Codex weekly quota is being consumed far faster than expected during normal app development workflows

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

5.6 Sol

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11

What issue are you seeing?

Summary

My Codex weekly allowance is being consumed dramatically faster than it was in earlier sessions, even though my recent work has been comparable or smaller in scope.

This does not look like normal variation. From my perspective, quota accounting changed materially without any clear explanation in-product.

What I observed

• My weekly quota started and a very large portion was consumed within about 5 hours.
• I saw ordinary development activity, not unusually large generation output.
• Even small follow-up questions started consuming what looked like roughly 2% to 5% of my weekly quota each.
• Earlier app development sessions did not behave like this.

Project context

I have been using Codex for a a new app workflow.

Earlier work included:

• architecture design
• 4 engines

Recent work included:

• one engine, using previous engine patterns already.
• cross-engine audit
• calibration methodology start

Why this seems wrong

Local session/rollout evidence suggests:

• recent quota consumption increased much faster than earlier app work
• repository growth alone does not explain the increase
• cache ratios were still high, so this does not appear to be simply “the repo got bigger”
• repeated large context resend / internal repetition may be contributing, but the resulting weekly quota burn still appears disproportionate

In my measured comparison, newer sessions appeared to consume weekly quota at roughly more than 2x the earlier rate for similar recorded work.

Impact

• I lost a large share of my weekly allowance in a few hours
• normal development became impractical
• I had to stop using the stronger model because the quota burn was too aggressive
• trust in quota predictability was damaged

Expected behavior

• weekly allowance consumption should be broadly consistent for comparable work
• if pricing/accounting/quota logic changed, this should be clearly communicated
• users should be able to understand why a small session or question consumed a large percentage of their weekly allowance

Actual behavior

• quota dropped much faster than expected
• small and medium tasks consumed a surprisingly large share of weekly usage
• there was no clear in-product explanation tying the burn rate to the actual work performed

Requested action

Please investigate whether there was:

• a regression in quota accounting
• a model-specific usage multiplier/change
• excessive internal context resend or repeated hidden processing
• an entitlement or meter bug affecting Codex weekly usage

Please also clarify whether quota accounting changed recently for these models/workflows.

I prefer not to post session IDs publicly because they may reveal private project activity. I can provide representative session/task IDs directly to support if needed.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

This is not a bug in my application code. This appears to be a Codex usage/quota accounting issue that is reproducible through ordinary development workflow on an existing medium-sized repository.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start with a fresh weekly Codex allowance.
2. Open an existing medium-sized software repository.
3. Use Codex for normal development tasks across multiple sessions:
   • architecture discussion
   • implementation
   • review/audit
   • follow-up questions
4. Compare quota consumption for earlier sessions versus recent sessions on the same repository and similar task types.
5. Observe that recent sessions consume weekly quota dramatically faster, including some small follow-up prompts.

Observed behavior

• A very large portion of weekly quota was consumed within a few hours of normal development use.
• Some short follow-up prompts appeared to consume a surprisingly large percentage of weekly allowance.
• Recent sessions appeared materially more expensive than earlier comparable sessions.
• High cache usage was still present, so repository growth alone does not explain the change.

Expected behavior

• Comparable work on the same repository should consume broadly comparable weekly quota.
• If quota accounting or model metering changed, that change should be clearly communicated.
• Users should be able to understand why a small or medium task consumed a large percentage of weekly allowance.

Session / token details

From locally available Codex session logs, I observed representative sessions with totals in this general shape:

Earlier sessions:

• input tokens in the multi-million range
• cached input ratio roughly 96% to 98%
• moderate output/reasoning totals
• normal multi-turn development activity

Recent sessions:

• similar pattern of multi-turn development activity
• similarly high cached-input ratio
• but weekly quota appeared to fall much faster than before

In my local comparison, recent sessions appeared to burn weekly allowance at roughly more than 2x the earlier rate for comparable recorded work.

Model / context

Model observed in local logs:

• gpt-5.6-sol

If helpful, I can provide private session IDs directly to support, but I do not want to post repository-specific or project-identifying details publicly.

Code snippet

No standalone code snippet applies here, because the issue is not caused by application code. The repro is the Codex session workflow and quota accounting behavior.

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

No response

Start by comparing the earlier and recent Codex session logs, focusing on token totals, cache ratios, and the reported weekly allowance changes. Investigate quota accounting, model-specific usage multipliers, context resend, and entitlement metering; done means the discrepancy is explained and any accounting issue is corrected or clearly communicated.