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Usage limits are exhausted too quickly in the IDE extension #18422

@bagerxx

Description

@bagerxx

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

26.415.20818

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

macOS Darwin 25.4.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Hello,

I want to report a serious issue with Codex usage limits in the IDE extension.

The current quota gets exhausted extremely quickly. In practice, I can only get through one or two coding tasks before hitting the limit, and then I am forced to wait around 5 hours before I can continue. This makes the tool very hard to rely on for actual development work.

What is especially frustrating is that this did not use to feel this restrictive before. The usage now seems to run out much faster than it used to, even during normal coding sessions. From a user perspective, it feels like the limits were tightened significantly, but there is no clear visibility into what exactly is being consumed or why it is being depleted so fast.

Main problems:

  • Usage is exhausted after only a very small amount of work
  • A 5-hour wait is too disruptive for normal coding workflow
  • There is not enough transparency about what counts toward usage
  • The current experience feels much worse than before

To be honest, if this continues, it will become a reason for me to stop using Codex altogether. A coding tool needs to support iteration, debugging, retries, and refinement. If the quota is gone after just a couple of tasks, the product becomes impractical.

Please reconsider the current usage limit behavior, or at minimum provide much clearer visibility into:

  • what exactly is being consumed
  • how much quota is left
  • why usage is being exhausted this quickly

Right now, the limits feel too aggressive and are actively hurting the developer experience.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Open the Codex IDE extension in VS Code on macOS.
  2. Start a normal coding session.
  3. Ask Codex to complete one or two ordinary coding tasks such as:
    • explain a file
    • modify a function
    • help debug an error
    • make a small refactor
  4. After a very small amount of work, the usage limit is reached.
  5. I then have to wait around 5 hours before I can continue.

This happens during normal usage and does not require unusually large prompts or extreme workloads.

I do not currently have a session ID, exact token usage, or context window usage details because the extension does not make this clearly visible to me. That lack of visibility is part of the problem.

What is the expected behavior?

The IDE extension should support a normal coding workflow without exhausting usage after only one or two ordinary tasks.

Expected behavior:

  • usage should last long enough for a reasonable development session
  • limits should not be reached after minimal use
  • the product should provide clear visibility into what is being consumed
  • remaining usage should be easier to understand before hitting the limit

Additional information

This feels noticeably worse than before. Earlier, the available usage felt much more workable. Now it depletes so quickly that it interrupts normal development.

If this is expected behavior, the current limits are too restrictive for practical use. If it is unintended, it should be investigated.

It would also help to show:

  • remaining usage more clearly
  • what actions consume usage most heavily
  • why the user is being rate-limited so quickly

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    appIssues related to the Codex desktop appbugSomething isn't workingextensionIssues related to the VS Code extensionrate-limitsIssues related to rate limits, quotas, and token usage reporting

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