Codex sign-in asks for phone verification on paid account
OpenAI Developer Community
May 20, 2026
Hi everyone,
I’m running into a confusing Codex login issue that only affects one specific ChatGPT account.
I can sign in to ChatGPT normally with this account using Google login, and the account has an active paid ChatGPT subscription. However, when I try to sign in to Codex with this same account, the login flow redirects me to:
https://auth.openai.com/add-phone
After I enter my phone number, I get an error saying that this phone number is already associated with the maximum number of accounts.
What makes this confusing is that my other Google/OpenAI accounts can sign in to Codex successfully without being asked to add a phone number. This issue only happens with my current paid account.
I have not knowingly used this phone number for OpenAI phone verification multiple times, and I do not know which accounts, if any, are associated with it. It is difficult for me to understand why this specific account is being asked for phone verification while my other accounts are not.
To summarize:
* ChatGPT login works normally on this account.
* The account is paid.
* Codex login redirects to the add-phone page only for this account.
* Other Google/OpenAI accounts can access Codex without this step.
* The phone number is rejected as already associated with the maximum number of accounts.
* I do not have visibility into which accounts are allegedly linked to this phone number.
Has anyone seen this behavior before? Is this likely an account-level verification flag, a recycled phone number issue, or something specific to Codex authorization?
Any advice would be appreciated. I also hope OpenAI support can clarify or resolve this, since the account is paid but I cannot use Codex because of a verification step I cannot complete.
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