Limits erroneously drawn to 0% in less than a few minutes when not using codex #32279

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1. avinashresearch1

   added

   appIssues related to the Codex desktop appIssues related to the Codex desktop app

   on Jul 10, 2026
2. github-actions

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   rate-limitsIssues related to rate limits, quotas, and token usage reportingIssues related to rate limits, quotas, and token usage reporting

   on Jul 10, 2026
3. github-actions commented on Jul 10, 2026

   

   github-actionsbot

   on Jul 10, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

   Contributor

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   Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

   • Usage hit 0% with zero messages sent, quota draining with no activity at all #30943
   • Paid x5 plan loses ~20% of 5-hour limit while idle #31796
   • Codex Draining Usage Without any use. #31402
   • Codex usage meter decreased unexpectedly while idle #31784
   • GPT-5.6 Sol Medium depletes Pro 5-hour usage allowance extremely quickly #32250

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4. avinashresearch1 commented on Jul 11, 2026

   

   avinashresearch1

   on Jul 11, 2026

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   So, investigating the logs. I made the following changes which seems to make things significantly better:

   1. The sub-agent use does not properly cache tokens. I fully disabled all use of sub-agents in my system prompt and config file. Investigating logs told me that the initial large chunk of tokens was resent 4 times to the different agents and this was the cause of the leak.
   2. Memories take up an absurd amount of tokens. I disabled memory and chronicle. I believe this was the primary cause of "idle" usage.
   3. I changed my system prompt to encourage the agent to be less thorough: I previously had specified that it must read and understand the codebase and write research files first. That previous instruction completely blew my usage.

   These 3 fixes seem to give me reasonable usage.
5. gokdeniz-cakir commented on Jul 11, 2026

   

   gokdeniz-cakir

   on Jul 11, 2026

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   I have had the exact same issue today, the high usage of the new models aside, my 5h limit drained from 47 to 0 without any turns inbetween.
6. JCBrown commented on Jul 13, 2026

   

   JCBrown

   on Jul 13, 2026

   Last edited by JCBrown

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   I saw this issue this morning, no turns overnight [*1] however 68% 7 day limit is showing 0%. I've previously wondered why usage can drain quickly and attributed it to subagents having to load significant context.

   I've disabled Memory as-per previous comment and will see how I do with a usage reset...

   Of note, the Status command no longer shows any 5h limit... [*2]
   

   The behaviour I'm seeing seems very similar to that reported by #31668 (comment)

   [*1] as verified via session logs

   [*2] Update

   OpenAI has removed the 5-hour limit; this is not a bug. Closing this now.
   #32707 (comment)
7. avinashresearch1

   closed this as completedon Oct 4, 2026