OpenAI is reinstating a five-hour usage limit for ChatGPT Plus subscribers using Codex and ChatGPT Work, bringing back a restriction that had been temporarily removed in recent weeks. The change takes effect on August 25 and will sit alongside the existing weekly usage cap.
Under the revised setup, Plus users will hit whichever limit comes first: the five-hour window or their weekly allowance. Once that happens, they can wait for usage to reset or buy additional credits. OpenAI has also used occasional promotional resets and referral-based allowances, but those are separate from the standard plan limits.
The five-hour restriction had been suspended for a period, leaving Plus subscribers constrained only by the weekly cap. OpenAI also reset weekly limits early several times during that window as Codex and ChatGPT Work continued to attract more users.
According to Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI’s engineering lead for Codex and ChatGPT, the shorter usage window is returning for two main reasons. The company wants to smooth demand on its computing infrastructure, and it also believes some Plus users were unintentionally exhausting an entire week’s allowance in a short burst and then finding themselves locked out for longer than expected.
That makes the change less about reducing the total weekly allowance and more about controlling how quickly users consume it. For people who use Codex or ChatGPT Work intermittently, the difference may be minor. Heavier Plus subscribers, however, are more likely to notice the five-hour ceiling during long coding, research or document-heavy sessions.
OpenAI is not applying the same restriction to its higher-tier Pro plans for now. Sottiaux said the five-hour limit will remain disabled on the company’s $100 and $200 Pro subscriptions over the coming months. Enterprise and Edu accounts also appear unaffected by this specific change and continue to operate under a separate credit-based system.
The move highlights one of the less glamorous challenges facing AI platforms as usage grows: access is increasingly shaped by compute economics as much as by product design. Advanced coding and agent-style tools can be resource-intensive, and providers are still experimenting with the right balance between predictable limits, premium tiers and on-demand credits.
For Plus subscribers, the practical impact is straightforward. Codex and ChatGPT Work remain available, but long uninterrupted sessions now require more attention to pacing. Whether the restored limit feels restrictive will largely depend on how often users run into it before reaching their weekly cap.
