A mysterious new feature has recently begun appearing in the accounts of some ChatGPT Plus users.
On Monday local time, a ChatGPT user posted on the Reddit forum that they were using the $20-per-month ChatGPT Plus plan (note: approximately 135.2 yuan at the current exchange rate). After logging in, they found that their weekly usage allowance had been exhausted, and a black “Pay $8 to reset” button had appeared in the interface (approximately 54.1 yuan at the current exchange rate).
OpenAI has not officially announced this paid reset feature. In June, the company introduced accumulable Codex reset allowances for eligible Plus and Pro users, including one free reset available at launch and additional reset allowances earned by referring other users.
According to OpenAI’s explanation of Codex, a “full reset” restores a user’s available weekly allowance and removes the wait time, which normally lasts about 5 hours until the allowance automatically recovers. Users can also choose not to pay and simply wait for the allowance to recover. For Pro users, paying $8 each time (approximately 54.1 yuan at the current exchange rate) can significantly reduce expenses, because the related professional plans may cost about $25 to $50 per week (approximately 169 to 337.9 yuan at the current exchange rate).
An OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is exploring ways to allow some users who have reached their usage limits to purchase additional usage, as part of OpenAI’s effort to make its products more convenient and practical.
A Codex reset can immediately restore a user’s exhausted AI usage allowance to 100%. If users manually reset their allowance using an accumulated reset allowance, their current weekly usage limit is cleared, allowing them to continue coding without waiting for the normal rolling cycle. After the reset is completed, the user’s next weekly reset time will be pushed back by approximately 7 days.
From free usage resets to offering ChatGPT Plus free of charge to college students, OpenAI has introduced a number of promotions recently.
During a period of business growth, companies typically view free benefits as an investment in user acquisition. By encouraging users to use a product more frequently, they help turn usage into a habit and increase the likelihood that users will eventually upgrade to a paid plan.
For OpenAI, free benefits and unexpected discounts are also a way to attract users away from its main competitor, Anthropic, and toward OpenAI products. Anthropic is taking a similar approach, offering Claude users promotional allowances and, in some cases, substantial amounts of free usage.
For both AI companies, the core objective is to encourage users to adopt or migrate their workflows, ultimately directing more spending into their respective product ecosystems.
Last Sunday local time, OpenAI Codex head Thibault Sottiaux and Anthropic Claude Code head Boris Cherny also clashed indirectly on X. The incident began when a user confused the accounts of the two companies and mistakenly tagged Sottiaux while complaining about their Anthropic account.
After Sottiaux clarified that he did not work at Anthropic, Cherny replied that Anthropic would welcome him if he was willing to switch jobs.
Sottiaux then responded that GPT-5.6 Sol was “excellent.”
“To celebrate this, and also to celebrate the fact that I’m not leaving … I’ve reset the usage limits for all paid ChatGPT Work and Codex users. Enjoy!” he said.
In May this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the Claude development team’s account also staged a similar “remote competition,” with both sides announcing that they would expand free access to their tools.
“Codex is the best AI coding product, and we want to make it easy for everyone to try it,” Altman wrote on X at the time. He also said that if businesses signed up within the next 30 days, OpenAI would provide two months of free Codex usage.
Less than an hour later, Anthropic announced that it would increase Claude Code’s weekly usage allowance by 50% through July 13.
Anthropic said at the time: “This is now available to all Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise users. We can’t wait to see what everyone creates with it!”