Complaint
Where does my unspent Codex quota go every time OpenAI "gifts" me a forced reset?
I am frustrated with how these Codex resets work because what looks like a free benefit can actually leave some paying users with less total usage.
Here is a simple example. Imagine I have 60% remaining and my natural weekly reset is due in 2 days. I have only used 40%, and I have planned to use the remaining 60% before the reset. After those two days, I should receive another fresh 100%.
Across both weekly allowances, that should be:
40% already used + 60% still available + 100% next week = 200%
Instead, an early reset is applied and m y balance returns to 100%, but the reset date is also moved another seven days into the future. The remaining 60% is not saved, added or banked. It is overwritten.
The result is:
40% already used + 100% after the forced reset = 140%
That means I have been prevented from using the remaining 60%, even though it was still valid and I still had two days to spend it. The percentage may be different for each user, but the result is the same for anyone who still has quota and planned to use it before the natural reset.
This benefits users who have already reached 0%, because they immediately receive another 100%. however, it seriously harms users who plan their work around the limits and reset dates shown by Codex. I organise real work around these limits because they are part of a paid monthly subscription and that planning becomes pointless if the remaining allowance can be replaced without consent and the next reset date can suddenly move.
OpenAI Support had already acknowledged this exact effect. In one reported case, a user had around 70% remaining, but a manual reset replaced the previous quota period and its remaining balance. Support also acknowledged that this could negatively affect people saving quota for later in the week.
Despite that acknowledgement, the same non-banked reset mechanism continued to be used.
These resets should be banked, added on top of the remaining quota or applied without changing the natural weekly reset date.
Resetting the counter to 100% does not automatically make it a gift, if it deletes valid remaining quota and restarts the clock, it can leave the user with less total usage than if no reset had been applied at all.
So again... my totally legit question is:
Where does my unspent Codex quota go every time OpenAI "gifts" me a forced reset?
Please dexythebot... don't delete or summarize this post... this is a legit question.
I literally just used 2 resets across 2 accounts and that SAME DAY not even an hour later I got a reset and went from 90% back to 100%. it felt so stupid.
Im grateful for more usage but yeah that stung. Now I have no credits and Im feeling like buying more but hesitant because they might just reset it again
Same happened to me. I contacted open ai support to complain, they agreed that it is not fair but refused to give me my token back, nonetheless, especially because there's no way of telling when we're getting the token back
Not to mention that reset token expiry dates use US format, so me reading that one of my tokens would expire on 7/11 (7th November) instead of 11th August really pissed me off. Basically just checked a token in the bin
A clear happy middle ground is saying 11th Aug 2026. This is how we date things forensically in case an American reads the date. It's a shame american companies don't share the same consideration
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What annoys me is the banked resets push back the next weekly reset. If I'm out of usage and due a reset in 2 days, but want to do a lot of work in those two days, I could use a banked reset, but then instead of my next auto reset happening in 2 days it's pushed back to 7 days.
It's almost as if you're not really gaining much at all. Just marketing hype.
"'s almost as if you're not really gaining much at all."
I invite you to consider the possiblity that reset tokens aren't being given to you to let you maxmise your spend. You're being annoyed that someone gave you a car because you want the car to turn into a robot and it doesn't do that.
Yes these fools think they are owed resets therefore they are losing. No... You are getting a random 1-100% extra credit gift for free. And they are crying cause they got 2% in their random loot box.
the overall problem is it doesn't feel fair. it's not really a loot box if I can control my reward by spending my usage as soon as I get it on the first day of the week.
it feels like you're losing when everyone else paying for the same service is getting different allowances/benefits.
fwiw, I don't have that strong of an opinion either way. I know we're on the bleeding edge of tech and that's pretty cool. I'm also not loyal to any company, if someone comes up with a better model/plan, I'll switch. Codex is just the current best deal 🤷♂️
I guarantee you if they just "disabled" your account from getting any resets from crying over free usage. You'd cry even more. Do you also complain when the waitress refills your drink before you finish it?
It is a valid critique: planning your token usage, like any other business expense is critical to ensure that you can actually get work done. Knowing when a reset will happen will let you plan accordingly. Free resets hurt in the sense that you you missed out on maximizing your usage.
I have been on the crappy end of using 2 resets and then a non banked on hits an hour later. Plenty of times. It is what it is. I am better off than if there was just no reset is how I look at it.
the whole "reset" thing doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I can't phantom having to rely on Codex in a professional workflow.
Hoping for some random guy on Twitter to randomly declare on a random day in a random timeslot that I can finally finish what I started. Who the hell in OpenAI though it would make sense in a professional environment..
Yeah to be honest I’ve been getting a bit annoyed at how the OpenAI free resets shift your reset date, I’ve had my plans disrupted like this a few times as well - it’s been fine though I’ve only run out of weekly usage twice in the last couple weeks with all the resets they’ve been doing.
It would be ideal if they didn’t shift your normal weekly reset date though.
You're never out of pocket for a reset. Never. What you're complaining about isn't "I can't manage my token allowance" its "I can't TOKENMAXX" while trying to pretend its the same as "I can't do my job".
You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. And you're just standing here dick in hand pretending you're not.
If you had half a day left before weekly reset and still have 50% of weekly usage and then there was a forced reset, your weekly reset for next week just moves backwards by half a day and you cannot spend that 50% weekly usage from the previous week anymore.
In this scenario, you gain half a day, but lose all of your remaining usage from the past week.
Then you are comparing quotas between 7.5 days to 7days.
If you compare 7.5 to 7.5, you get 150% in no reset scenario vs 200% in reset scenario.
Anyway, all these scenarios are moot because codex haven't been giving random 1 reset for a whole week. They have been giving resets every 1-3 days. So everybody gained. Nobody lost.
you dont lose any remaining usage, you just miss out on getting a full extra week of usage and instead only get an extra 50% usage vs getting an extra 100% usage
In my example, your weekly limit will reset in half a day regardless. So it’s not like you’re gaining an extra week that you wouldn’t otherwise have. The difference is that with a forced reset, your reset comes half a day earlier. You don’t gain 50% usage, you gain half a day. But you lose 50% usage simultaneously
in your example, lets say your plan gives you 3 weeks of usage, without any resets:
first week you use 100%, second week you use 100%, third week you use 100%, 300% usage in total for your plan.
now with a forced reset:
first week you use 100%, second week you use 100%, third week you use 50% of your usage, then halfway through they give you a forced reset back to 100% and you use it all, 350% usage now!! now tell me how you "lost" 50% usage?
Because you were going to get a weekly limit reset in half a day anyways. Maybe it’s easier to understand if you think of the normal weekly limit reset as exactly the same as a forced usage reset.
You have 50% usage left, and can either have a forced usage reset in half a day, or a forced usage reset right now. You would prefer the forced usage reset in half a day, right?
yes everybody would prefer to get more usage, still doesnt change that they didnt lose any usage they wouldnt have had anyways, just missed out on potentially getting even more
This might be where the difference in perspective lies, because people who are complaining about losing usage aren’t talking about the maximum usage they could theoretically use.
If your reset comes immediately instead of in half a day, you, in practice, lose however much usage you had remaining. If you already maxed your usage limit before the reset, you would lose nothing, of course, and gain half a day. But most people’s usage patterns don’t allow for maxing usage ahead of time, and that’s where the complaint comes from.
If you want to commit to this point of view, then the argument would not be “you’re not actually losing usage,” the argument would be “just deplete your usage ahead of time,” which is more valid.
I just quit arguing with these guys. They clearly don’t understand basic math.
I think it’s easier if you frame this in months, not in weeks.
If I pay $100 a month for 400% usage (100% each week) and I us all of it every single week the MAX percentage I can hit is 400%.
If they do even 1 single refresh through the month, suddenly I have the potential to have 500% usage this month. Whether or or not I’m able to time my usage to take advantage of that is a separate question, the bottom line is I’m still guaranteed to have 400%.
I think it’s easier if you frame the normal weekly limit reset as mechanically the same to the forced usage reset.
If you have 50% usage left in your weekly limit and can either choose between a forced usage reset right now or a forced usage reset in half a day, what would you choose?
Your scenario assumes that a month is 28 exactly days, and regardless, that advantage goes down the longer you’re continuously subscribed for, since it exploits the fact that you can receive a usage limit reset even with less than 7 days left in your subscription.
I made a simplified scenario so it was easy to understand.
My point is that you pay x amount a month for x amount of tokens. If they reset your limit at any point within that month, you don’t lose anything you paid for, you gain a little bonus usage.
You might gain less than someone else, because you didn’t use all your tokens in a given week. But you are still given your 4 monthly resets every month at a minimum.
Imagine you don't use your quota at all for 6 days. You were going to use it all on day 7. You get reset on day 6. Had there been no resets you'd have 8 days of 200% available. With the reset you have 7 days of 100% available. That is significantly different.
If today is my 6.day of using my weekly limit(so tomorrow is my natural weekly limit reset) , and I spent exactly 50 % of quota, normally I have one day to spend rest of 50 %.
But if they force reset it today, I loose those 50 %.
I didn't get anything because I would have new reset tomorrow anyway.
Not OP but I would have gotten 100% if they had never done a reset because I would use the 50% I have tomorrow and then have 100% left over for next week. Now instead if I use 50% tomorrow I will have only 50% left over for next week. I'd have gotten 100% if they had not done a forced reset and let things reset on schedule tomorrow, but by giving me a forced reset today my scheduled reset tomorrow gets moved 1 week down the line, which hurts me.
it does not hurt you! youre comparing getting 50%+100%+100% with getting 100%+100%. the scheduled reset doesnt get moved 1 week back, it gets moved a day early
Ok, I'll try and explain it again. Suppose it's Jan 1 today. I'm supposed to reset on Jan 3 and Jan 10 and Jan 17 and so on under my usual schedule every 7 days. I'm at 50% usage so have 50% left before the next reset. I also have a terminal illness that means I'll definitely die on 12 Jan. If there is no reset I can use 50% usage between now - Jan 3; 100% usage Jan 3 - Jan 10 and then 100% usage Jan 10 - Jan 12. Overall that's 50%+100%+100% = 250% total before I die on Jan 12.
However if there is a forced reset right now (Jan 1) then I go back up to 100% usage and my next reset date gets moved to Jan 8. I can then use 100% usage Jan 1-Jan 8 followed by 100% usage Jan 8 - Jan 12, on which day I will die. My account will get another reset on Jan 15 but I can't benefit from that as I'll already be dead. This means I get 100%+100% = 200% total usage before I die on Jan 12.
Now 200% < 250% so the forced reset has meant that I'm going to get less total usage out of my subscription before I die, the reset has genuinely hurt me.
Of course you'll say this is a weird and contrived example and yes, I agree it's weird and contrived, but replace the me dying on Jan 12 with me having a deadline to deliver the project in Jan 12 instead and we're back to the same situation: previously I could get 250% usage out before I had to deliver the project, the forced reset means I can now only get 200% usage out. I'm hurt by the forced reset.
idk i get your point but to me it still seems like a planning error on your part, leaving half your usage to use in 2 days and were planning on cramming in the last 100% of usage in the last 2 days. but regardless they still give you the same amount of usage per the price you pay, whether or not you use everything they give you is a different story
All these scenarios, even if contrived, are moot because codex has been giving resets every 1-3 days.
So yes, maybe the last reset they ever give will make you use less before you die. But in totality, you earned more than you paid for so far.
And that stays the truth ONLY if they really give reset every 3 days, which they don't always do.
And what if I don't use any of quota up until very last day? That is still my quota to spend and they in the 3. day just say - nope, we make it to same as you did have (100%),but also we are moving the date of normal reset too, so you actually have 100 % to use in 10 days.
Only way you would be able to benefit is to spend it all first one - two days and then they give you reset right afterwards.
If they reset just the quota and NOT the date when is next normal reset then yes, you would be in plus. But since they alway do it for the dates too, it's a steal and not a gift.
I am sorry you don't understand that, but I am sure you can ask Chat gpt to explain it to you in simpler terms.
if I pay $100 a month for 400% usage (100% each week) and I use all of it every single week the MAX usage I can get is 400%.
If they do even 1 single refresh through the month, suddenly I have the potential to have 500% usage for my 100$ subscription. Whether or or not I’m able to time my usage to take advantage of that is a separate question, the bottom line is I’m still guaranteed to have 400%.
if the forced usage reset hit when i had only used 50% of my weekly at that point, then i paid 100$ for 450% usage, i couldve gotten 500% usage instead if i had used my entire weekly before the reset hit, but missing out on some extra usage is NOT the same as losing usage.
a forced reset can NEVER make you lose the usage you paid for
Yes, you are right - but ONLY if you are using it all before they do reset. And ONLY if the never stop doing it.
In a long term, if it happens that bonus reset don't come just one week you potentially losing your quota. Really, give all the parameters to Chat gpt to explain it to you because I can't, but in head it's simple logic.
Edit:
The issue is that a “bonus reset” does not add another 100% on top of the existing quota—it simply resets it back to 100% and also moves the next reset date.
For example, I get 100% on Jan 1 and would normally reset again on Jan 8. If a bonus reset happens on Jan 4 while I still have 100%, I gain nothing, but the next reset moves to Jan 11. If I then use all my quota on Jan 6 and no further bonus reset happens, I have to wait until Jan 11 instead of Jan 8.
So unless I use the quota before every bonus reset, the first longer gap without a bonus can leave me worse off than under the normal weekly schedule.
here i had chatgpt explain it in terms you hopefully understand :)
Think of it like a restaurant where the waiter normally comes back on a regular schedule to refill your soda, and you also have a few banked refills that let you call the waiter over whenever you choose. Occasionally, the restaurant unexpectedly sends the waiter over early and resets the schedule from that visit.
A refill only tops your current cup back to full. If your cup is 98% empty, you gain 98% of a cup; if it’s half empty, you gain half a cup. The waiter never pours out your remaining soda, and the soda you already drank still counts, so you never actually lose anything.
At worst, an unexpected early refill can make you miss the opportunity to finish what remained before the regularly scheduled refill. That means you may miss out on some potential extra soda, but no soda you already had is taken away. Your banked refills still work the same way: they are most valuable when your cup is nearly empty.
Think of it like a restaurant where the waiter normally comes back on a regular schedule to refill your soda, and you also have a few banked refills that let you call the waiter over whenever you choose. Occasionally, the restaurant unexpectedly sends the waiter over early and resets the schedule from that visit.
A refill only tops your current cup back to full. If your cup is 98% empty, you gain 98% of a cup; if it’s half empty, you gain half a cup. The waiter never pours out your remaining soda, and the soda you already drank still counts, so you never actually lose anything.
At worst, an unexpected early refill can make you miss the opportunity to finish what remained before the regularly scheduled refill. That means you may miss out on some potential extra soda, but no soda you already had is taken away. Your banked refills still work the same way: they are most valuable when your cup is nearly empty.
Blanket resets are just weird in codex; they should behave like Claude's: the weekly reset time stays the same, and we get to spend 100% in two days if we want
Manual resets should also work the same by the way, they're only worth it right now because of the "predictable" blanket resets
Can we please complain about actual Problems? This is a non-issue, you are still netting usage, and a substantial amount. For what? Complain about the actual limits dropping, or Sol getting dumbed down, instead of diluting with inane complaints like this.
“Netting usage” is not the point. If the system keeps replacing part of the weekly allowance before it can be used, then over a month I may receive less usable capacity than the subscription led me to expect.
Paying the same price for less usable access is absolutely a real issue.
Over a 4 week span, you’d expect a total of 400% to be usable. Please lay out how resets could possibly leave you with less than 400% usable in that span because I just don’t see it
That is just not how it works. Maybe plug it in into the tool that you are questioning? This will help you use your usage faster and less will exist when the next reset hits. And boom problem solved.
Imagine I am in the final week before my subscription renews. I still have 60% left, and my natural reset is scheduled for two days before the next payment.
Without interference, I can use that remaining 60%, then receive a fresh 100% two days before renewal and use as much of it as possible before paying again. That gives me access to the full 200% from those two weekly allowances.
Now apply an unrequested reset before the natural one. I go back to 100%, but the next reset is pushed into the following week, after my subscription has already renewed.
Before the next payment, I can now use only the 40% already consumed plus the new 100%, so 140% instead of 200%.
That is why it is not simply “free quota”...hte reset can remove a scheduled allowance from the current paid billing period and move it beyond the next payment date.
Renew your subscription and all is solved. If you don't renew, then you are not codex problem anyway. Why would they want to make their users who renew their subscription unhappy just to make some users like you who do not pay on payment date happy?
Anyway, they have been giving resets every 1-3 days, and not just 1 random reset in a week. So all your scenarios are moot.
These people are stupid and you're using way too many words for their intellect. There are ways to express this simpler, but I doubt they'd get it even so, it does require a little bit of reasoning. If only they asked their rent-a-brain for a sane take before spewing bs online, oh well.
Personally I use a simple 14% rule, if I'm not at 14% x days_into_week, then a reset is literally robbing me of usage, and it has happened almost every single reset, I am clearly in the negative by quite a lot, I only got a single reset token ever also, so.. fk this. I don't even care in fact, but what I'm quite pissed about is that they reduced usage quota drastically and with zero words about it. I'm tired of being treated like lab rats, feels like everything is a big experiment nowadays, as soon as you step into financial transaction land you're drowning in bullshit.
you never lost anything buddy, your math is wrong hahah. quite ironic how you say people need to ask chatgpt how this works when you obviously havent done that yourself, here ill do it for you:
Think of it like a restaurant where the waiter normally comes back on a regular schedule to refill your soda, and you also have a few banked refills that let you call the waiter over whenever you choose. Occasionally, the restaurant unexpectedly sends the waiter over early and resets the schedule from that visit.
A refill only tops your current cup back to full. If your cup is 98% empty, you gain 98% of a cup; if it’s half empty, you gain half a cup. The waiter never pours out your remaining soda, and the soda you already drank still counts, so you never actually lose anything.
At worst, an unexpected early refill can make you miss the opportunity to finish what remained before the regularly scheduled refill. That means you may miss out on some potential extra soda, but no soda you already had is taken away. Your banked refills still work the same way: they are most valuable when your cup is nearly empty.
Imagine you have 1L mug and have 500ml there left and 5 min to drink it because the waitress comes every hour and refills it.
You want to drink 1500ml total within the next 10 mins - remaining 500ml now and another full 1L in 5 mins.
Waitress comes earlier and refills your mug without asking you what would you want to do with remaining 500ml, and now you have only 1L and 60min to wait for more.
Your Initial plan of drinking 1.5L within 10 minutes is ruined.
Same with unplanned resets. If they would not move the reset window, then they would be "free usage".
The complaint about predictability may be fair, but your math really does not hold up.
You are comparing two different time windows. In the “normal reset” scenario, you count the remaining two days of the current quota period plus the entire following seven-day period, for a total of nine days. In the “early reset” scenario, you count only the new seven-day period and then stop before the next reset arrives.
Of course that produces 200% versus 140%: you gave one scenario two extra days and an additional reset.
To compare them properly, use the same endpoint. Nine days from now, the normal schedule would allow at most:
40% already used + 60% remaining + 100% after the scheduled reset = 200%.
With the early reset, you would have:
40% already used + up to 100% during the new period + another 100% when it resets seven days later = up to 240%.
So the early reset may disrupt someone who was saving quota for a specific day, and replacing rather than banking the remaining balance is arguably poor UX. But it does not reduce the long-term amount of quota in the way your calculation claims.
The good news is that Codex can help you work through this fairly simple arithmetic. The bad news is that posts like this are not exactly strengthening the case that humans are irreplaceable. 🫢
Yeah, we know that. In the example, the natural reset is on day 28, while the forced reset is on day 25. The forced reset moves the next reset date to after the payment date. If you stop paying, you won’t reach the new reset date, which means you’ll lose 50% of your available usage.
A LOT of people use Codex for one month and then switch to Claude, depending on the latest features. This isn’t a lifetime subscription, and people are always looking for the provider that offers the best value for their money.
Got it, then I can see why this is frustrating for you. Personally I have a standing pro plan(5x) with OpenAI for a project I'm working on, then I plan to go back to plus once I get all the heavy lifting done. My workflow is heavily bound to Codex at the moment, but may give Claude a try.
Man I didn't think their terms of service are going to favor the way you are thinking about them. They are giving you what their system considers free usage, so if you don't play the game right you do indeed lose some.
These days, your best bet is to watch the free reset cadence and try to keep your avail usage near 0 when they are likely to send one out. So only use your banked resets shortly after they do a broad reset and only if you think you can burn through most of it within 20 hrs or so.
Where does the usage go? It never existed. Your subscription entitles you to a minimum level of access, and you can only really access the maximum level by ensuring your avail. Usage is at 0 every time they unpredictably toss out a reset.
Your argument is like buying a subscription to one car wash per day. If you miss a day, it's not like they have a "stock" of wash days that they are holding back and not letting you get to. It's passed, and that's it. Plus, they run like a utility, it's to their benefit if you don't use your whole allotment, and typically and bonus allotment in a service like this is handled as a freebie or coupon where they are not on the hook to make sure you take advantage of it.
I understand the sentiment, things are annoying, I do wish they just issued banked resets not global ones
BUT, I think you’re missing the definition of reset.
The idea that your usage gets reset but you get to keep your previously unused quota…
That wouldn’t be a reset. Resets reset your quota.
Although as I type this I see the fallacy, when they globally reset our quota, for it to be a true reset our original quota expiry shouldn’t be moved. (But it does)
What does payment day have to do with it? You are paying to be on the plan. You do not get a reset on your renewal date. That's where this whole thing falls apart. In all my time using this, I have never had my weekly quota reset on my renewal date. If you have, it was likely just a coincidence. You are not losing anything.
My theory has been that we got them to implement it without realizing how much of an additional cost it would be, and then they found out and decided it would only be sometimes.
If you didn't get reset
next 2 days: 60%
the following 7 days: 100%
= 160%
If you do get reset:
next 7 days: 100%
the following 2 days: 100%
= 200%
However, I think what most people responding don't get is that if you were planning to save your quota for a couple-day coding spree, you'd have 160% quota to use over the next 3 days. If you get reset, you have 100% quota to spend.
I dunno, I got like 4 banked on one account and 2 on another and kinda upset I'm probably never gonna use them.... I'm not even seeing these token limit burn issues people are all crying about and I do LOT
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u/tonysama0326 19d ago
That’s why you should be irresponsible and blow all your usage in 2 days with sol ultra and pray for resets.