Codex tasks suddenly taking 10–20x longer with unusually high usage consumption

Codex
1

Environment

Surface: Codex App

Codex version: current/latest version

OS: Windows

Model: GPT-6 Sol, Medium

Plan: ChatGPT Plus

Bug

Since yesterday evening, Codex has become abnormally slow for me.

Tasks that normally take around 1–3 minutes are now often taking 10–20 minutes. Medium-sized tasks that normally take around 5–10 minutes are taking dramatically longer.

Yesterday evening, shortly after my weekly usage was fully reset, I ran two medium-sized tasks. One ran for 48 minutes 11 seconds before stopping to ask for a scope clarification. Another comparable task took 1 hour 58 minutes to complete.

I also noticed unusually high usage consumption. After these runs, my 5-hour window was almost exhausted, with only a little over 20% remaining. One task alone appeared to consume approximately 14% of my weekly usage.

The same issue is continuing this morning. I started another task of normal complexity and it is again taking much longer than usual. At the time of writing, I am still waiting for it to finish.

Expected behavior: Tasks of this complexity normally complete in approximately 5–10 minutes.

Actual behavior: Similar tasks are now taking 48 minutes to almost 2 hours, while usage is being consumed much faster than I normally observe.

Reproduction

Run normal development tasks in an existing project using GPT-6 Sol Medium. The slowdown has reproduced across multiple tasks since yesterday evening.

Diagnostics

No specific error message is shown. The tasks continue running, but execution is extremely slow.

Started: September 26, 2026, evening (CEST).

Still occurring: September 27, 2026, morning (CEST).

Screenshots attached showing execution times of 48m 11s and 1h 58m.

Could you please check whether there is currently a performance, capacity, routing, or usage-metering issue affecting

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these Codex sessions?

2

Hi @Lifar1988_Li,

Thanks for sharing the details and screenshots. I can see why longer task times and faster usage consumption would be concerning. Are you still seeing the same behavior since you posted?

If so, a few quick checks may help narrow it down:

  1. Fully restart the app, then try one small task in a new thread, keeping GPT-6 Sol, Medium reasoning, and the same speed setting.
  2. Check the activity in an affected task. Does it spend long periods waiting for a response, or repeatedly read files, retry commands, or run tests? That would help identify where the extra time is going.
  3. For the small test, pause any other running Codex/Work tasks and take screenshots of your remaining five-hour and weekly allowance before and afterward. Stop the test if it starts stalling or repeating actions.

If the issue continues, please email support@openai.com with a link to this thread, your exact app and Windows versions, the test results and usage screenshots, and the time of the test with your timezone. The team can then review the affected activity and usage privately.

If you already have a support request open, add those details there.

- Sandra