OpenAI has temporarily removed the five hour usage interval limit for ChatGPT Work and Codex users subscribed to eligible paid plans, allowing longer uninterrupted work sessions for developers, researchers, and other professional users. The update was announced on July 12 by OpenAI executive Thibault Sottiaux through a post on X. According to the announcement, the change applies to subscribers using Plus, Pro, and Business plans and removes the previous restriction that paused access after five hours of continuous usage. Although the interval limit has been lifted, OpenAI clarified that existing weekly usage quotas remain in effect, meaning access is still governed by plan based limits rather than becoming completely unrestricted. The company also described the adjustment as temporary and has not announced when the previous five hour interval may be restored or how long the current arrangement will remain available.
The update specifically affects the five hour interval restriction and does not change how usage credits are allocated across OpenAI’s agent based features. According to the company’s support documentation, ChatGPT Work, Codex, ChatGPT for Excel, and Workspace Agents all share the same usage and credit pool whenever those services are included within a user’s subscription. As a result, customers may still reach their plan’s overall usage limits even though the time based restriction has been removed. OpenAI also explained that some users on Plus and Pro subscriptions have the option to purchase additional usage credits after exhausting their existing allocation. Other subscribers may instead need to wait until their usage allowance resets or upgrade to a higher subscription tier to continue using these services. The temporary removal of the interval limit is intended to provide greater flexibility during extended work sessions while maintaining the broader usage controls that apply across OpenAI’s subscription plans.
Alongside the change, Thibault Sottiaux confirmed that usage quotas for both ChatGPT Work and Codex had also been reset, giving existing users a refreshed allocation following the update. He further stated that the combined number of active users across the two services had reached six million. While the announcement was shared publicly on social media, OpenAI has not released a separate official blog post providing additional information about the quota reset, the duration of the temporary policy, or any future plans regarding the five hour usage restriction. The announcement nevertheless reflects OpenAI’s continued efforts to refine how professional users access advanced artificial intelligence tools while balancing system capacity with growing demand across its paid customer base.
OpenAI is also introducing efficiency improvements for GPT 5.6 Sol, its high performance artificial intelligence model designed for coding, software development, cybersecurity, research, scientific work, computer use, design, and other complex professional tasks. According to OpenAI, the enhancements are intended to reduce token consumption, enabling users to complete longer assignments and process larger workloads within the same available usage allocation. Information published in the GPT 5.6 Sol system card indicates that the model demonstrated improved token efficiency compared with GPT 5.5 during certain tool assisted vulnerability research tasks. These improvements reportedly helped the model identify more productive investigation paths while reducing time spent exploring less useful options. Sottiaux said additional technical details regarding the efficiency improvements and performance gains are expected to be shared at a later stage, providing further insight into how GPT 5.6 Sol has been optimized for extended professional workflows and resource intensive artificial intelligence applications.
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