Codex · Codex CLI rate limit menu bar
Codex rate-limit windows, against the clock
UsagePool launches codex app-server --stdio and reads the account rate-limit windows your Codex account actually reports — weekly, five-hour, and validated per-model — then shows each one against the time left in its own window.
Codex · Weekly Example reading
Usage 48% Window 66% Behind
Limits UsagePool can show
- Five-hour
- The short window that decides whether this afternoon works.
- Weekly
- The budget behind it.
- Validated per-model
- Shown when the current account reports it.
Unique to Codex
The five-hour window is the one that produces the classic surprise: you are two hours in, you have burned most of the budget, and nothing on screen told you until the request failed.
Because Codex reports its windows directly over JSON-RPC rather than through a rendered screen, its readings are the least lossy of the five providers.
Earned usage resets are treated as a real, countable resource in the popover rather than a hidden mechanic — count available, next known expiry, one button to redeem one.
02 / 06 · Mechanism
How the reading is taken
UsagePool reads your own codex executable, started as codex app-server --stdio. Here is exactly what happens on each refresh.
UsagePool launches codex app-server --stdio directly and reads account rate-limit windows over bounded newline-delimited JSON-RPC. The exchange has a deadline, bounded output, cancellation and child-process cleanup, and no shell is involved.
Weekly, five-hour and validated per-model limits appear when the current account reports them. A limit the account does not report is not shown, and is not invented.
When Codex reports an earned usage reset, the card shows how many are available and the next known expiry. Use Reset redeems one and immediately refreshes the account limits; the button is highlighted once weekly usage reaches 95 percent.
03 / 06 · Stated here, not buried
Exhausted limits can quietly draw from credits
If an included limit is exhausted while the account still reports an available credit balance, the Codex card warns that continued work will draw from credits. That is the moment the pace line matters most: an amber five-hour meter at noon is a spend decision, not a scheduling one.
An orange ¢ glyph appears on the provider’s first menu-bar meter when UsagePool detects paid credits or additional usage. Hover its widget and the provider card explains what was detected.
04 / 06 · Scope
What is never read or stored
UsagePool never reads or stores Codex credentials: the app-server holds its own authentication, and raw responses, transcripts, account identifiers and local paths are not persisted or logged.
UsagePool does not collect a usage-history archive or send your usage to its licensing service. It retains the settings and latest connection projections needed to show current limits. The privacy page lists this field by field →
05 / 06 · One product
One app, one download, five providers
The same application supports all five providers. Choose one with Free or Single, or use them together with Full for From $4 once.
06 / 06 · Start
Set up and start reading
The ChatGPT desktop app, or an authenticated Codex CLI you can run as `codex` from a terminal.