Codex CLI burns subscription tokens when only checking /status repeatedly

[ofeist]

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

codex-cli 0.130.0

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Linux 6.8.0-111-generic x86_64 x86_64

What issue are you seeing?

What happened:
Codex CLI appears to deplete usage limits even when no real work is done.
I checked /status a few consecutive times and saw my 5h limit drop significantly.

Example:

• 3 consecutive /status checks
• about 12% of my 5h limit gone
• no coding task, no file changes, no tool work

Environment:

• Codex CLI version: codex-cli 0.130.0
• OS: Linux 6.8.0-111-generic x86_64 x86_64
• Plan/subscription: Plus
• Model: gpt-5.5
• Install method: npm

Notes:
I also burned through my weekly limit in four ~5h sessions, so I’m trying to understand if idle/status usage is being counted unexpectedly.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start Codex CLI
2. Run /status
3. Run /status again
4. Run /status again
5. Observe usage limit decrease

What is the expected behavior?

Checking /status should not consume meaningful usage, or at least the usage cost should be clearly explained.

Additional information

I burned through my weekly limit in four ~5h sessions, so I’m trying to understand if idle/status usage is being counted unexpectedly.

Additional Datapoint:

no file edits, no shell commands, no task execution between those checks.

[github-actions]

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

• Usage Limits Decreasing with No Active Tasks #21708
• Codex Desktop open → 5-hour usage decreases after reset despite no active task, no CLI, and no credit-history event. #21966

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[ofeist]

The potential duplicates possibly could be the same bug on codex side, but I described different steps to reproduce the bug. That's why from my point of view this is not a duplicate.

[kendonB]

I think this may just be that the status data doesn't actually seem to load every time you run /status. I seem to have to run /status 3 times to see an update, but further runs of /status don't deplete rate limits.

[ofeist]

That’s what i thought at first too. But it took me a while to realize this also happens while idling.

In the example above, i did nothing in codex for about 10 minutes before the first /status check, and nothing during the three consecutive /status executions either.

[emercons]

10 minutes is a short span, their billing server could be down and so the proxy was sending some outdated status that was from 1 hour ago.

[ofeist]

Yeah sure, we can speculate about stale status data, delayed billing sync, proxy caching, etc.

But that is exactly the problem from the user side: I have no way to ask someone to verify the actual usage events.

So i’m left trying to test and figure out the real cause myself.

This is a paid $20/month product, the limit is already very constrained, and the reported usage behavior is confusing. I would really appreciate an official way to check whether idle time or repeated /status calls are counted against the limit.

[ofeist]

In the meantime, as said, I am convinced this is a bug and the /status command or idling alone burns the usage.