Codex Users Report Quota Burning Far Faster, Suspect Shrinkflation
On Sep 21–22, multiple Codex users independently reported their quotas draining abnormally fast, suspecting OpenAI quietly cut usable allowances while keeping prices unchanged. OpenAI has not responded.
Confirmed
- A Reddit heavy user showed Pro 20x weekly usage falling from 2.3B to 975M to 756M tokens over three weeks, a drop of more than 60% (via @DeepakDeepu).
- Developer Simon Hoiberg found his GPT-5.6 Sol account exhausted its weekly quota within two days of a reset; OpenClaw tracking showed burn rates 4.8–5.9x faster than two months ago with no matching output increase (via @StewartalsopIII).
- A PRO+ user reported 4 prompts consuming 5% of quota right after a weekly reset, including a single simple prompt costing 2% (via @NextTechnology6361).
Unconfirmed
- Rohit Krishnan suspects periodic "check-ins" on long-running tasks cause cache misses and inflated usage, wasting 20% of a day's quota, and has tagged Codex lead Thibault Sottiaux; no cause or official statement confirmed (via @sethlazar).
- Whether quotas were officially cut or PRO+ billing rules changed remains unconfirmed.
Why it matters
- Blogger Stewart Alsop III calls this "shrinkflation" for Codex Sol — lower allowances at the same price — and hopes the Jevons effect (rebounding usage diluting costs) mitigates it. If true, it directly hits heavy developers' workflow costs and erodes trust in provider quota transparency.
2026-09-21 ~ 2026-09-22 · 5 related posts
Primary sources
- Codex Pro 20x user reports weekly allowance collapsing from 2.3B to 756M tokens in three weeks — Deepak__Deepu ·
- Codex limits draining 5x faster with 18% less usage, dev's tracking claims — StewartalsopIII ·
- Codex PRO+ Users Report Usage Draining Much Faster Since Weekly Reset — Next_Technology6361 ·
- [source] Codex limits draining 5x faster with 18% less usage, dev's tracking claims — StewartalsopIII · 2026-09-21
- [source] Codex PRO+ Users Report Usage Draining Much Faster Since Weekly Reset — Next_Technology6361 · 2026-09-21
- Developers Suspect Codex Cache Misses Are Draining Usage Quotas Faster Than Expected — sethlazar · 2026-09-21
- User Claims Codex Sol Hit by Shrinkflation as Quotas Quietly Shrink — StewartalsopIII · 2026-09-22
- [source] Codex Pro 20x user reports weekly allowance collapsing from 2.3B to 756M tokens in three weeks — Deepak__Deepu · 2026-09-22