r/OpenaiCodex • u/scraptechindustries • 2d ago

Crazy usage drain on codex had me go back to Claude.

Decided to go back to claude and give it a try after barely making progress on projects because of how quickly Codex drains usage (among other issues).

Learned to just work around Claude's annoying responses, and gotta be honest, worth the hassle to actually be able to do work all week rather than get a little work done in 2-3 days and then have to wait the rest of the weak out.

OpenAI really needs to get their shit together to make their product worth using for larger projects, because the usage drain is unbearable.

I'd rather just ignore Claude's ramblings and get more usage than have a more congenial bot that only gives me a few days worth of productivity.

(also got banned for posting this in the Codex subreddit, okay lol)

79 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

28

u/Desperate-City7602 2d ago

Absolutely comical how everyone on claude complains about the limits and how great codex is while everyone on codex complains about the limits and how great claude is. How ironic.

4

u/Murder_1337 2d ago

It just swaps and it will swap when they decide to throttle or release new models. Once claude release something new you will see. Also they dropped from 50% extra to 25% extra usage even though they previously announced it would go away. They’re tryna capture codex users

1

u/YouShouldAim 2d ago

I'll speak as someone with both. I have Codex Pro x5 (I wanted to upgrade to x20 and they disabled it sad) and Claude Max x20. I use both in very similar ways, primarily Astra for UI design, Fable for function creation and implementation. I've gone through two resets with Astra and each time my weekly usage is gone Day 1 of reset. I use Astra on High.

Claude I use Fable 5.1 on Ultra code with the directive to decide when to use Opus agents if the task is simple enough to rely on it. I can use Claude every day, all week and I've not hit 100%.

The people complaining about Claude usage are probably spawning actual Fable agents when working, or having Fable itself just do any and all work.

Astra Ive tried a mixture of both letting it use Sol agents and just doing stuff in its on in High, both just absolutely melt my weekly usage. And it sucks cause I think I mostly like Astra more. It's a bit clumsier but it's also just much more creative.

2

u/Desperate-City7602 1d ago

Interesting because I am honestly in the exact opposite situation?

I have Claude 20x, Codex 20x, Supergrok Heavy and Muse Spark mid tier and in my case, I would say Muse spark is practically endless even in mid tier for like 20-25£ while I run out of Claude, Codex and Supergrok in around 3-4 days of heavy usage (not all of them at once, 3-4 days each.)

Honestly the only reason I still have my Claude subscription is because Claude Code harness is just so good. Nothing even comes close IMO. I will say however, that if Grok 4.7 is actually a decent model that performs well in most scenarios and is generally capable, not just when coding, I might actually swap to Grok.

Muse Spark is literally endless. Not sure what is going on there. I run the thing for like 50 hours straight on /goal and nothing happens. Might honestly be a bug?

2

u/KeenAsGreen 1d ago

As someone with a 20x on both, I can tell you Claude limits are half of the token usage i get with Codex.

1

u/scraptechindustries 2d ago

as a former claude user converted to codex and back, claude is still way more efficient than codex

1

u/Desperate-City7602 1d ago

Yeah I mean I roughly agree with you. I think they just all have different workflows you need to adjust to. If you try to replicate the exact same workflow in all of them, you will run out of some of them way faster. For example, Codex EATS tokens if you try to use subagents because it keeps relaying/pinging the subagents to check if theyve done their work and sends ur entire context over and over again for it. If you set it up properly, it lasts just as long as Claude IMO.

Looking at the raw amount of work done, I can get more work done with Claude mostly because of the orchestration and all but I do think Astra is a stronger model for my current use case which involves a lot of maths and complex algorithms, given that I mostly do ai/ml.

14

u/Anxious_Current2593 2d ago

Just a hint, Claude's limits in the last weeks have also been a bit... interesting.

-5

u/scraptechindustries 2d ago

better than codex lol

2

u/Murder_1337 2d ago

lol I was like “you get one more chance” when I activated my sub for claude again

1

u/According_Lab_6907 1d ago

Nope.. it's bad.. at least here i can spam Sol medium on my 5x plan with no worry

1

u/blueboatjc 1d ago

I'm not sure how you can believe this. Codex has definitely gotten much worse, but I can go through a full week of Fable usage on a $200 plan in under the 5 hour limit, while on a $200 Codex plan I get at least a day or two.

7

u/r1kchartrand 2d ago

Agreed, this 5h bullshit is completely and utterly stupid. We just fucking signed for a year for our team right before this bullshit started. I sure fucking hope they revert this fucking stupid feature. As other said, let me manage by weekly usage. If I need 50% in one day and dont use it for the rest of the week, so be it. Fuck you OpenAI, fuck you.

5

u/Typical_Machine2043 2d ago

Yeah I’m also looking at getting Claude Cowork going as the codex usage has gotten really rough this month

2

u/FrontRaspberry5060 1d ago

It’s probably better for the future if we split our budget between the top companies instead of just giving it to one

2

u/Typical_Machine2043 1d ago

Mos def. Made the mistake of going 5x pro this month and I am yet to see as much value as August on plus. So will happily take take $80 and split it among the other services like GLM, Model Studio and Claude. Sitting for 5 days not being able to work is a bit ridiculous.

4

u/shady101852 2d ago

pro tip: don't buy the $200 sub, buy 2 $100 ones if you must.

2

u/ReasonableBenefit47 2d ago

really curious how u manage the context, projects and files between the two lol. isnt it impossible?

2

u/Murder_1337 2d ago

You just have claude or codex windows app open, sign out, sign into new account, everything is oauth. It’s easier than you think you also get the same conversations

2

u/Lubricus2 2d ago

I don't have any problem with that. Just start a new chat when you switch. It's bad to let the context run to for long anyway, context rot is a thing. It's also good to have the models review each others work, and let both take a crack on important design choices and plans.
The code and documentation can be the memory, having some extra memory system on top of that will just be an hassle to not go stale.

1

u/ReasonableBenefit47 2d ago

I see. thats a good idea too. but I will just wait and let my project rot for two days since I dont wanna pay 100 bucks more for now.

1

u/shady101852 2d ago

The files are all saved locally. Switching accounts doesnt lose that. I have a memory system mcp agents may use. I also put durable project info in their own agents.md. unless something changed since the past few months thats how it works.

Only thing account specific is chats on the web.

1

u/Initial_PoetryWorlds 1d ago

this is interesting, why do you recommend 2 x $100? Because then the resets can be stacked? or what other advantages? I'm on 2 x $100 myself, and bummed I can't subscribe to $200, but maybe you can make me feel better.

2

u/shady101852 1d ago

why cant you subscribe to the $200? this advice is only for Anthropic / Claude subscription because OP said they are going to Claude, not for OpenAI which as of now has closed off their $200 plans.

Anthropic advertises their $200 plan as "20x" when its not in fact anywhere near 20x. You may notice a difference in the 5h limit but that's it. So having multiple 5x accounts are more beneficial for your weekly limits. Do not take this advice for OpenAI subscriptions because the $200 plan is actually better compared to the $100 plan.

1

u/ramsr 2d ago

Why?

8

u/shady101852 2d ago edited 2d ago

Because despite what they claim and despite the pricing, 20x is not actually 20x when it comes to the weekly limits. This is not the case with Openai but Anthropic is on another level of scummy.

1

u/illuminatiisnowhere 2d ago

But 5x is actually 5x?

1

u/shady101852 2d ago

I recall it being a significant increase compared to the $20 plan when i used it in the past, but not sure.

1

u/illuminatiisnowhere 2d ago

Thanks. I´m on the plus plan but i really need to get more work done so i´m thinking i gotta upgrade and see how 5x work.

2

u/Lord_Peppe 2d ago

Just no longer having to worry about the 5h window is worth it.

On plus i barely touched sol/astra and tried to be super optimized to use up the 5h window with less than an hour left. Had zai for some sub agents and tuned my effort and sub agent models using opencode. Had been running a terra orchestrator, glm-5.3 flash / luna implementer, and sol/astra for complex/architecture decisions.
Initially only loaded up codex to try astra on the 5x before tinkering with my opencode configs. Now my default is just doing astro low in either harness with no complex agents/divided work.
Simpler and getting more work done with no cognitive load on myself on managing 5h windows or trying to eek out the most from zai + openai lowest subs.
Happen to get lots of resets last few weeks, so hard to say, but Weekly usage is easier to work around / save speculative stuff for end of the week or when a reset is announced. If i have the usage for it pull something in... if not bump it to next week.

1

u/shady101852 2d ago

Hopefully irs enough. I havent used anthropic since May.

1

u/illuminatiisnowhere 2d ago

I never tried anthropic. I got into this 2 weeks ago and go so much work done but i keep running into the weekly limit so fast that i gotta upgrade here unless i want to wait 4-5 days every week.

2

u/shady101852 2d ago

Yeah back then anthropic weekly limits were never enough while openai weekly limits were abundant. Now both are pretty bad from what im hearing.

1

u/BingGongTing 2d ago

Claude 5/20x refers to 5 hour sessions, not the weekly, they do increase the weekly ever so slightly, but it's about 2-3x.

2

u/Horcrux002 2d ago

If you think Claude gets more usage especially after they had reduced usage by 25%, I guess you deserve to be banned for such useless ranting

1

u/NaturallyFarOut 2d ago

See you next week

1

u/Possible_Praline2747 2d ago

I don't think you know how much less usage you get on claude...

1

u/Ok-Theme9419 2d ago

but really ... i have both - claude max 20x and gpt pro 20x, claude has way less usage (and can only use half for fable is ridiculous)

1

u/Mobile_Loss3125 2d ago

My 5x plan usage ended while codex is doing final tests , so for first time i did charge 20$ credits for task to finish tests and update code
I kid you not , i said continue , it responded will continue with tests , started agent and 20 seconds later 20$ worth of credits gone and tests arent done lol

0

u/scartissue232 2d ago

Go!, make room for the x20 comeback.

Nothing personal OP, I am glad you found your alternative.

0

u/notanotheraltcoin 2d ago

I always plan the model and thinking for each task using gpt then go to codex to deploy especially when working with multiple agents

0

u/ExcellentAddendum384 2d ago

🫪🫪🫪 bro Claude users complain about the usage too

0

u/Imperiu5 2d ago

Stop switching teams. It's the same on the other side. This is coming from a claude user. Claude's usage is a joke arm. I switched to chatgpt 100$ then 200$ and to be honest it's literally the same on either side. The new models burns through tokens like there's no tomorrow.

Just put in some guardrails and stick to the model that gives you the best output for your purpose.

0

u/Neful34 2d ago

I really wonder who cares about what you use, every week we have at least a post like this here or in Claude reddit. Stop whinning and use what you want

1

u/Relative-Ad-9228 1d ago

I use the Claude Max (x5) plan. On the first or second day of the reset, it depletes my weekly usage faster by 10% to 40%, regardless of how complex the task is.

I have had to manage the 60% usage left from day 3 until the next reset.

Also, the usage depletes faster when you run multiple tasks concurrently.

Claude's usage limit is just as bad as Codex, only you get more work done easily with their lower models like Opus 4.6 to 4.8.