Can’t use GPT-5.3 even though it was mentioned in the release notes.
Resolved 💬 17 comments Opened Feb 7, 2026 by looper200 Closed Feb 14, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What version of Codex CLI is running?
0.93.0
What subscription do you have?
Plus
Which model were you using?
gpt-5.3
What platform is your computer?
Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x86_64 x86_64
What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?
_No response_
What issue are you seeing?
<img width="1313" height="496" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/076f07f0-8428-4803-9424-a0a213d80bcb" />
<img width="984" height="276" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2db1bc7d-2733-4de6-9529-6bde55e62497" />
What is that? Why can’t we use Codex 5.3 yet? It’s mentioned in the release notes, but we still can’t access it. That doesn’t make sense.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
use the CLI
What is the expected behavior?
_No response_
Additional information
_No response_
17 Comments
Are you logged in with an API Key or a ChatGPT subscription? The new model is not yet available via API Key.
@etraut-openai no i'm using chatgpt account not the API
<img width="1105" height="540" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cdc169d9-18f0-4ba3-8d5f-fe622fd7106b" />
+1, I cannot use 5.3 in neither VS Code plugin nor codex app, I am a Plus user
+1 i have the same exact problem as looper200 shows in the second screenshot.
@etraut-openai mentioned it only works with your ChatGPT subscription, not API key usage.
But the question to @etraut-openai – when it's going to be available for the API, and why OpenAI did not not make it available for the API key usage?
@kopyl, we release new models in a staged manner. Extra work is needed to put in place safeguards for API exposure. We haven't announced a specific date for gpt-5.3-codex API availability, but historically it has taken on the order of weeks. Stay tuned for an announcement. For additional details, refer to the GPT-5.3-codex announcement.
@etraut-openai thank you. Where exactly do you publish the info on gpt-5.3-codex API availability?
See this documentation for details.
@etraut-openai We’re using the Codex CLI with our GPT accounts, and we’ve updated to the latest Codex version, but it’s still not available (as you can see). Is this a bug or intentional?
Also, I took a look at the source and I don’t see it declared/registered here—am I looking in the wrong place?
https://github.com/openai/codex/tree/main/codex-rs/core
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/core/src/models_manager/model_info.rs
@looper200, this sounds like a bug. We have several reports of this already. It appears to affect a small number of users, but we need to investigate further to understand the root cause. The reason you don't see it declared in the code is that we recently switched to a dynamic (server-based) model registration mechanism. This allows us to roll out new models without the need to hard-code the registration in the client code. It's possible that this dynamic registration mechanism is related to the bug you are seeing.
<img width="942" height="453" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d6452780-076d-427d-8472-ce950898a16b" />
@etraut-openai is that not enough to detect the bug?
@looper200, if you're building codex from source, make sure you're on the latest code base. If you're using an out-of-date snapshot of the code, that could explain the problem you're seeing.
@etraut-openai see the screenshots i'm on the latest version also i just tested the npm version the same problem
I'm being routed to codex 5.2 while being on a pro plan. I don't even see 5.3 in the model selection on latest .98 CLI. Any help?
@kappa9999, that's a different issue that we're tracking in #11215.
There were a bunch of issues in this thread. I think that most of them have been fixed or explained. I'm going to close and lock this issue. If you're seeing a behavior like this still, please open a new bug. That will help us tease out any additional issues related to 5.3 not showing up as an option when it should appear.