OpenAI to Reinstate 5-Hour Limit for ChatGPT Plus Starting August 26

en.Wedoany.com Reported - OpenAI has announced that, effective August 26, 2026, it will reinstate the regular 5-hour usage limit for Codex and ChatGPT Work within ChatGPT Plus subscriptions. This limit was temporarily removed in July 2026 due to a security incident and will now be reimposed.

Previously, ChatGPT Plus users faced both a 5-hour limit and a weekly limit. In July 2026, some users noticed that only the weekly limit remained on their account overview. OpenAI responded on its community forum, stating that the shorter 5-hour limit had been temporarily removed as a response to a security incident. In the following weeks, OpenAI's Head of Product, Thibault Sottiaux, confirmed that the limit would remain lifted and repeatedly announced resets of the weekly limit. According to OpenAI, Codex and ChatGPT Work together have over 8 million active users, granting users a significant amount of free ChatGPT Plus usage time without mid-session waits.

Regarding the reinstatement, Sottiaux announced on social platform X that the 5-hour limit will return to ChatGPT Plus starting August 26, 2026. For Pro users on higher-tier plans, the limit remains suspended regardless of whether they choose the Codex or Work subscription tier; Pro users pay $100 or $200 per month depending on their tier.

As for the reason behind reinstating the limit, OpenAI's Head of Product cited the pursuit of more balanced server load. By spreading usage requests through the 5-hour limit, weekly usage quotas can also be increased. Additionally, OpenAI observed that most Plus subscribers are new or light users, and the 5-hour limit prevents them from exhausting their weekly compute budget all at once without receiving warnings about their consumption rate.