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[Bug] Parallel multi-agent workflows exhaust weekly token budget in hours — 20-50x normal consumption with simple review tasks #30246

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Description

@teclah

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

Codex Desktop 0.130.0-alpha.5

What subscription do you have?

Plan: ChatGPT $100/month (weekly Codex token budget)

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200

What issue are you seeing?

Description

Weekly token budget was fully exhausted within ~2 days on June 19-20, 2026
despite tasks being simple spec-review operations. A top-up voucher was also
consumed immediately after reset.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Evidence

  • Codex logs_2.sqlite (1.6 GB local store) shows 4,101 and 4,139 API calls
    on June 19-20, vs. normal 81-198/day
  • Up to 632 concurrent session_loop entries within a single second
  • 248 sessions spawned in 2 days by a parallel review workflow

What is the expected behavior?

Expected behavior

Weekly token budget should last ~7 days with normal usage.

Actual behavior

Budget exhausted in <2 days; even after voucher reset it was
consumed immediately by the ongoing parallel workflow.

Additional information

No response

Activity

  1. added
    appIssues related to the Codex desktop app
    on Jun 26, 2026
  2. added
    bugSomething isn't working
    subagentIssues involving subagents or multi-agent features
    rate-limitsIssues related to rate limits, quotas, and token usage reporting
    on Jun 26, 2026
  3. manfredlift commented on Jun 26, 2026

    @manfredlift

    same here

  4. airan712-sys commented on Jun 26, 2026

    @airan712-sys

    me too

  5. pshfrank7 commented on Sep 7, 2026

    @pshfrank7

    Quick question - let's say you had an option to purchase token insurance to get a payout for any such instances where agents go rogue and consume excessive tokens. Would you buy it?

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    appIssues related to the Codex desktop appbugSomething isn't workingrate-limitsIssues related to rate limits, quotas, and token usage reportingsubagentIssues involving subagents or multi-agent features

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