Please stop with the "Codex Sub Same Cost as API Now" Misinformation. OpenAI is catastrophically, comically, unacceptably BAD at communicating this, so I took it upon myself.
49 comments · 93% upvoted · source · other discussions
comments
Momo--Sama
superfatman2
I can confirm as of today subbing on the $100 pro plan, I still have yet to reach 50% on the 5 hour (and has been 4 hours already), and have been working non-stop with 5.4 on high (not fast - maybe I will do that next). In comparison, on Plus, I'd have used up 100% of the 5 hour in 10 minutes.
metal_slime--A
You're on a 2x promo right now do remember this
superfatman2
Oh I know. I'm just hoping by June, the next best model will come out. Gemini 3.5 will be great for the first week or so, then it won't even be able to remember what you said 2 prompts ago... but at least for that week, it will be great. I'll keep bouncing from model to model like a hobo to get my work done.
Parking-Bet-3798
Well yeah of course. You are comparing a 20 dollar plan to a 100 dollar plan. And the 100 dollar plan is also giving double usage right now. I don’t understand what’s the point comparing to 20 dollar plan.
superfatman2
Then you missed the point. I'm saying the $100 plan is well over 20X better than the $20 plan. Meaning the $20 plan is basically useless for codex.
Crinkez
Turn on xhigh, fast, and sub agents.
superfatman2
I'm worried about jinxing things. What if I mess with the settings and they put me on the wrong end of the A/B test, where even my $100 account is now nerfed and swapped with a 4 billion parameter model. Can't risk it.
Decaf_GT [OP]
Before anyone thinks I'm jumping to OpenAI's defense/bootlicking, let me get something SUPER clear.
I've said this elsewhere and I'll say it here.
It doesn't seem to matter which frontier lab we talk about; Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini... all of these companies have such god-awful communication when it comes to DevRel/subscription information.
Every attempt they try to make at clarifying the situation just makes everything worse.
Every time Thariq or Boris from Anthropic try to "clear up the policy," they just end up making it way murkier.
Not even Logan from Gemini seems to be able to explain how "1500 requests per day from Gemini CLI" doesn't actually ever add up.
There are kids with lemonade stands who could come up with better policy clarification than these companies and I am so sick of it.
There are so many other REAL and legitimate things to have a problem with when it comes to these coding subscriptions. Actual issues with service degradation, uptime issues, vague/unclear limits, etc. It is by NO MEANS me excusing their terrible communication that I am sitting here debunking this one specific bit of information.
I have no idea how this can be so hard for companies, and I really, seriously sympathize with anyone who has been so confused these last few weeks because I GET IT. It's terrible.
OpenAI/Anthropic/Google... do better. You're not scrappy startups with fly-by-night engineers-moonlighting-as-devrel. You're multi-billion dollar companies approaching trillion-dollar status and your users deserve clearer comms.
Reaper_1492
It’s not because they’re too stupid to explain it - it’s because they’re think we’re too stupid and they can just snow us all.
Anthropic is the absolute worst, they think they’re so intelligent and they just come across as entitled every time something gets bad enough that they have to address it.
These companies are not doing this solely because they’re suck at communicating, they’re also doing it because the business model isn’t viable, and they can’t say that.
If you read between the lines, until these flagship companies stop lighting money on fire in their exponentially accelerating space-race toward AGI, or something revolutionary happens with the infrastructure - there’s always going to be a loser in this equation, and what they’re now saying is, that’s not “us” anymore, it’s “you”.
If they’re not careful, they’re going to go up in flames if they chase all their customers away and they’ve got a half a trillion dollar debt-iceberg around their neck.
Could easily go the way of Concorde and cease to be a going concern, while someone comes in behind them at a more sustainable pace and eats their lunch.
ThinCar6563
This aligns with anthropic's whole ethos.
Remember their unofficial motto is "everyone is too stupid to handle the power of AI, only we are smart enough to own it and delegate it to others"
Their marketing team deserves kudos though. Disguising lack of compute to distribute mythos widely as "hey guys this is a powerful model, too powerful for you plebs, so we are only giving it to extremely trusted totally surely can do no wrong actors like google and meta".
opossum_cz
I disagree, developers would use Pro and never run out of tokens. Hobbyists with low tier subscriptions complain.
realistdemonlord
I also disagree with you saying that real developers would use Pro. At the very least, not all developers have a spare to subscribe to $200 monthly plan. If they're in junior positions and/or in third world countries, $300-$500 salaries might be more common and $200 monthly spending is harder to swallow. So no, not all developers can spend that much money.
opossum_cz
With ChatGPT Pro, you can do 10 times more work then you would do alone. If you don't, then you are using it wrong.
realistdemonlord
Well, I only use the $20 plus one, and so far it's good as my usage is relatively light. so I certainly don't know if I can get 10x more work with plus though.
Reaper_1492
If you are talking about developers at a “business”, even average users are going to eat up $4k-$5k/mo.
OP is spot on that this is a business model problem. There’s going to be a loser on one side of the equation or the other until something changes dramatically in the infrastructure, or these companies stop lighting money on fire in their space race toward AGI.
Deep_Proposal_7683
i really don’t know how these two things were confused as it’s very clear from the pricing and usage page they’re different. maybe if they called it “extra usage” like claude rather than “credits?”
Substantial_Lab_3747
OpenAI better be sending you a job application, because this is fantastic and would of saved alot of heartache for many people including myself. Appreciate it!
[deleted]
[deleted]
Confusius_me
Im checking the codex usage page right now. There's only percentages, no number indicating tokens at all.
gentoorax
When does it make sense to just pay for API rather than one of these plans? If you're developing every day is the plan better?
Deep_Proposal_7683
probably never - even if u hit limits it makes more sense to top urself up with credits, not cancel the plan entirely
Pinery01
The best! Thank you.
nitor999
OP out of topic what you use to document like this?
Decaf_GT [OP]
Lucidchart. Combined with a love for utilizing consistent (but minimal) color to help people recognize concepts faster and a long career of having written internal documentation, both technical and non-technical :)
Bitter_Virus
Did you try Figjam? Codex can use it for you. I like it.
yubario
Actually, it looks like running out of 5h limit will consume credits, it does not require both qoutas to be exhaused.. My father reported that to me anyway, he wiped out his entire extra credits in one session because they apparently reduced the 5h limit to make the week last longer, but in doing so it used his credits once he hit the 5h limit.
yeahidoubtit
Thanks for this. Also hard agree the communication has been abysmal. This goes the same for the introduction of the 100 dollar plan/rebalancing of the usage to 5x and 20x , and the new 2x promotion for those tiers (I know its 10x for the 5x until may 31st and believe the 200 dollar plan is doubled too). Though I saw and think I understood the tweet the number of posts relating to usage and confusion about amount of usage on the new plan clearly shows they need to do a much better job letting people know whats changing and when. Need like a stickied post on this sub with the current accurate information or something at this point.
FootbaII
Goodness me. Such a simple thing seemed so complicated. OpenAI / Anthropic, if you wanna continue to act as $10M valuation company and not $500B valuation company, at least hire OP to explain your future changes. Thanks, OP!
LuckySickGuy11
Thanks for the explanation. I was really concerned about this.
ThinCar6563
OpenAI should hire you to be head of marketing or devrel or customer success
coffeelies
OpenAI should hire you for all future comms! Though I'm not completely sold on the last point, unless I'm misreading it... it is still a fair assumption that once you exhaust your Codex limits you could just choose to top up your API instead if they're now being measured the same.
fyn_world
Thank you
Putrid-Pair-6194
Thanks for putting this together. Very helpful and much clearer than official announcements.
Crafty_Mall9578
you're wrong. quota and quota calculation changed. it doesn't impact weekly quota that much, but it surely impact 5h quota. weekly quota is the same but previously 5h quota give you 30% of weekly quota, now it only give you 15%. this is the "balance"/"spread-out" thing they meant in their announcement. what impact you see: maximizing weekly quota become harder. before, you only need 3 deep/serious coding session to max it out, now you need 7-8. your serious coding session last shorter.
i have benchmarked weekly / monthly quota compare to raw api cost to do my comparision, but seem like its self-adjusted say by day (weekly quota today is different than weekly quota yesterday, somehow) so dong have much to talk about it.
Decaf_GT [OP]
No. The claim being made was "Credits are now billed as API means that Codex Sub is the same as API".
That is categorically false.
I never made any claims about quota usage. I even put it in big, bolded letters at the bottom of the chart, dude...I don't know how much clearer I can be...
Crafty_Mall9578
yes that's correct. i agreed that their pricing model changed, but that's not much (i benchmark quota in api cost, both before and after). the biggest impact come from their 5h guard, preventing you from maximizing weekly limit.
chair_force_1one
Please stop, please stopping. Thx
Ok_Champion_5329
Saying „If you don‘t use Extra Usage Credits, none of this means anything to you at all“ is wrong.
OpenAI stated that they switched their subscription plans from a request-based usage consumption to a token-based usage consumption. In practice, this means that the harder the request and the longer it takes, the more of your quota it burns.
Previously a simple „hello“ would eat up the same amount as a long task, which they now aligned with the more realistic API pricing.
Decaf_GT [OP]
No, it is correct.
If you don’t use Extra Usage Credits, then Extra Usage Credits costing the same as the API means nothing to you in cost terms. That pricing only matters if you actually buy and use them.
That was my point. Cost. Not quota drain. Not usage depletion. Cost. You’re conflating two different arguments.
If you want to argue that included usage may drain differently now, fine. That is a separate point. It does not change the fact that my statement about Extra Usage Credit pricing was correct.
I mean seriously dude, just take a look at the big, black, bold text at the bottom of my chart...it was put in just for people like you.
EDIT: And for your information, regardless of your perceived understanding of what usage alignment to API looks like, here's my usage for the last 2 weeks. You going to tell me that the value I'm getting out of my $200 is really "aligned with the API"? https://i.imgur.com/YmkoR7S.png
Ok_Champion_5329
I think that is a bit too narrow. Your chart does not only communicate „Extra Usage Credits now cost the same as API.” It also gives the impression that subscription usage itself is basically unchanged and only the paid overflow pricing changed.
That is why I disagree with „none of this means anything to you at all.” Even without buying Extra Usage Credits, token-based metering still matters because it changes how fast included quota is consumed.
Decaf_GT [OP]
If only my Reddit post had a title that clearly said what particular misinformation I was refuting...oh well, hopefully one day they add that feature, right?
Ok_Champion_5329
If only Reddit posts also had images that communicate claims beyond the title... oh well, hopefully one day they add that feature, right?
Decaf_GT [OP]
No, you're right, it's totally reasonable to ignore the title printed on the cover of a Harry Potter book and then get pissy when you find out it's NOT actually the Lord of the Rings
I swear to god LLMs have made us dumber and dumber yet more convinced than ever that we are actually smarter than we really are.
All of this confusion originates from them refusing to assign anything actual values and having everything be "[X]x Plus" or "Relative to Plus" which is itself an unknown and unfixed variable.
Decaf_GT [OP] 4 points · Apr 2026
Yes. Fully agree. This was always going to become a massive problem the moment Anthropic first started the coding subscription trend.
They took something that had a fixed cost (a token) and then made it super muddy. They had dollar signs in their eyes and understandably attracted a ton of customers, many of whom now rely on these subscriptions for their businesses.
And now they're all starting to realize what a huge, huge mistake it was to do this. What even is a token anymore? The Extra Usage Credits costing different than the API which costs different than the Quota was only one piece of this confusion and it's only going to get worse. They may have "simplified" this time by making Extra Usage Credits cost the same as API, but all that does is now put the attention back on the two original things: Subscription token pricing vs API token pricing. That is not a sustainable fight.
Reaper_1492 1 points · Apr 2026
TBH, “Token” is already pretty murky and difficult to approximate.
amarao_san 3 points · Apr 2026
In technical term it is as concrete as gigabyte send over network. It's easy to measure, you know what it is, there is zero handwaving.
Utility of this unit to human is up to debate. If I send you a link to a site with animated bmp 4k files, you will eat those gigabytes like crazy for no practical reason. Same with tokens, shitty model or unlucky prompt will eat crazy amount of tokens from you, but it's just a waste of a very defined resource.
opossum_cz 1 points · Apr 2026
What?