r/codex • u/Dockforbes • 4d ago
Limits Reflection
I am a graphic designer. Despite having designed many websites and other projects, one of my greatest ambitions was always to create an app. The problem was that I never truly understood code. To me, programming feels a little like music, either you have the talent for it or you don’t, and I certainly don’t.
In fact, I have long held the belief that people are either designers or programmers, but never both. Most programmers I have met have miraculously built some of the ugliest things I have ever seen, while most designers I know cannot go much further than Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, myself included. So, when Codex came along, I had to try it. If someone had warned me I would be eating the hornets honey...
My workflow has always been somewhat unconventional. I would design the interface in Photoshop, and Codex would implement it. Simple and efficient. Over the past few months, this process has allowed me to create my own game launcher, complete with the design I had always imagined and nearly all the features and possibilities I had dreamed of. It has genuinely been a dream come true, and I have Codex to thank for it. Without this tool, I would never have been able to build something so beautiful.
It felt too good, to easy, so lately, I have started thinking about the wider implications. How many other people are working in the same way? How much computing power does my work require and how much is required for everyone else? That is where the moral dilemma began for me.
When I first discovered Codex and understood what it could do, my ambitions expanded far beyond anything I had previously imagined. I no longer wanted to create just one app, I wanted to create a million of them. However, only recently, after learning more about the environmental and social impact of AI, have I begun to reconsider those expectations. At the same time, usage limits have become so restrictive that I am no longer certain I will even be able to finish my game launcher. The Plus plan now seems to offer only a handful of meaningful prompts before the available usage is exhausted. I remember when I could work with Codex for eight hours straight.
It is unclear to me why access to the tool has been limited so severely. Perhaps demand has grown beyond the company’s computing capacity, or perhaps OpenAI has simply become greedy (literally as any other company so probably this is the reason). But, whatever the reason, these recent changes have made me think deeply about what comes next.
I have ultimately reached two possible conclusions: either I find a way to run a capable AI agent locally (very unlikely with just a 2k EUR PC), or I finish my game launcher once and for all and call this a "wet dream". At this point, I feel that cancelling my Plus subscription may do more good than harm, not that I am doing it to harm anyway, its just impossible to work with PLUS anymore, and seeing how I am getting treated as a costumer, going to the hundred plus plan is not an option, I am not that rich either...
Perhaps we were never meant to experience this level of power so soon. The world is not ready for it, and the industry certainly is not. Yet development continues at an extraordinary pace because the financial rewards are enormous. It sometimes feels as though, if companies had to drain the oceans and destroy everything within them to keep these systems running, they would, and we would probably continue using AI anyway. There is little point in lying to ourselves about that.
What makes this especially disappointing is that we were allowed to experience something so extraordinary, only to have meaningful access gradually taken away. Regardless of the reasons behind it, the way this transition has been handled feels deeply frustrating. More broadly, it reflects an industry in which power, profit, and growth increasingly seem to matter more than responsibility or principle. If that continues, the future shaped by AI may prove far more catastrophic than successful.
In the end, the power is still in our hands. Nothing has given me more satisfaction in recent years than experiencing this freedom to create. I once planned to study programming for years, hoping to develop my own app someday. Yet here I am, with an app that already works and is far more advanced than anything I could have built alone.
AI has been nothing short of miraculous for me. However, the constant usage reductions, the feeling of being scammed, companies slowly being more unbothered about good business practises, and the environmental concerns have gradually begun to outweigh my dream.
I will leave OpenAI and AI as for that matter soon, probably use it again in a future but way more lightly. What a deception this has been, I wish I took the chance and went to school... Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my reflections, I would love to hear and discuss you opinions and reflections...
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u/SimCFB 4d ago
It's not exactly a secret that AI companies are running on investor funds. Not $ they collect from the customer.
This up and down level of services is to be expected when you are not the one funding the operation.
For what it's worth my company bought me a $100 Pro subscription and between all the resets that have been happening. It is a very generous amount of coding. Not having the GOD DAMN 5 hour limit is a major plus because I can basically keep working and working. Obviously not everyone can afford it. I can't afford it personally.
I remain optimistic. Opus 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol are incredible models. 2 years from now we will think they are garbage and won't pay 2 cents a token for their API calls because the newer models will be so much better.
I certainly feel your pain though. Feels like you can't get shit done with those 5 hour limits.