Thibault Sottiaux, the executive responsible for OpenAI’s Codex and ChatGPT products, said on X on Oct. 4 U.S. time that the next 28 days will follow a simple rule: the team will either ship one improvement each day that is clearly noticeable and relevant to most Codex and ChatGPT Work users, or it will issue a full usage reset.
His post read: 「Over the next 28 days, each day we’ll either ship one thing that is a clear improvement and relevant for most codex/work users or ship a full reset. Let the improvements begin.」
A 28-day pledge tied directly to user quotas
According to the report, a reset means restoring paid users’ weekly usage limits in full. Codex and ChatGPT Work both operate with weekly caps, and users normally have to wait until the next cycle once those limits are exhausted. A reset gives all paid users that weekly allowance back immediately.
Two minutes after publishing the post, Sottiaux replied to the X account @poteto with: 「I challenge you to do the same.」 The report says the account bio describes the user as working on Grok Bot at SpaceXAI.
A reset had already been issued two days earlier
The 28-day commitment came just two days after Sottiaux had already announced a full reset for all paid ChatGPT accounts. In a post published on the morning of Oct. 2 Taiwan time, he said GPT-6.1 Sol, which launched on Sept. 29, saw a surge of usage in its first two days and became slow for a period before returning to normal.
He said that reset took effect at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Oct. 2, which the report notes was 1 a.m. Taiwan time on Oct. 3.
The article also points to earlier resets. On the morning of Sept. 26 Taiwan time, Codex was unavailable across the board for about one hour. After service was restored, Sottiaux said paid users of Codex and ChatGPT Work would receive a reset. On Aug. 24, another reset was issued after some users saw their Codex quotas consumed faster than expected.
Another case came on Sept. 7, the U.S. Labor Day holiday. Sottiaux opened that post with lyrics from Rick Astley’s 「Never Gonna Give You Up」 and then announced a full reset. He said many users had burned through their quotas over the long weekend by using GPT-6 Astra in Blender for 3D modeling, and the reset would let them continue working after the holiday ended.
Back-and-forth resets with Anthropic
The report says Japanese tech outlet ITmedia has referred to this pattern as a 「reset war」 since July. On July 9 U.S. time, OpenAI introduced the GPT-5.6 series and ChatGPT Work. On the same day, Anthropic’s official developer account, ClaudeDevs, said it was resetting all users’ five-hour and weekly usage limits.
About half an hour later, Sottiaux replied under that post with: 「I smell fear.」 Later that same day, he also reset quotas for Codex and ChatGPT Work.
Third-party tracking shows 48 resets so far
A third-party website cited in the report has recorded 48 Codex resets to date. The article adds that what many users want most is not necessarily product improvement, but the resets themselves.
Timeline cited in the report
- Aug. 24: reset issued after some users’ Codex quotas were consumed faster than expected.
- Sept. 7: reset announced during the U.S. Labor Day holiday after heavy use of GPT-6 Astra with Blender.
- Sept. 26: Codex was unavailable for about one hour, followed by a reset after service resumed.
- Sept. 29: GPT-6.1 Sol launched.
- Oct. 2: reset announced after early slowdowns tied to GPT-6.1 Sol.
- Oct. 4: Sottiaux announced the 28-day daily-improvement-or-reset pledge.
