OpenAI says the 5-hour Plus limit is returning for Codex and Work

What is the ChatGPT Plus usage limit for Codex and ChatGPT Work?

OpenAI says a five-hour usage window is returning for ChatGPT Plus accounts across Codex and ChatGPT Work. The announced policy keeps a weekly allowance alongside the shorter window, while Pro $100 and Pro $200 subscriptions remain exempt from the five-hour limit for the upcoming months.

What OpenAI announced

Thibault “Tibo” Sottiaux, OpenAI's engineering lead for Codex and ChatGPT, said the five-hour limit would return for Plus accounts across ChatGPT Work and Codex the next day. The post was published on August 24 Pacific time / August 25 UTC, and independent reporting rendered the return date as August 25 Pacific time. The AI Guy has not verified activation across every Plus account, so this is the announced policy rather than a universal rollout claim.

The Plus and Pro plan split

Under the announcement, Plus will again have a five-hour window alongside a weekly allowance. Sottiaux said the five-hour limit will remain disabled for Pro $100 and Pro $200 subscriptions for the upcoming months, but he did not promise a permanent exemption. The announcement does not establish changes for Business, Enterprise, Edu, Free or Go, so users on other plans should check their current account usage screen and OpenAI documentation.

Why OpenAI says the shorter window is returning

Sottiaux said the five-hour window helps smooth compute demand while allowing OpenAI to keep weekly usage generous. He also said the shorter window can prevent casual or new Plus users from accidentally consuming an entire week's allowance without realizing it. These are Sottiaux's stated reasons, not independently measured performance or user-behavior outcomes.

A five-hour window is not five hours of runtime

OpenAI's help documentation says usage depends on the model, where a task runs, complexity, context, reasoning, speed and tools, and that a long-running task can consume substantially more allowance than a short request. The five-hour label describes a reset window; it does not promise five continuous hours of agent runtime or a fixed number of tasks. The same documentation says Codex and ChatGPT Work share an allowance and credit pool when available on a plan.

How to plan around the returning limit

Before starting a long coding or deliverable task, check which allowance is close to exhaustion and note both reset windows in the Codex usage dashboard or product limit notice. Save local work and do not assume the five-hour window replaces the weekly allowance. If an account display differs from this announcement, the account's current usage screen is the controlling operational signal.

Independent confirmation and the bottom line

9to5Mac separately reported the announced August 25 Pacific return for Plus and the continued Pro $100/$200 exception, quoting Sottiaux's explanation. Under the announced policy, Plus users will have two windows to track for Work and Codex: the returning five-hour window and a weekly allowance. The Pro exception is temporary in wording, and OpenAI did not specify other plan changes in this announcement.

Related tools and pages

GPT-5.6 ChatGPT access updateOpen related page AI coding agentsOpen related page

Official sources

Tibo Sottiaux primary OpenAI limits announcement ↗Checked 2026-08-25
OpenAI Help Center: Using Codex with your ChatGPT plan ↗Checked 2026-08-25
9to5Mac independent limits report ↗Checked 2026-08-25

This is researched analysis based on public product information. The AI Guy has not independently benchmarked the feature described here.

FAQ

What is the ChatGPT Plus limit for Codex and Work?

OpenAI says a five-hour usage window is returning for Plus across Codex and ChatGPT Work alongside a weekly allowance. The exact allowance consumed by a task varies with the model, complexity, context, reasoning, speed and tools.

Does the five-hour limit mean five hours of Codex runtime?

No. It is a usage reset window, not a promise of five continuous runtime hours or a fixed number of tasks.

Does the five-hour limit apply to ChatGPT Pro?

Sottiaux said the limit will remain disabled for Pro $100 and Pro $200 subscriptions for the upcoming months. He did not describe that exception as permanent.

Did The AI Guy verify the limit in every account?

No. This is a researched policy brief based on the direct OpenAI announcement, current OpenAI help documentation and independent reporting. Account-level activation was not universally verified.