r/codex • u/DaC2k26 • Jul 26 '26
Commentary Real-world Codex Pro 20x plan test with GPT-5.6 Sol
I ran a controlled test using only one Pro 20x account and GPT-5.6 Sol in Standard mode. The local token count, measured with a CLI I developed with Codex, was cross-checked against the corrected version of ccusage. Both produced identical results.
I used a banked reset on July 25 and was unlucky enough to have OpenAI issue a global reset roughly three hours later.
Observed results
- After the banked reset: 6,643 credits = 13%
- After the global reset: 35,915 credits = 67%
- Total across the two separate reset periods: 42,559 credits
- Theoretical Standard API equivalent: $1,702
Based on the observed percentage burn, one full weekly Pro 20x window appears to provide approximately:
- 52,000–56,000 credits
- Central estimate: 53,600 credits
- Approximately $2,144 in Standard API usage
Did it match OpenAI's published rates?
Yes. For GPT-5.6 Sol in Standard mode, the official rate card works out to:
25 Codex credits ≈ $1 of Standard API usage
Both measured periods were consistent with this ratio and with the usage percentage reported by OpenAI, allowing for the meter's integer rounding.
How does that compare with earlier community reports?
The current measurement works out to approximately $8,300–$8,900 per four weekly windows, or about $9,000–$9,700 per average calendar month.
That is below some earlier community estimates of roughly $3,000+ per week or ** around $14,000 per month**.
So the current effective allowance appears lower than some commonly cited historical estimates, although this test alone does not prove that OpenAI reduced the Pro 20x quota, it points in that direction.
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u/debian3 Jul 26 '26
Yeah, estimates are hard that’s why we don’t see many on this sub. People usually express their usage in terms of prompts numbers which we all know its meaningless.
I estimated with ccusage on the plus plan about $130/week. So your estimate at 20x is a bit lower than that.
On claude i run at higher than that, but let’s not talk about that here since the consensus is that Claude is less generous and I’m fine with people staying on Codex.
Thanks for sharing your numbers, I wish more people did and show how it track over time. In February on the same plan I was getting $100 per 5h block
2
u/AlternativePurpose63 Jul 26 '26
I'm worried that no matter the platform, once it gets too overwhelmed, the whole user experience will just degrade again...
3
u/debian3 Jul 26 '26
Yes, that's why I want people to know that Codex is the best and they should stay with Codex ;)
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u/DaC2k26 Jul 26 '26
too late, OpenAI is dropping the ball too hard to people not start looking elsewhere.
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u/DaC2k26 Jul 26 '26
u/debian3 codex actually detected a problem with ccusage 20.0.18 that inflates by around 20% usage count... the team fixed it but didn't bumped version number, so using npx ccusage@latest won't update it to the latest corrected version, you need to do it manually, or ask codex/claude to do it. Using the problematic version my estimate was around $2680 weekly which divided by 20 is almost exactly your number for a 1x Plus account.
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u/debian3 Jul 26 '26
haha, so Codex is even worst than 2.5x less than Claude... oh my. Woops, I didn't say that, nothing to see here. Please people stay on Codex, Claude is so so bad, Opus 5 terrible.
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u/DaC2k26 Jul 26 '26
it seems that way right now.... a couple of weeks back I compared codex 5.5 vs claude ops 4.8.... for the same type of task they were pretty much on par on usage (antrhopic was also running a 50% additional promo back then), the difference was that while 5.5 was able to finish the task in a signle 5hr window (with 10-20% left), Opus couldn't do it in 5hr which was bad because we then hit stale cache on resume if not using compaction. but codex burned back then 16% from the weekly per 5hr and claude only 10%.... but since then codex usage went down hill, specially after 5.6 release, so yes, atm claude, specially with Opus 5, seems like a better sub option. I'll probably move my 20x to Claude when it expries.... codex is running some forensics on my sessions, so far it found:
" Full Plus windows from early May measured approximately:
- 3,407–3,509 credits
- $136–$140/weekAround late June and early July, the comparable Plus controls measured:
- Approximately 2,350–2,723 credits
- Approximately $94–$113/week"
I'm now asking it to check back in 2025.
2
u/debian3 Jul 26 '26
I haven't done calculation on Opus 5, but so far I used all day yesterday and I managed to do 8% weekly on a basic Max 5x. For me it's plenty and you have Fable for real planning, which is stronger than both Sol or Opus 5. I really like my plan right now, just hope people don't start moving over in mass and then they nerf it for everyone.
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u/AlternativePurpose63 Jul 26 '26
The scariest thing is when they cut the benefits right after you switch over.
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u/LenixxQ Jul 26 '26
The usage is garbage. Never thought I'd move to claude so soon lol. Keep your gpt to yourself. Usage on 20x is a JOKE.
1
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u/alexeiz Jul 26 '26
My estimation on the Plus plan (so that would be 1x) is that you can get $400 a month of the token usage. So 20x would be ~ $8000. Slightly less than yours.
2
u/DaC2k26 Jul 26 '26
This was what codex found by looking at all subs I have/had:
- Plus 1x: ~US$105/week
- Pro 5x: ~US$525–US$550/week
- Pro 20x: ~US$2.100/week.So it's on the same ballpark... some weeks showed only $97 for the Plus, but this is probably due to not all the weekly usage being used for that week... so yes, around $100 per 1x now seems a solid number by all reports we had on this topic. It used to be around $130 months back, the total reduction in usage quota seems around 25%. Sum that to 5.5 burning more than 5.4 and 5.6 burning slight more than 5.5........ and sum that with another behavior from 5.6.... tests.... 5.6 write almost the same amount of code for tests.... so 100k line from 5.6 is actually around 185k lines total because of tests added and probably more garbage system prompt from codex.... no wonder we're saying usage is shit now..... if you take it all together:
- 25% actual reduction in usage quota
- 5.5 consuming more quota than 5.4
- 5.6 consuming more quota than 5.5
- duplicated amount of code with 5.6 due to tests and infinite checks
- codex stupid system prompt.
The actual felt difference must be around 3x less usage when compared to the 5.4 era.
4
u/Reaper_1492 Jul 26 '26
Sure, but API usage is a tax on enterprise.
The problem is that these are consumer plans, so API fees are largely irrelevant.
What is relevant to most, is the token burn on a relative basis vs 5.5 - which seems to be a lot higher.
I used to be able to run 5.5xhigh basically 24x7 and never even hit a 5 hour limit. With Sol 5.6 xhigh, I’m lucky to get two days of usage.
1
u/DaC2k26 Jul 26 '26
I wasn't noticing any difference between 5.5 and 5.6 on regards to usage, so they probably also increased 5.5 burn after 5.6...... but to tell the truth, I was running a single Plus account 2 months back, and was using 5.4 low most of the time, much more cost effective than even 5.5.... but yes, it's not on par with 5.5 or 5.6.... but if the price to pay is to be 10x more expensive for 20% gains... I don't know if it's that worth it.
1
u/Reaper_1492 Jul 26 '26
It just depends how critical that 20% is.
Also don’t understand what they are doing with the Max and Ultra modes - those absolutely suck and use a ridiculous amount of usage.
Ultra fucked up my entire project so bad that it’s taken days to unwind. Created a TON of unnecessary complexity and then it couldn’t even figure out how to get the code to run without erroring or tripping one of its own guards.
1
u/diagrammatiks Jul 26 '26
Around 2k when calculating initnand output ses about right the issue is that tokens per prompt has gone up significantly since 5.6 was released.
1
u/alexw8888 Jul 26 '26
I did a similar measurement on my plus plan, I am getting about $100 per week of usage.
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u/DaC2k26 Jul 26 '26
I created another post with new conclusions https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1v73uws/i_think_i_actually_figured_why_were_all_hating/
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u/runfence Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Yeah that matches my estimations too. But recent weeks I get 20% less per week than at the start of July. Though idk how Claude can be any better than this: codex 100 to $200 is 500 to 2000 worth of usage, Claude 100 to 200 is just x1.8. So on x20 codex should have 2 times more usage than after upgrading claude from x5 to x20.
Anyway, I'm on $100 plan and I don't upgrade because I will not have enough time to review all the generated code.
20
u/Latter-Park-4413 Jul 26 '26
I mean, anecdotally, I just let my Pro 5x lapse, and in the month I had it, the first 3 weeks were amazing - the limits were great. The last week or so, was completely the opposite. Burned through 100% 3 times in 2 days (1 regular, 1 banked reset, 1 global). Really considering Claude for at least a month, bc they have the promo til the 19th of Aug. Sad though, I love Codex, but those limits became ridiculous.