ChatGPT Plus Hit With New 5-Hour Rolling Limit, Sparking Outrage and Cancellations

Starting August 26, multiple Reddit users found that ChatGPT Plus accounts had been given a new 5-hour rolling usage limit, separate from the weekly quota and applying to Codex, Work, Workspace Agents and Chat. Because the 5-hour cap often triggers first, remaining weekly quota becomes effectively meaningless. Users report broken production workflows, cancellations and threats to switch to Grok; OpenAI has not publicly responded.

Confirmed

@Lucifer19821 discovered and confirmed the 5-hour rolling limit on Plus accounts, independent of the weekly quota, covering Codex, Work, Workspace Agents and Chat
@clemnt noted the 5-hour limit, absent for about a month and a half, had returned, alongside a new popup offering credits for inviting friends, fueling community speculation about motives
@TommyOnRedditt reported that production tasks in ChatGPT Work consume heavy quota even when simple, and often break at the final step due to preview-environment errors, forcing tasks to be split much smaller
@CraftyRule5241 (a new user) said the 5-hour quota was exhausted within 1-2 days after only 5-6 requests, mainly for generating and tuning Python scripts, suspecting long conversation history
@MrZi5 summarized user reports: small-to-medium tasks exhaust the 5-hour limit in under an hour; some users' quota duration shrank from several days to under 36 hours
@Funny-Trash-4286 said the app became unusable due to the 5-hour limit and cancelled Plus, saying they won't return unless task completion or the weekly limit is restored
@StewartalsopIII told OpenAI's engineering lead on X that the weekly-limit issue remains unfixed, citing another user burning all Codex quota through September 1 in one night, and asked whether OpenAI will restore limits or wait for users to defect to Grok
@georgejrjrjr questioned the 5-hour policy as user-hostile, saying they previously believed OpenAI wouldn't treat users this way, and complained about slow web text loading

Unconfirmed

@Sad-Opportunity4940 suspects total allowance was quietly reduced: with limits shown as 100%, the same tasks' consumption rose from 3-4% to 15%, possibly shrunk after an update; this is personal observation, unconfirmed officially
@georgejrjrjr also doubts whether the limit is enforced as strictly as described, which remains speculation
Whether the return of the 5-hour limit alongside the referral-reward popup means OpenAI is nudging user acquisition to offset quota dissatisfaction is community speculation only

Why it matters

Stacking the 5-hour cap on the weekly quota leaves far less usable quota than subscribers expected, directly hurting Codex/Work-dependent productivity, with explicit cancellations and talk of switching to rivals like Grok
If the accelerated-quota-drain allegations hold, Plus value-for-money and retention could suffer; OpenAI has not publicly responded

2026-08-26 ~ 2026-08-27 · 9 related posts

Full story(4 episodes)→

Episode 1: ChatGPT Plus Hit With New 5-Hour Rolling Limit, Sparking Outrage and Cancellations(2026-08-26, 9 posts)
Episode 2: OpenAI quietly raises 5-hour rate limits by ~50%(2026-09-05, 3 posts)
Episode 3: ChatGPT Plus Users Frustrated by New Usage Limits(2026-09-05, 2 posts)
Episode 4: ChatGPT Plus Users Fume Over Claude-Style Usage Limits(2026-09-14, 2 posts)

Primary sources

ChatGPT Plus now shows a 5-hour rolling usage limit — Lucifer19821 · 2026-08-26 16:58 (UTC+08:00)
Users Complain OpenAI's 5-Hour Codex Limit Is Too Strict, Plus Quota Seems Reduced — MrZi5 · 2026-08-27 00:02 (UTC+08:00)
OpenAI's weekly usage-limit changes still not fixed, users threaten to switch to Grok — StewartalsopIII · 2026-08-27 07:07 (UTC+08:00)

Plus users suspect ChatGPT usage limit was quietly lowered — Sad-Opportunity4940 · 2026-08-26
User complains ChatGPT Plus 5h limit drains too fast during simple coding tasks — CraftyRule5241 · 2026-08-26
[source] ChatGPT Plus now shows a 5-hour rolling usage limit — Lucifer19821 · 2026-08-26
OpenAI usage limits and referral prompts return, sparking speculation about capacity or strategy — clemnt · 2026-08-26
User cancels subscription due to new 5-hour ChatGPT limit — Funny-Trash-4286 · 2026-08-26
User Complaints: New ChatGPT 5-Hour Limit Breaks Production Workflow — TommyOnRedditt · 2026-08-26
[source] Users Complain OpenAI's 5-Hour Codex Limit Is Too Strict, Plus Quota Seems Reduced — MrZi5 · 2026-08-27
OpenAI's 5-hour limit on Plus users sparks usability complaints — georgejrjrjr · 2026-08-27
[source] OpenAI's weekly usage-limit changes still not fixed, users threaten to switch to Grok — StewartalsopIII · 2026-08-27