How Codex rate limits work
The short version: the same two-window shape as Claude, read from two different places.
Two windows here too
A Codex subscription meters use through a five-hour window and a weekly window, each with its own capacity. Hit either and Codex stops taking work on that account until the window resets.
What makes Codex different is where the numbers live. The service reports what is left alongside its answers, and the CLI writes those readings into session files on your disk — so there are two ways to know: ask with an account of your own, or read what the CLI last saw.
When they reset
The five-hour window rolls from your first request; the weekly window keeps its own anchor in the week, one per account. As with Claude, two accounts rarely reset together — the offset is the whole value of having both on one screen.
What counts against them
Requests and the model work they cause count. Softcap's own usage requests do not send prompts and do not run models; a local account read from session files costs exactly nothing, because it is a file on your disk.
Watching it without spending it
Sign a Codex account in through the browser and Softcap reads its usage live. Accounts signed into the local CLI are picked up automatically and read from their session files, with the snapshot's age shown honestly beside the number. Either way: menu bar, thresholds at 80% and 95%, widgets.
The other provider
Running Claude too? Its limits are metered live: how Claude limits work