'Worst decision ever by OpenAI' — ChatGPT's new usage limits may test subscribers' patience

Shared usage limits could make ChatGPT less appealing to the everyday subscribers

Opinion By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 3 November 2026

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OpenAI is preparing to combine the number of subscribers who can use ChatGPT and its Codex coding assistant. Instead of separate measurements, Plus, Pro, and Business subscribers will have a single gauge for both, according to the company's updated documentation. More complicated tasks will consume more of that allowance, although ordinary Instant conversations won't count against it.

The change comes as OpenAI prepares to bring ChatGPT Work's more autonomous capabilities into the main ChatGPT experience. Users will be able to ask ChatGPT to carry out complicated projects directly from a conversation. That convenience also means combining the resources available for their use, and I suspect plenty of paying customers are going to be unhappy about that particular trade-off.

OpenAI says most subscribers shouldn't find themselves waiting for their usage limits to reset more often than they do today. The company hasn't disclosed exactly how large the new allowances will be, making that reassurance rather difficult to evaluate. It's asking customers to trust that the subscription they're already paying for won't become less useful once the rules change.

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OpenAI has made it clear it wants ChatGPT to become a comprehensive platform for both ordinary consumers and people using AI to run substantial professional projects. I can see the appeal of putting everything on one platform, but I think the company is underestimating how irritated people become when a familiar service starts reorganizing itself around customers with very different needs.

One subscription, too many expectations

For most people, ChatGPT is still a relatively straightforward assistant. They probably aren't especially interested in how many tokens a software development agent consumes while building an application. That makes the new shared allowance awkward. A person who uses ChatGPT for research and occasionally experiments with Codex could find those activities competing for the same resources.

Instant chat remaining outside the allowance is an important protection, and it means ordinary conversations shouldn't suddenly become impossible because someone used Codex too enthusiastically. But more demanding reasoning tasks will count, and those are precisely the capabilities that help justify paying for a subscription.

The eventual allowance could be generous enough that most people barely notice the change, and some users might benefit from spending more of their resources on whichever tool they prefer. But without clear figures, customers have no meaningful way to determine whether they're getting a better deal.

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