Unable to Redeem $50 API Credits via codex --free Command

Resolved 💬 15 comments Opened May 21, 2025 by Balaxxe Closed Sep 4, 2025
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (gpeal, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of Codex is running?

0.1.2505172129

Which model were you using?

N/A

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Pro

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I'm experiencing an issue when attempting to redeem the $50 in free API credits as a ChatGPT Pro subscriber using the Codex CLI.

Steps to Reproduce:

Ensured active ChatGPT Pro subscription (active for over 7 days) - I have been since release day.

Confirmed a valid default payment method is set in the API organization - I have had an API account for a while now. There is a default payment method, and I've also verified my organization. I'm Tier 4 in the API.

I've ran the following commands in the terminal:

codex --login
codex --free

What is the expected behavior?

The codex --free command should successfully redeem the $50 in free API credits and confirm the addition to my account.

What do you see instead?

Credit redemption request failed: 400 Bad Request

Additional information

Updated Codex CLI to the latest version using npm install -g @openai/codex.

Logged out and back into Codex CLI using codex --logout and codex --login.

Attempted redemption multiple times, each resulting in the same 400 Bad Request error.

View original on GitHub ↗

15 Comments

luciemdx · 1 year ago

Same here. I did not have a default payment method when I first signed in, so I was prompted to add one, and had to do an initial payment (picked the recommended $10) -- but ended up with only $10 in credits, not $10 + $50.

codex --free shows "Credit redemption request failed: 400 Bad Request". Haven't heard back from support.

luciemdx · 1 year ago

More info about the failure:

{
"error": {
"message": "Cannot determine if subscription is eligible. Please log out and log back in.",
"type": "invalid_request_error",
"param": null,
"code": null
}
}

Logging out and back in does not change anything.

glennmatlin · 1 year ago

@luciemdx I am unable to get them as well. I'm watching this to see if you get any help

Balaxxe · 1 year ago

Updated to latest - same issue still. Tried on multiple devices.

Frulfump · 1 year ago
More info about the failure: { "error": { "message": "Cannot determine if subscription is eligible. Please log out and log back in.", "type": "invalid_request_error", "param": null, "code": null } } Logging out and back in does not change anything.

How do you logout? There's only codex --login?

didalgolab · 1 year ago

I have the same problem on ChatGPT Pro.

gerrywastaken · 1 year ago

Ditto

alberduris · 1 year ago
I have the same problem on ChatGPT Pro.

Same here. Same problem on ChatGPT Pro.

archeraghi · 1 year ago

Dito.....

leith-bartrich · 1 year ago

Same issue. Look guys. I don't know what else to provide you to help with this issue. You're not communicating. Today it says "Credit redemption request failed: 400 Bad Request" and I have two organizations set up. One for my LLC and one that's "Personal." Signing into both via --login doesn't result in --free redeeming anything. And your linked page doesn't actually tell me anything besides the need to spend money by adding $10 of credits before redeeming. Which I've done for both. So I've spent $20 on this GitHub issue. I've been trying to redeem my "free" Pro credits for a month, patiently waiting for the issue to get seriously addressed because I don't actually have anything useful to add.

This GitHub issue shows no actual effort to work on the matter. Which is clearly half open source and half closed source in nature. I cannot go into your web backend and tell you how to fix it, because it's closed source.

Why in the world is redemption of free backend credits even a client request in the first place? Why isn't there a button on your own web-backed to do this?

Where is the documentation of the API call that's supposed to redeem the credits? Why isn't that backend API call returning useful error messages? I cannot actually try to debug this for you and submit a PR because you're not communicating and you're not addressing the issue.

There. That's my useful contribution. If you can actually see through my frustration you can actually get some useful advice.

davidNbreslauer · 1 year ago

Same!

Balaxxe · 1 year ago

FYI I reached out to OpenAI support and they manually issued me the credits.

Might be too late to do so but if you're still having issues. Reach out to OpenAI support directly.

The contributors here will not prioritize issues like these.

arpitking7286-crypto · 11 months ago

BRO GIVE ME A REDEEM CODE

gpeal contributor · 10 months ago

ChatGPT login is now fully rolled out and the suggested login method.

arpitking7286-crypto · 8 months ago

give wifi brute code