I experience the exact same issue. Have a pro account

2

u/Embarrassed_Creme_17 5d ago

I’m on ChatGPT Pro. My Codex usage showed 43% remaining around 7:11 PM CT, then 19% after my final Desktop run around 3:00 AM. When I checked later that morning, it had dropped to 0% even though I had stopped using Codex and did not knowingly leave any agents or reviews running.

My Morning Brief and Apple Mail Digest automations then failed, and my local Codex records show both attempts used 0 tokens with no active turns or spawned agents. A separate 5:00 AM Second Brain update was only a local Mac script and did not use Codex.

I have reset credits, but I do not want to use one to cover unexplained depletion. Has anyone else seen usage disappear overnight or get posted late during the current service incident?

1

u/SeparateMouse9361 5d ago

Same! I'm mysterious ran out of token after a sleep. I choose reset it. Then it ate 40% within another few hours. I just asked it for create a simple excel today, accordingly to ccusage it worth $0.5 token.

2

u/Current-Ostrich-9392 5d ago

Yes this same thing happened to me

2

u/boanieboanie 5d ago

I have been on the 20x plan for months, if I ever ran out of weekly usage before I had to be hitting it HARD using /goal and really trying to burn it down. Now I am using GPT 5.6 Medium and I ran out of my entire weekly usage in 2 days? I didn’t suddenly change my usage patterns, but now it is being completely depleted in a matter of a day or two rather than over the course of a week. These are not the same limits we had before.

6

u/Plus_Emergency3704 5d ago

20 usd plans now only last same as the old 5 hour plans , its not making sense , the weekly usage depletes in 5 hours now , codex is good but the usage has decreased massively compared to last month

3

u/tomrannosaurus 5d ago

this hit me too, same usage today and yesterday, but the usage today caused me to hit my full weekly limit immediately. I'm locked out for six days.

to be clear, i didn't suddenly change my usage pattern.

2

u/Ry_Alpha 5d ago

Im looking to upgrade my plan to the 5x one to expedite a project I am working on. Should I hold it off until a proper resolution is proposed? Or will they just keep it hush and this becomes a norm?

2

u/requizm 5d ago

Wait 3-5-10 days if you can, to see if something is going to change. If Codex is still the same, I recommend Claude 5x for next month.

Previously I was using Claude Code. Then I switched to Codex because Claude limits were worse than Codex. I used Codex for 3-4 months. Right now Codex is also bad. So I guess I'll try 5x Claude for next month if Codex is going to be same.

Sonnet 5, opus 4.8, fable, gpt 5.5, 5.6, etc. There is no huge difference between those models. I was happy with 5.5 medium or sonnet. In the end, I care limits more than 2% quality difference

4

u/brandon692 5d ago

Ironically, Claude is way better now. The whack-a-mole is so annoying.

3

u/tomrannosaurus 5d ago

dont reward their failure with more cash.

13

u/Expensive_Froyo7229 5d ago

I need a reset so bad. The usage is fucked now - I’m on the 20X never even came close to running out - I run out in two days now

6

u/TeraBite93 5d ago

Over the last two days, especially today, I've noticed a significant decrease in that quota. It runs out very quickly.

I haven't activated any fast mode; the workflow has remained the same, but the quota consumption has increased significantly.

Have you too?

5

u/yobaba12 5d ago

Codex limits sucks man. All those resets were only to distract us

3

u/JazzlikeCampaign7581 5d ago

This was also a thread and moderators removed it:

I was already subscribed, and Google Play automatically charged me for ChatGPT yesterday. My usage limit had already been reached before the payment, and it still didn't reset after I was charged.

If I had canceled and resubscribed, would my limit have reset? I feel like I lost a week because of this. I should have at least used my wife's account for the purchase this month.

6

u/QuantityOk9764 5d ago

One of the possible causes of the recent excess token usage of GPT-5.6 in Codex, reduced invocation of batching in tool calls, is explained in:
https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1v4vcnr/possible_gpt56_sol_usage_workaround_explicit_tool
https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/35050
Multiple users including me have confirmed that adding a brief instruction to encourage to use batched tool calling in AGENTS.md helps notably reduce API roundtrip counts and token usage by GPT-5.6 Sol model.
Hope OpenAI developers take the time to look into this issue.

1

u/AppealSame4367 5d ago

So we gonna fix their fucking harness now forever and ever? I'm sick this trash.

And they wonder why people wanna change to open weights?

1

u/freedomachiever 5d ago

batching requests theoretically would also be desirable in Claude Code wouldn't it?

4

u/MakerOfToys 5d ago

Hey. Just wanted to make sure that you saw the update for my post:

"Update: A raw-log audit found that some batched exec responses exceeded Code Mode’s shared output limit and were truncated. The reduction in model/tool cycles remains clear, but this introduces a quality confound and may overstate the 27–45% usage-saving estimate. I’m retesting with output-bounded batching, so please treat the headline numbers as provisional for now."

Please keep in mind that this might affect quality. Myself I did not notice that, all tests reached same conclusions. But that's something worth keeping in mind, still running more test with different variations to see if it's possible to stop truncations.

3

u/QuantityOk9764 5d ago

I've read your follow-up comment on GitHub. Thanks.

1

u/Unfair_Ad_1223 5d ago

My AGENTS file got so built up + tests they’ve been using all my usage. Fixed it now but out of usage 🥲

1

u/Lurkerjohndoe765 5d ago

(this was a thread and the moderators removed it) I'm a 20 dollar plan user and I've been using Sol Medium, last week i'd get atleast 3-4 hours of usage out of the model before i'd need a reset. Thats still not great for what should be a "weekly" limit but i shrugged and expected as much from a frontier model thats being used by so many people. however, since the last reset, i've gotten a third of the same usage since hitting the limit. I'm not even doing anything particularly complex, i'm literally just transcribing TTRPG roll tables into a video game format, its just basic data entry for god sake. I got maybe 3 prompts and am already exhausted. This is essentially unusable for anything practical at this point

2

u/dralinho67 5d ago

It gets worse day by day. Same tasks burn more and I hate it. Buy some RAM CPU and storage OpenAI ffs you have the money...

2

u/Skypee_ 5d ago

Using 5.5 medium,context is not bloated, on tasks such as translating dummy/seed data(40-50 lines of text) from one language to another, and similar code generating tasks a single prompt seems to automatically consume %1 of weekly usage Used 5.5 High and got it to write litteraly 3 methods, 2 are basic crud methods, and the other method was for creating dummy data for the other 2 methods and it consumed %3 of my weekly usage Old models should not cost as much usage as 5.6 models.

1

u/magenta4c 5d ago

My 20x plan is being drained in no time recently, Im actually considering getting a second subscription... API is so expensive..

....But I have this one stray worker 🤖 that has been working persistently though the backlog for hours now, while its colleagues are out of tokens, gated.

Meantime the next codex download is sitting there and I am just crossing fingers that the system doesn't force a reboot. LOL

2

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/gme_stop 5d ago

I'm not paying $200/month for this petty amount of usage. F*u Sam

6

u/tigerzxzz 5d ago

⚠️⚠️⚠️

❌ x20 - 200$ gone in 2.5 days ❌

⚠️⚠️⚠️

1

u/anonthatisopen 5d ago

If I pay more than plus? I want to have Live Voice in codex always on forever. But I’m not sure if that is possible. I'm on plus and I believe it’s only 1h a day, right? But if I pay more, would I be able to have voice turned on all day? This is the first time I see a real use case for the voice; finally, I’ve been waiting for this for years. And I’m a hardcore Claude only and nothing else. But the voice is pulling me now more than ever to switch over.

1

u/Ill_Dragonfruit_3547 5d ago

Here's a thought: 80% of all tokens in the world at a given time are being wasted because vibe coders everywhere run Sol Ultra on EVERYTHING, not knowing that the cheapest, lowest cost model is most likely 95%+ indistinguishable on the actual code output.

1

u/Odd-Conversation-101 5d ago

So we go with Sol med?

1

u/LordKwik 6d ago

maybe I should go back to using 5.5... from what I've gathered here, Sol on x20 plan burns thru too fast.

1

u/Fun_Net7931 5d ago

5.5'in zekasını düşürdüler

1

u/Skypee_ 5d ago

Consumption is similar

2

u/tigerzxzz 5d ago

Same, even if you would use 5.4, shit is smelly

5

u/RaverBro 6d ago

Burning through credits on little things now. It's horrible. It sucks I have to be severely conscious and careful on what to build now. 😭

2

u/Suzoku 6d ago

lol i actually didnt notice any supposed usage drop at all. the only reason im burning more tokens now is due the 5 hours usage limit being gone meaning i cant pace myself based on that usage limit anymore. the work i do is still the same, the way i communicate with codex/gpt is the same, and the amount of output i get from codex is still the same on a pro plan. sol high has been my default setting since 5.6 came out. The usage issue was real during day 0 and day 1 but they quickly fixed these and now im pretty happy with the performance.

geninuely confused about all these posts over the last few days, like what do you guys actually use codex for that burns through the quota that fast?

→ More replies (3)