OpenAI brings back 5-hour Codex limit for ChatGPT Plus
What's the story
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has announced a change in its usage policy. The firm is bringing back a five-hour limit on Codex and ChatGPT Work for Plus subscribers. The decision was revealed by Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux, OpenAI's engineering lead for Codex and ChatGPT. He said that the new limit will come into effect from August 25.
Usage options
Users have 2 options once they hit the limit
Once users hit the five-hour or weekly limit, they have two options: either wait for their usage to reset in the next cycle or buy additional credits.
OpenAI also periodically resets users' limits for free. Users can also earn banked resets through certain promotions and referral offers.
This gives them some flexibility in managing their usage of ChatGPT services.
Policy change
5-hour limit was temporarily lifted
In the last few weeks, OpenAI had temporarily lifted the five-hour usage limit for Codex and ChatGPT Work. The company only kept a weekly cap during this time.
The decision was taken to celebrate milestones like adding another million active users across its two (now unified) platforms.
But now, Tibo has confirmed that the five-hour limit will be back for Plus accounts across ChatGPT Work and Codex.
Policy rationale
Why 5-hour limit is necessary
Tibo explained that reinstating the five-hour limit is necessary for two reasons.
First, it helps smoothen the load on OpenAI's compute, keeping the plan generous in terms of weekly usage.
Second, he said, Plus plan users are relatively casual and new users who might accidentally exhaust their whole week's usage and then get confused about it. This would lead to a poor user experience.