OpenAI says about 40,000 accounts were charged usage against the wrong plan, and will add credits
After weekend complaints that usage was draining too fast, OpenAI's Tibo said about 40,000 accounts had usage limits applied that did not match the plan they selected. OpenAI has fixed it, is contacting each user, and will add credits to affected accounts.
OpenAI says about 40,000 accounts had usage limits applied that did not match the plan they were on, after users reported usage "draining faster than anticipated" over the weekend of 17–18 October 2026. The company says it has fixed the problem, is contacting each affected user, and will add credits to their accounts.
What OpenAI said
The statement came from Tibo (@thsottiaux), whose X profile says he works on Codex and ChatGPT at OpenAI. In a post on 20 October (17:10 UTC) he wrote that OpenAI had "identified approximately 40,000 accounts that had an inconsistency on which usage limits where the actual usage that was applied did not correspond to their actual selected plan."
He added: "We are reaching out individually to all these users and have corrected the issue. If this affected you, we'll add credits to your account. Sorry we got this wrong."
What is still unclear
- Which product: the post does not name one. Most replies in the thread are from people comparing their Codex limits with other coding tools.
- How much credit: the post does not say how credits are calculated or when they arrive.
- Who was affected: OpenAI is contacting affected users directly. If you have not heard from OpenAI, the post does not say how to check.
What to do if your limits ran out early
If your usage ran out much faster than usual between 17 and 20 October, watch for a message from OpenAI and check your account's usage page afterwards. Several replies asked whether everyone else's fast drain is "the correct plan"; OpenAI has not answered that in the thread.
By 21 October the post had about 9,700 likes and 2,300 replies.