Codex Rate Limits Discussion Thread

I started a not-terribly-ambitious project back in February, creating an in-house tool that improved email filing in Clio. At first, everything worked great. I was building my project one slice at a time in my free time after work. I was blissfully unaware that usage limits even existed. Then, around mid-March, I started hitting my weekly usage limit after 3-4 days of use. Same usage pattern: maybe 10-12 prompts on a heavy day, all written by ChatGPT, about 2/3 of which were just small, corrective passes to fix bugs. I am using Codex through its VS Code integration, which is supposed to burn less usage than the web interface, and have been using 5.4-Mini where appropriate to minimize usage even further. On April 3, after my weekly usage quota had reset, I tried to get started again. This time, I was able to run one feature-hardening pass (not even creating a new feature, just fixing one that already exists) and two tightly-focused passes to fix bugs after the hardening pass. Those three small, focused prompts used up my entire 5-hour quota and 12% of my weekly quota. This is completely unacceptable. I am trying to build something in my spare time on a Business-tier subscription and cannot run more than three small passes without hitting usage limits. I can’t imagine trying to use Codex for anything more ambitious or full-time. At this rate, it will take me months to complete a project that is already substantially finished. If your goal was to push everyone away from using Codex for anything, well, congratulations, I guess. Mission accomplished. You’ve created a hammer that can only be swung three times per day. Great job.