How am I supposed to log in to the ChatGPT/Codex app or the VSCode Extension on my work account if they require a mobile phone number to log in? This never used to be an issue but now all of the sudden after logging out of the app/extension, it’s forcing me to try and add a phone to my account.
My job does not give us work phones, so i do not have a work number. Even if I wanted to use my personal number, which is absurd that I’d have to associate my personal number with my work account in the first place, I can’t even do that because it’s apparently used with the “max” number of accounts - which is literally just 1, my personal account?
I’ve reached out to support last week and have had no response yet. It’s insane to think that this would be intentional. Why would our company continue to pay for a business plan when we can’t even use the damn product? Really hoping I’m missing something or someone has a solution.
This is a common complaint, and many users are feeling what you’re feeling.
I think common guidance would be to talk to your employer regarding a solution to this problem. My assumption would be that this is an abuse prevention measure.
It’s probably good that you record your voice here, but I imagine it’s unlikely that OAI will budge on this on any short term timeframe, or for a specific account.
Sorry, and I hope you can work it out with your employer!
Well that’s very disappointing to hear… Thanks for your response.
I’ve grown to like Codex quite a bit, but I guess I’ll be asking my employer for alternatives like Claude or something given there’s zero reason they’d also start paying for phone plans on top of AI subscriptions.
I see in a related topic that popped up OpenAI support seems to suggest Whatsapp as an alternative, but I don’t see how that solves anything given you need to use your real number for Whatsapp as well, and that just gives me the same “max number used” error.
Mind boggling decision honestly, each seat costs monthly usage so I don’t understand what abuse they’d be preventing with this. Just seems like a great way to lose paying customers.
It really depends on what your job is, but very often you’d have a phone for MFA, calls, or other purposes. it’s very common in tech, but probably not as ubiquituous as OpenAI may expect.
I would ask your employer if a PAYG sim card might be cheaper than to migrate your stack to a different vendor.
And from a personal perspective, I definitely applaud you for sticking to your guns and enforcing your boundaries. Not that that does much, but it should probably be said.