Disclosure: we build Codex Reset. This post explains how Codex limits and resets work, using OpenAI's own pricing page and Help Center as the source, and points to the pages on our site that track them.
Most of the confusion around Codex limits comes from one word doing too many jobs. "Reset" can mean your 5-hour window rolling over, your weekly window rolling over, a reset OpenAI applies to many accounts at once, a reset saved in your account, or one you buy. They behave differently, and some of them move your next reset date.
The last post covered where to get reset alerts. This one is the background: what the windows are, what OpenAI does and doesn't publish about them, and what each kind of reset actually changes. Everything below comes from OpenAI's pages as of November 5, 2026. OpenAI updates them often, so treat the links as the authority and our summary as a map.
Two windows, one pool
On most paid plans Codex runs two limits at once: a 5-hour window and a weekly window. The same usage counts against both, but the two periods can end at different times. OpenAI's own example: your weekly period could end at noon while your current 5-hour period runs until 3 p.m.
That's why clearing one doesn't fix the other. If your weekly window is exhausted, a fresh 5-hour window won't unblock you. You need the weekly rollover, a reset, or credits.
The pool is also bigger than Codex. Where your plan has them, Codex, ChatGPT Work, ChatGPT for Excel and Workspace Agents share one allowance and credit pool, so a long ChatGPT Work session spends the budget your coding session needs. Local messages from the CLI, IDE extension or desktop app share it with cloud chats, and cloud tasks may use more of it than local messages.
Plans differ in which windows they have:
- Plus and Business Standard: a 5-hour allowance and a weekly allowance.
- Pro (100, 200 and 500): the pricing page says "Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit", so Pro runs on the weekly allowance.
- Go: a monthly allowance.
- Enterprise and Edu with flexible pricing: no fixed rate limits; usage scales with credits.
What the 5-hour numbers mean
The pricing page lists local messages per five-hour period for Plus and Standard Business. The ranges are wide: GPT-6.1 Sol 15–160, GPT-6.1 Terra 35–285, GPT-6 Astra 5–45, GPT-6 Luna 350–3,000.
OpenAI's caveat is the important part: "These estimates are not fixed message limits." What a message costs depends on the model, where the task runs, how complex it is, the context, reasoning, speed and tools. A long-running agent task can use far more than a short request. Read the ranges as a sense of scale, not as a counter.
The weekly window has no published size
For the weekly window OpenAI publishes no number for any plan. The pricing page says only "Weekly limits may also apply." Anyone quoting an exact weekly cap is estimating.
People do try to measure it. Our /codex-usage page collects those measurements, converts one full week into API dollars per plan and cites every figure. OpenAI warns against that kind of conversion: "API token prices are separate from subscription usage; don't use them to estimate included tasks." So we show the table as a rough scale, with each row's source next to it.
"Codex limits by plan, with sources" on codex-reset.com/codex-usage (screenshot, November 5, 2026). The dollar figures are third-party measurements, not OpenAI numbers.
Where to check your own numbers
Your own balance is the only number that counts. OpenAI points to these places:
- In an active Codex CLI session, run
/status. - On the web, ChatGPT Settings → Usage (chatgpt.com/settings/usage).
- In the desktop app, Settings → Usage & billing.
When you hit a limit, the notice shows the options your account has: add credits, use an available reset, upgrade, or wait until the displayed reset time.
Three kinds of reset
OpenAI's article How resets work in Codex separates three one-time resets, all distinct from the regular scheduled refresh:
- Banked reset. Free, one-time, saved to your account for later. Receiving one does not refresh your usage. You choose when to use it, before it expires.
- Automatic reset, "sometimes called a global reset". Applied directly to the accounts and limits an offer selects. You don't redeem it and it isn't saved. In OpenAI's words: "'Global' does not mean every account or every usage limit."
- Purchased reset. Bought for immediate use and offered to selected Plus and Pro personal accounts.
None of them permanently raises your limits. Free banked and automatic resets have, as OpenAI puts it, "no guaranteed availability or schedule". That uncertainty is what our site tracks: it reads the public announcements, shows a forecast, and confirms when a reset has actually reached the accounts we monitor.
Grant, redemption and automatic reset compared on codex-reset.com/banked-reset (screenshot, November 5, 2026).
Using a banked reset
You can redeem a banked reset in the desktop app (Settings → Usage & billing), on the web (Usage settings), or in Codex CLI by entering /usage and choosing Redeem reset. The mobile app doesn't offer it, and older CLI versions may not show the option.
A few rules catch people out:
- From Usage settings, at least one covered allowance must have less than 80% remaining. Otherwise you see "Your usage does not need a reset right now" and the reset stays in your account.
- A full banked reset brings each covered allowance that is below 100% back to 100%. An allowance already at 100% isn't restarted. On Plus that covers the 5-hour and weekly allowances; on Pro, the weekly allowance.
- It only counts as used if it restores at least one allowance.
- Separate allowances such as image generation, file upload and regular Chat Voice stay as they were.
- A desktop option, "Allow your assistant to use resets", lets Codex redeem one itself once your main 5-hour or weekly allowance is at 10% or less.
Use it before the expiry shown in your account or offer. Our banked reset page has an expiry tracker and a checklist for when a reset looks missing.
Why your weekly date moved
This is the most common surprise. Banked, global and paid resets can all change your next refresh time, and "the new schedule replaces the old one." OpenAI's example: a weekly period that was due to end on Friday restarts on Tuesday, so it now refreshes the following Tuesday, and the Friday refresh no longer applies.
So OpenAI's advice is to read the next refresh time in Usage instead of working it out from when you redeemed, bought, or saw an announcement. Before a new period starts, the displayed time can itself be an estimate.
Two related points from the same article:
- A global reset after a banked one brings the allowance back to 100%, not 200%. The banked reset you used isn't returned, and any unused ones keep their original expiry.
- The desktop History view shows banked-reset activity for the past 30 days. Paid and global resets don't appear there, so a missing entry doesn't mean you missed a global reset.
Paid resets
Eligible Plus and Pro personal accounts can buy an instant reset from desktop Usage settings, or from an offer that appears after reaching the weekly limit. It isn't available on Free, Go, Business, Enterprise or Edu, and availability varies by account even on the same plan.
A purchase restores both 5-hour and weekly usage at once. It pulls your normal weekly allowance forward rather than adding usage, can't be saved for later, and is generally not refunded. Your new weekly period starts with your first Work or Codex request after the reset, and the next automatic weekly reset is seven days after that request. It applies even if you still have usage left, and it changes your weekly reset schedule.
Where Codex Reset fits
Our site never reads your OpenAI account. The /codex-usage tracker lets you paste /status or type your weekly percentage and reset time, and keeps that in your browser. Its main job is the part OpenAI doesn't schedule: watching for automatic and banked resets and confirming when one has reached the Pro and Plus accounts we monitor. The alert channels are covered in the previous post.
What it can't do: it can't see your personal limits, it doesn't cover Team or Business workspaces, and it can't tell you whether a given offer included your account. For that, your own Usage page is the authority.
Quick answers
- My weekly allowance is empty. Does a fresh 5-hour window help? No.
- How big is the weekly limit? OpenAI doesn't publish it.
- Does receiving a banked reset refresh my usage? No. Only redeeming it does.
- Why did my weekly reset date change? A reset restarted the period. Check Usage for the new time.
- Does a global reset reach everyone? Not necessarily. OpenAI says "global" doesn't mean every account.
Codex Reset is an independent community tracker and is not affiliated with OpenAI. "Codex" is a trademark of OpenAI.
