Codex Desktop open → 5-hour usage decreases after reset despite no active task, no CLI, and no credit-history event.
Open 💬 4 comments Opened May 9, 2026 by moremodern
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
Latest
What subscription do you have?
Pro
What platform is your computer?
MacOS Version 26.4.1 (25E253)
What issue are you seeing?
Observed behavior:
- Codex Desktop app open on macOS
- No active prompts or running tasks
- CLI fully closed
- VS Code extension not active
- Vercel integrations ruled out
- generate_memories = false
- Credits remaining stays unchanged
- Credits Usage History does not show corresponding new events
- However, the shared 5-hour usage percentage intermittently drops by ~1–3%
I also observed cases where:
- the 5-hour reset timestamp continued moving forward unexpectedly,
- then later stabilized,
- but idle usage drain continued afterward.
In some cases the limiter reset and immediately consumed ~1% again despite no foreground activity.
This makes it difficult to determine whether Codex is:
- performing hidden background work,
- incorrectly accounting idle sessions,
- or reserving quota invisibly.
The main issue is lack of attribution or visibility into what is consuming shared usage while the app appears idle.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Open Codex Desktop on macOS.
- Do not run any prompts/tasks.
- Ensure CLI processes are closed.
- Leave the app idle for several minutes.
- Open Analytics → Usage.
- Observe the shared 5-hour usage percentage decreasing intermittently.
What is the expected behavior?
- shared 5-hour usage quota should remain stable,
- reset timestamps should not drift unexpectedly,
- and any background usage should be clearly attributed in the UI
If background indexing, memory generation, synchronization, or reconciliation tasks are consuming usage, the app should expose that activity explicitly.
Additional information
Important distinction:
purchased credits do not appear to be draining,
but the shared included usage quota decreases while the app appears idle.
4 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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Additional update: today the usage breakdown appears to attribute the drawdown to CLI, but I did not start Codex in Terminal today.
Observed state:
Codex Desktop app was the only Codex client I had visibly open/active
I did not manually launch Codex CLI today
I did not run a CLI prompt/task
The 5-hour usage limit still dropped
Analytics now appears to show today’s usage coming from CLI rather than Desktop App
This suggests there may be a separate attribution bug, or some Desktop/app-server/background process is being counted under CLI usage even when the user has not intentionally started the CLI.
So the issue may involve both:
unexplained shared 5-hour usage drawdown, and
incorrect or misleading client attribution in Analytics.
I am having the same issue. What can I do to help troubleshoot this?
I am having the same issue. What can I do to help troubleshoot this?