Codex Usage Resets: Hard Resets, Banked Resets, and Your Own Window

There are two different things people mean by “Codex reset”, and mixing them up is why the answers you find are so unsatisfying. One is OpenAI clearing everyone’s limits, which is unpredictable. The other is your own weekly window rolling over, which is entirely knowable.

Hard resets and banked resets

Thibault Sottiaux, who leads Codex at OpenAI, has announced blanket resets on X after stretches where usage was draining faster than users expected. These clear limits for everyone at once. OpenAI has also credited banked resets: ones you hold and spend when you choose, rather than having them applied for you. Users have reported stacking several.

Two things follow from that. Resets are goodwill, not a schedule – so no page, including this one, can tell you when the next will come. And a banked reset is worth most at the exact moment you are capped mid-task, which is when you are least likely to remember you have one.

For whether a reset is happening right now, OpenAI is the only source worth trusting: the announcements come from @thsottiaux and status.openai.com.

Your own reset, which you can actually track

Your own limits are the ones that govern your day. OpenAI suspended the Codex five-hour limit on 12 July 2026 and restored it for Plus on 25 August; Pro plans currently have none. On Plus and Business that means two resets to track: the five-hour one, which clears within hours, and a weekly one where it applies.

Running /status inside Codex prints the figure at that moment. The gap is that a reset – yours or a blanket one – only becomes visible the next time you think to check, and most people only think to check after being cut off.

Noticing the moment it changes

SessionWatcher keeps your Codex weekly cap and its reset time in the Mac menu bar or the Windows taskbar and refreshes in the background, so a reset shows up as the number dropping rather than as something you discover later. It warns at 70% and 90% on the way up, and tells you when a maxed-out window frees up again.

It cannot tell you a blanket reset is coming, because nobody outside OpenAI knows. What it does is make one impossible to miss, and make your own weekly reset something you plan around instead of run into.

Common questions

What is a Codex "hard reset"?
A hard reset is OpenAI clearing usage limits for everyone at once, rather than each account waiting for its own window. Thibault Sottiaux, who leads Codex at OpenAI, has announced these on X after periods where usage was being consumed faster than expected. They are discretionary goodwill, not a scheduled feature, so there is no timetable to plan around.
What is a banked reset?
Alongside the blanket resets, OpenAI has credited resets that you hold and apply whenever you choose, rather than being spent for you. Users have reported stacking several at once. The practical value is timing: a banked reset is worth most when you are mid-task and capped, which is precisely when you are least likely to be watching your usage.
How do I know if I got a reset?
Your usage figure drops. If you are only checking with /status when something breaks, a reset is invisible until the next time you look, and a banked one can sit unused for days. Watching the number continuously is the only way to notice the moment it changes.
Will Codex reset my limits soon?
Nobody outside OpenAI can answer that, and any page claiming to predict it is guessing. The announcements come from OpenAI directly, usually via Thibault Sottiaux on X and the official status page. What you can know precisely is your own weekly window and when it resets, which is a different question and a more useful one day to day.
Does Codex still have a 5-hour reset?
On Plus and Business, yes. OpenAI suspended the Codex five-hour limit on 12 July 2026 and restored it for Plus on 25 August 2026. Its pricing page (checked 30 September 2026) lists a five-hour limit for Plus and Business, says Pro plans currently have none, and says weekly limits may also apply. If you are capped, /status or the Codex usage page shows which limit stopped you and when it resets.
SessionWatcher

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