OpenAI said ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Business plans will start sharing one combined allowance across chat and the coding tool Codex in December, with usage measured in tokens. Under the company’s explanation, only Instant, the fast-response mode, will not count against the cap.
The change quickly drew complaints from paying users. After the news spread on Nov. 1, users from the U.S. to Taiwan said the new setup would make the $20-a-month Plus plan less attractive, and some said they intended to cancel.
Chat and Codex will no longer be counted separately
According to OpenAI’s support page, Plus, Pro, and Business users will see ChatGPT and Codex draw from the same allowance starting in December. Previously, the two were tracked separately, which meant a user could keep chatting even after exhausting Codex usage. Under the new policy, coding activity in Codex will reduce the same pool used for chat, and chat usage will do the same in reverse.
The update began circulating globally on Nov. 1, and much of the reaction centered on the loss of that separation.
Usage will be measured in tokens, with Instant excluded
OpenAI is also changing how usage is calculated. The company said consumption will now be measured in tokens, the unit used to count how much text an AI system processes. Longer prompts and longer answers consume more. OpenAI also said stronger models and more complex tasks will use up the allowance faster.
Its documentation says Instant is the only mode that does not deduct from the allowance. OpenAI describes it as a quick mode that responds directly without deep reasoning.
Why OpenAI says it is making the change
OpenAI said the shift is tied to bringing agent features from the Work tab into the main ChatGPT interface. Work can handle tasks such as building websites, creating presentations, and carrying out actions on the web. In an email to users, the company said those jobs will be assignable directly inside regular conversations without switching tabs.
What this means for Plus subscribers
Plus is ChatGPT’s individual paid plan. OpenAI’s pricing page lists it at $20 per month. Using an exchange rate of about 32.6 on Nov. 2, that comes to roughly NT$650. Below it is the $8-per-month Go plan, while Pro starts at $100 per month.
Before this change, Plus users had one allowance for chat and another for Codex. If Codex ran out, they could still use reasoning-capable chat models. Starting in December, both will draw from the same pool. That means a user who spends heavily on coding during the day could run low on reasoning-mode chat capacity later the same day. OpenAI said users who stick to Instant will not be charged against the cap.
What OpenAI has not disclosed is the actual size of the new shared allowance for Plus.
Reddit users ran estimates and pushed back
A popular discussion thread on Reddit’s r/ChatGPT reached 1,054 upvotes and 602 comments. Multiple users in that thread said they were considering canceling their subscriptions if chat and Codex were merged into one cap.
One user posted an estimate based on OpenAI’s previously published limits, saying Plus had allowed up to 3,000 GPT-5 Thinking prompts per week. That user then assumed that five to 10 complex questions could consume a five-hour allowance window, or about 15% of the weekly total. On that basis, the remaining weekly capacity would fall to 33 to 67 questions, less than 3% of 3,000.
That estimate comes with clear limits. OpenAI has not restated that cap for the new model, and the actual deduction rules are still unknown. The original report also said its own testing suggested that using Codex to produce a five-page presentation consumed about 5% to 10% of a Plus user’s weekly allowance.
Why users are upset
Many Plus subscribers said the separate accounting for chat and Codex was one of the reasons they chose ChatGPT in the first place. For those users, chat handled planning, research, and everyday questions, while Codex capacity was reserved for small development tasks such as writing utility programs for work. The new structure removes that split.
Another flashpoint involves MCP. The report said a previous method of calling ChatGPT through MCP alongside Codex to save tokens for coding work would effectively be shut off under the new arrangement. That appears to be one of the biggest sources of frustration in user discussions.
OpenAI says most users should not wait for resets more often
OpenAI said on its support page that it is preparing the transition carefully to avoid disrupting user workflows. The company said it expects most users “won’t need to wait for resets more often than they do today.”
After the change, users will be able to see their combined remaining allowance and reset time in the Usage section of Settings. If they run out, OpenAI lists three options: wait for the reset, upgrade to a higher plan, or buy additional credits.
The support page does not mention any compensation.
Launch date and exact limits are still missing
OpenAI has only said the policy will begin in December and has not provided a specific date. Its email to users refers more broadly to “the coming weeks.”
The company also has not published the post-merger allowance figures for each plan. How many tokens Plus users will actually get each week, and how reasoning mode will be charged, remain unclear until the rollout begins.
Two questions users are asking most
What does shared usage between ChatGPT and Codex mean?
Starting in December, chat and Codex under Plus, Pro, and Business will deduct from the same allowance, with usage measured in tokens. Coding will consume chat capacity, and only Instant will remain exempt.
What can Plus users do if they run out?
OpenAI lists three choices on its support page: wait for the allowance to reset, upgrade to Pro starting at $100 per month, or purchase additional credits. Plus costs $20 per month, and OpenAI has not announced any compensation plan.
