OpenAI abruptly restores harsh 5-hour Codex and Work limits for ChatGPT Plus

After six weeks of uncapped daily access that began on July 13, OpenAI is officially reinstating a strict five-hour usage limit for standard ChatGPT Plus subscribers using its Codex and ChatGPT Work environments. Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI's engineering lead for Codex and ChatGPT, confirmed on X that the rolling limits return into full effect on August 25. The company initially dropped the five-hour cap in mid-July alongside the rollout of its highly efficient GPT-5.6 Sol model, temporarily allowing users to generate coding workflows limited only by a single weekly quota. During this brief, unrestricted window, OpenAI even reset users' weekly usage early on several occasions to celebrate growth milestones, including reaching another million active users. That temporary grace period has officially concluded, meaning developers and heavy users must once again carefully pace their technical prompts to avoid getting locked out.

Sottiaux explained that restoring the hourly cap is primarily based on two considerations. First, dividing usage into five-hour windows helps distribute computational demand, preventing massive simultaneous loads from overwhelming OpenAI servers. Second, the limit acts as a safeguard for newer or more casual users. During the temporary policy, some subscribers were unintentionally burning through their entire weekly quota during a single extended session, leaving them unable to access the service for the remainder of the week.

While standard users face these reinstated limits to prevent rapid quota depletion, OpenAI is shielding its highest-paying customers from the downgrade. The company confirmed that the five-hour restriction will remain disabled for the more expensive Pro 100-dollar and Pro 200-dollar subscription tiers over the coming months. Furthermore, no changes are being made to Enterprise or Edu accounts, which already operate under a completely separate, credit-based infrastructure. Moving forward, once standard Plus users hit their five-hour or weekly limits, they will need to wait for the standard reset cycle or purchase additional usage credits to continue their coding sessions.

To accompany the return of the hourly restrictions, OpenAI has fully reset the current weekly usage limits for all affected accounts today. Going forward, the next scheduled weekly reset for subscribers will take place on September 1.