I’m not sure if this is the right thread, but I need to raise this because the current Codex usage behavior feels completely unreasonable.
Lately, my limits are being drained almost instantly, to the point that Codex has become nearly impossible to use for normal development work.
What I’m seeing:
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After a fresh reset of the 5-hour usage window, I started working normally.
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With just 2 prompts, my remaining balance dropped to 39%.
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With the 3rd prompt, I was already at 0%.
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I then spent $40 on extra credits just to keep working.
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After that, a single small prompt using GPT-5.4 on low reasoning consumed 22 credits, which is about $0.88 for one small prompt.
This is the part that makes no sense:
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These were not massive prompts.
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These were not long multi-hour sessions.
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This was not heavy continuous usage.
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I am seeing very small, normal development prompts consume credits at a rate that feels totally disproportionate.
A few days ago, Codex was usable. Recently, something seems to have changed, because now the quota disappears so fast that it is disrupting work almost immediately.
At this point, I need clarification on a few things:
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Is this behavior expected?
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Has the metering changed recently?
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Is there a known issue with rate limits or credit accounting?
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Why would a small local development prompt consume 22 credits?
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How is anyone supposed to work productively if 5 hours of available usage can effectively disappear in a matter of minutes?
I’m genuinely asking because this no longer feels like normal usage. It feels either misconfigured, incorrectly metered, or far too aggressive to be practical.
Would appreciate any clarification from the team, because right now this is making Codex extremely difficult to rely on.