Codex Usage Limits and Pricing in 2026: Plans, Resets, Pro 20x, and 'Model at Capacity' Errors

Codex does not have its own subscription - it is included in your ChatGPT plan, and every plan shares one usage allowance between Codex and ChatGPT Work. Plus costs $20/month, Pro costs $100/month for 5x Plus usage or $200/month for 20x (new Pro $200 sign-ups have been paused since September 10, 2026), and Business is $20 per user per month billed annually. Usage is metered per five-hour window with weekly limits on top; when you run out, you wait for the reset shown in your usage dashboard, buy credits, or switch Codex to an API key.

"Selected model is at capacity" is a different problem: it is OpenAI-side serving capacity, not your quota. Switch models with /model or retry later.

Last updated: September 28, 2026. Every number below was checked against OpenAI's live pricing page and help center on that date. OpenAI changes models and limits often, so treat the tables as a snapshot and confirm in your own dashboard.

Official Sources#

If you are comparing against Anthropic's side, our Claude Code usage limits playbook covers the same questions for Pro and Max, and the AI coding tools pricing comparison puts both next to the rest of the market.

Codex Pricing by Plan#

From the pricing page, fetched September 28, 2026:

The Pro prices come from OpenAI's Pro tiers article: "Pro $100 unlocks 5x higher usage than Plus, while Pro $200 unlocks 20x usage than Plus." Both tiers have the same core capabilities; the difference is allowance.

One more thing on the page worth knowing now: GPT-5.5 retires from ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex on all plans on October 14, 2026. The API is not affected. If your config pins gpt-5.5, move it before then.

How Much Codex Usage Each Plan Gets#

OpenAI does not publish fixed message counts. It publishes ranges of local messages per five-hour period, per model, because task size drives consumption. Selected rows from the pricing page:

How to read it:

• Model choice dominates. On Plus, the same five-hour window is roughly 5-45 GPT-6 Astra messages or 350-3,000 GPT-6 Luna messages. Astra is the expensive lane; use it for the work that needs it.
• Local and cloud share one pool. Local messages and cloud chats draw from the same allowance, and cloud chats (which run on GPT-5.6 Sol on ChatGPT plans) may use more per task than local messages.
• Weekly limits may also apply. The five-hour window is not the only cap.
• Some things burn faster. Fast mode and other speed configurations use included limits faster (Fast mode is 2.5x the Standard credit rate for GPT-6 Astra, Sol, and Luna), and image generation uses included limits about 3-5x faster on average.
• Enterprise and Edu with flexible pricing have no fixed rate limits; usage scales with credits. Without flexible pricing, those seats get the same per-seat limits as Plus for most features.

How Codex Resets Work#

This is the part most people search for. Per the pricing page and CLI docs:

1. Two clocks. Your allowance is metered per five-hour period, and weekly limits can apply on top. Hitting the weekly cap means waiting for the weekly reset even if a new five-hour window has started.
2. The reset time is shown to you. The usage dashboard shows current limits and reset times. There is no separate official "reset tracker" - the dashboard is it.
3. Check from the terminal. In Codex CLI, /status shows the active model and token usage, and the pricing page says it shows your remaining limits during a session. /usage opens account usage (/usage daily, /usage weekly, /usage cumulative) and is also where you redeem an available earned reset. /statusline can pin a limits field to the TUI footer so you see it continuously.
4. Per-model allowances reset separately. OpenAI's Pro article notes that some models have separate allowances; when you hit one, that model may be temporarily unavailable until its allowance resets, and ChatGPT shows the reset time. Other models stay usable.
5. Earned (banked) resets. Codex has granted rate-limit resets you can bank and redeem later. The pricing page describes a June 11-24, 2026 referral window where eligible Plus and Pro users and their invitees each received a banked rate-limit reset usable for 30 days. Redeem one through /usage.
6. Support cannot reset you. The Pro article is explicit: OpenAI Support does not reset ChatGPT or Codex usage limits. Contact them only if usage looks miscounted or access does not return after the stated reset time.

What happens when you hit the limit mid-task#

OpenAI says that if you reach your limit during an active turn, the agent can finish that turn, subject to fair use. After that, your options are:

• wait for the reset time in the dashboard;
• Plus and Pro: buy additional credits and keep working without upgrading;
• Business, Edu, Enterprise with flexible pricing: buy workspace credits;
• anyone: run extra local sessions with an API key, billed at standard API rates.

Credits: What Overflow Actually Costs#

Credits are the unit for usage beyond your included limits. The pricing page quotes Standard-speed rates in credits per million tokens:

Two notes from the same page: GPT-5.6 usage averages 5-30 credits per message, and credit purchase prices and discounts depend on your plan, so check the Plus and Pro credits article for what a credit costs you. The spread matters more than the absolute numbers - Astra output is 100x the credit rate of Luna output.

For a model-level comparison of what the flagship tiers cost via API, see GPT-6 Sol vs Opus 5.5 vs Grok 4.7 pricing.

The Pro 20x Tier: Paused for New Sign-ups#

If you searched "codex 20x", this is probably why. From OpenAI's Pro tiers article, updated within the last week:

• As of September 10, 2026, OpenAI has temporarily paused new sign-ups and upgrades to Pro $200 (Pro 20x), including upgrades from Free, Go, Plus, or Pro $100.
• Existing Pro $200 subscriptions keep renewing as usual, and Pro $100 remains open for new and existing subscribers.
• If you cancel or downgrade from Pro $200, you keep it to the end of the billing cycle and can undo the change before then.
• Customers who had Pro $200 on September 10, 2026 (or lost it in the 30 days before) can return to it once during the pause, within 30 days of their access ending.
• New Pro $200 promo redemptions are paused too.

Practical read: if you are on Pro 20x and your usage justifies it, do not casually downgrade to test Pro 5x - you only get one way back while the pause lasts. If you are on Plus and hitting limits, Pro $100 is the available upgrade today.

"Selected Model Is at Capacity": What It Means and What to Do#

The exact error is:

Selected model is at capacity. Please try a different model.

This is not your usage limit. It means the model's serving capacity is saturated on OpenAI's side. Two open GitHub issues on the official repo document recent waves:

• openai/codex#41790, opened August 31, 2026 by a Pro user who hit the error repeatedly during normal agent tasks with plenty of usage remaining, with Codex entering retry backoff and resuming between failures.
• openai/codex#43738, opened September 8, 2026, collecting reports after the GPT-6 Astra launch of the error across CLI, IDE, and web users, still open as of September 28.

These are user reports, not an official incident postmortem, so treat them as signal rather than root cause. What actually helps:

1. Do what the error says: switch models. In the CLI, /model changes the active model and reasoning effort mid-session; /status confirms the change. From the shell, codex --model <name> or codex exec -m <name> picks one per run. Moving from Astra to Sol, or Sol to Luna, often gets you unblocked for work that does not need the top model.
2. Check OpenAI status before debugging your config.
3. Keep long runs resumable. For unattended loops, write progress notes and make tasks idempotent so a capacity failure costs a retry, not the whole run. codex exec resume --last continues the most recent non-interactive session. Our Codex exec headless guide covers the CI side.
4. Do not upgrade your plan to fix it. A bigger allowance does not buy serving capacity. The pricing page does list priority request processing for Enterprise and Edu, which is the only plan-level lever aimed at contention.

Codex vs Claude Code Limits at a Glance#

Anthropic's Max pricing page says Max gives "5x or 20x more usage per 5-hour session than Pro" and that Claude Code shares the same usage limits as the rest of the plan; the Claude Code with Pro or Max support article lists usage credits and API credits as the overflow paths. The plan names line up almost one to one, which makes Claude Code vs Codex mostly a workflow decision rather than a price one.

How to Make Codex Limits Last Longer#

OpenAI's own list, plus the operational habits that go with it:

• Pick the model per task. Default to Sol or Luna and reserve Astra for work that needs it. The five-hour ranges above differ by an order of magnitude.
• Keep prompts and sources tight. Provide only relevant files and narrow scope.
• Shrink AGENTS.md. Nest instruction files in subdirectories instead of loading one giant root file every turn.
• Disable MCP servers you are not using. Every server adds context to every message.
• Watch Fast mode. It consumes limits faster; use it when latency actually matters.
• Check the dashboard every week or two, as OpenAI suggests, so a weekly cap never surprises you mid-sprint. For process-level guardrails on long runs, see Codex CLI resource budgets.

FAQ#

How much does Codex cost?#

Codex is included in ChatGPT plans: Free ($0), Go ($8/month), Plus ($20/month), Pro ($100/month for 5x Plus usage or $200/month for 20x), Business ($20/user/month billed annually, $25 monthly), and Enterprise/Edu (contact sales). You can also run Codex CLI, SDK, or IDE extension with an API key at API rates.

What are the Codex usage limits on Plus?#

OpenAI publishes ranges of local messages per five-hour period by model. On Plus that is 5-45 for GPT-6 Astra, 15-150 for GPT-6 Sol, and 350-3,000 for GPT-6 Luna, with weekly limits that may also apply. Actual usage depends on task size, context, and tools.

When do Codex usage limits reset?#

Limits are measured per five-hour period, and weekly limits can apply on top. Your exact reset times are in the Codex usage dashboard. In the CLI, /status shows remaining limits and /usage shows daily, weekly, or cumulative activity.

Is there a Codex reset tracker?#

The official one is the usage dashboard at chatgpt.com/codex/settings/usage, plus /status and /usage in Codex CLI. You can also add a limits field to the CLI footer with /statusline.

Can I reset my Codex limits early?#

Only with an earned reset. Codex has granted banked rate-limit resets (for example through its June 2026 referral program), which you redeem via /usage. OpenAI Support does not reset usage limits on request.

What is Codex Pro 20x?#

Pro 20x is the $200/month ChatGPT Pro tier with 20x Plus usage. As of September 10, 2026, OpenAI paused new sign-ups and upgrades to it; existing subscribers are unaffected, and Pro $100 (5x) is still available.

What does "Selected model is at capacity" mean in Codex?#

It means OpenAI's serving capacity for that model is saturated, not that you are out of quota. Switch to another model with /model, check status.openai.com, and retry. Upgrading your plan does not fix it.

What happens when I run out of Codex usage mid-task?#

The current turn can finish, subject to fair use. After that, wait for the reset, buy credits (Plus, Pro, or flexible-pricing workspaces), or run Codex with an API key billed at API rates.

Is Codex cheaper than Claude Code?#

The subscription ladders are close: both have a $20-class entry plan and heavy tiers at 5x and 20x of the entry plan starting at $100/month. The real cost difference comes from which model you run and how much context each task carries. Compare both in the AI coding tools pricing guide.

Sources#

All fetched September 28, 2026:

• OpenAI: ChatGPT Work and Codex pricing
• OpenAI Help Center: About ChatGPT Pro tiers
• OpenAI: Codex CLI slash commands
• OpenAI: Codex models
• GitHub: openai/codex#41790 and openai/codex#43738
• Anthropic: Claude Max pricing and Using Claude Code with your Pro or Max plan
• OpenAI: Status page

Continue Reading#

• Claude Code Usage Limits in 2026: The Practical Playbook - the Anthropic side of the same question
• AI Coding Tools Pricing 2026 - Codex next to Claude Code, Cursor, and the rest
• Claude Code vs Codex - when the workflow matters more than the plan
• OpenAI Codex Guide - getting productive with Codex from zero
• Codex CLI Resource Budgets - guardrails for long-running sessions