Renamed usernames remain unavailable to other accounts

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.715.52143

What subscription do you have?

Not disclosed. This account-level issue has been reproduced across multiple accounts.

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 24.6.0 arm64 arm
macOS 15.7 (24G222), Apple Silicon

What issue are you seeing?

After a user changes their username in Codex App → Settings → Profile, the previous username remains globally unavailable to every other account.

The username change on the original account saves successfully, so the previous username is no longer displayed on that profile. However, another account still cannot claim it and it remains reported as unavailable/already taken.

This is specifically about the public profile username, not the display name and not Codex CLI configuration profiles.

The current UI allows users to rename themselves without warning that the old username may remain reserved indefinitely. The published Profile documentation says usernames can be updated, but does not document a permanent reservation or cooldown policy: https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/reference/settings#profile

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Sign in to Account A in the Codex App.
2. Open Settings → Profile.
3. Set the username to a previously unused value, such as username-x, and save.
4. Change Account A from username-x to another username and save successfully.
5. Sign in to Account B.
6. Open Settings → Profile and try to set the username to username-x.
7. Observe that Account B cannot claim username-x; it remains unavailable even though Account A no longer uses it.
8. Repeat with another account and observe the same result.

What is the expected behavior?

After a username is changed, the previous username should become available to other accounts, either immediately or after a clearly documented, reasonable cooldown period.

If historical usernames are intentionally reserved to the original account, the UI should warn users before renaming, the policy and retention period should be documented, and there should be a supported way to release or transfer the old username.

Additional information

• Reproduced across multiple accounts.
• This can permanently consume desirable usernames and block legitimate account migration or username transfer.
• The exact usernames and account identifiers are omitted from this public report and can be provided privately to OpenAI maintainers.
• Observed on July 21, 2026.