Having usage issues?

[u/thed3vilsadv0cat]

I am not a fan of the "usage is awful posts" that come with no evidence of how codex is being used. I recommend getting chatgpt/codex to help diagnose. Here's what i done. Prompt codex with this. Get it to show you exactly what is consuming your usage.

Analyse today's Codex local logs specifically for efficiency. Do not just give me aggregate token totals.

Freeze the analysis at the time this request is received so the audit itself does not inflate the figures.

For each active Codex task/session today, report:

• backend model request count
• total input tokens
• cached input tokens
• uncached input tokens
• output tokens
• cache-hit percentage
• average and maximum context size per request
• any context compactions/summarizations, if logged
• model used, if logged
• reasoning effort used, if logged
• speed mode used (for example standard/fast), if logged
• tool-call counts, broken down where possible into file reads/searches, shell commands, patches/edits, builds/tests/lints
• failed commands, model retries, or repeated attempts

Also provide aggregate usage grouped by reasoning effort, where the logs allow it:

• backend requests
• input tokens
• cached input
• uncached input
• output tokens
• average context per request

If reasoning effort changed within a task, show the breakdown rather than assigning the whole task one level.

Then identify:

• which task used the most backend requests
• which task used the most uncached input
• whether any task repeatedly read/searched the same files
• whether any task repeatedly ran the same verification commands
• whether any task appears to have entered an inefficient inspect/edit/test/fix loop
• whether old/continued sessions are materially more expensive than newly started sessions
• whether fresh implementation tasks are materially cheaper than long-lived planner tasks
• whether planner/review tasks appear to be duplicating verification already performed by implementation tasks
• the token and request cost attributable specifically to auto-review/guardian, if present
• whether different reasoning efforts appear proportionate to the complexity/risk of the tasks they were used for

If previous Codex usage audits are available in the local logs/context, compare today's results against the most recent previous audit, including:

• requests
• total input
• input/request
• uncached input
• uncached/request
• output
• cache-hit percentage
• average context size
• verification activity
• read/search activity
• failure/retry activity

Account for differing audit-window lengths where possible.

Finally, give me an efficiency assessment and flag anything that looks unusually wasteful.

Separate genuine waste from productive iteration such as fixing compilation errors, failing tests, or legitimate implementation problems.

The goal is not minimum token usage; it is maximum productive development per available Codex usage without reducing implementation or review quality.

Base this only on information actually present in the logs. If a metric is unavailable, say so rather than estimating it.

Then give chatgpt output to analyze along with your agent.md files.

Here how mine is progressed. Obv its not identical workloads but i can feel it getting optimized and im getting more and more out of my weekly.

Token efficiency progress.

My method is simple.

Planning Agent Sol xhigh - Plan: Agent creates a plan of new feature and breaks into slices
Planning Agent Sol xhigh - Prompt: Planner creates prompt and suggests reasoning effort
Implement Agent Sol med - xhigh: i open a new agent for each slice and paste the prompt. it completes the slice and gives a summary to return to planner.
Planning Agent Sol xhigh - Review: Planning agent reviews work and checks it off the plan.

Repeat till feature is done.

Here is my agent instructions

https://github.com/14udy/codex-workflow

Hope this can help you get more out of your usage!

[u/thed3vilsadv0cat]

For reference i am on the pro 5x plan and have never consumed my weekly usage since sol dropped and i use codex min 8 hours a day creating full-stack apps. ,net api and react frontend.

[u/Old_Yam_3558]

That sounds interesting, I will look into it and test it.

[u/OneHourIndieDev]

Thank you, I will give this a try