You'll Thank Me Later: Free Limit Resets

You hit the weekly limit on Claude or Codex, and the next reset is days away. Before you give up, open the usage page in your browser. There may be a free reset waiting there, and confirming it restores the limit it covers right away.

Anthropic and OpenAI both hand out limit resets from time to time, and they sit quietly in a settings page until you use them or they expire. In my experience there is frequently one waiting. You only have to look.

Claude: Reset for free

• Open the usage page. claude.ai in a browser, or Claude Desktop, signed in to the account you use with Claude Code. Then Settings and Usage.
• Look at "Limit resets". When it is empty, it says "No resets right now" and "When you get one, it shows up here with its expiry date."
• Check what it restores, then click "Reset for free" and confirm. The same button also appears on the message you see when you reach a limit.

Anthropic's help article explains what happens: "Depending on the limit reset shown, either your five-hour session limit or your weekly usage limit go back to full right away." Your week does not move: "Your weekly limits still reset on their usual day and time."

If you live in Claude Code, this is the part to remember: the "Reset for free" button "isn’t currently available on Claude Mobile or in Claude Code in your terminal or IDE". Use the browser. The limits are shared across your account, so after a reset "they’re back to full on Claude Mobile and in Claude Code too."

Codex: Use reset in ChatGPT settings

• Open the usage page. chatgpt.com, then Settings and Usage. OpenAI says the same page is in the desktop app and the CLI as well, and in a running Codex CLI session, typing /status shows where you stand.
• Look at "Usage limit resets". The section says "Use a reset to restore your 5-hour limit, weekly limit, or both". My available resets are labelled "Full reset", each with its own expiry.
• Click "Use reset", check the expiry, confirm.

As I write this, my ChatGPT usage page shows two full resets waiting, one expiring on October 29 and one on November 6. My Claude page, at the same moment, says "No resets right now". They come and go.

OpenAI calls them banked resets: "a one-time Codex usage-limit reset saved to your account until you use it or it expires. It is not purchased credit and does not permanently increase your plan’s usage limit." As part of the GPT-6 Astra rollout, existing Plus, Pro and Business users in good standing "received a banked reset both on September 3rd and September 4th." The limits a reset refills are, per the usage page, "Shared across Codex, Work, Workspace Agents, and ChatGPT for Excel. Chat conversations are not included."

The fine print that matters

• Codex moves your week. Claude does not. OpenAI: "Using a full banked reset refreshes your 5-hour and weekly Codex usage windows and changes your weekly reset date." If you apply a full reset and resume Codex on Tuesday, your next weekly reset is around the following Tuesday, and "You won’t also receive a weekly reset on the original Friday."
• They expire. Claude: "An unused reset expires on the day and time listed on the offer." OpenAI: "Once an unused reset expires, it cannot be restored or reissued."
• Claude has no undo. "Once you use it, you can’t undo it." A Claude reset also "doesn't refund extra usage you've already been billed for or change your usage credit balance", and it disappears if you downgrade or cancel before using it.
• Free is not the same as buy. OpenAI also sells an instant reset to Plus and Pro users. That button says "Buy an instant reset" and goes to checkout, and "Generally, we do not offer refunds for weekly limit reset purchases." The free one says "Use reset".
• Availability varies. Claude's resets are "given occasionally to eligible plans". OpenAI: "Future resets are not guaranteed", and "Support does not provide manual or courtesy resets."

When to use one

On Claude, the timing is simple, because your week does not move. Anthropic says "You don’t have to wait until you reach a limit to use it". I'd save it for when I need more usage, while keeping an eye on its expiry.

On Codex, think one step further. A full reset replaces the weekly reset you were already due: if Friday's reset was coming and you reset on Tuesday, Friday's no longer happens. Use it when you are out of usage and the next reset is far away. OpenAI also says the reset "is consumed only when it successfully refreshes at least one eligible usage window", so clicking it with nothing to refill costs you nothing.

Either way, compare the reset's expiry with your normal reset time before you click, and make it a habit: when the limit hits, check the usage page before you wait.