Claude Code vs Codex: usage limits compared
Claude Max 20x costs 10× Claude Pro and measures 11× its weekly limit (19× per 5-hour window); ChatGPT Plus (Codex) costs 1.0× Claude Pro and measures 0.6× its weekly limit (1.1× per 5-hour window). ChatGPT Pro $200 (Codex) (3 accounts) is still collecting; published at 5 accounts. Below, the same measures side by side.
Data updated 2026-10-08
Measured weekly limit by plan
| Plan | Price | Weekly limit ≈ API value | × monthly price | Tokens / week excl. cache reads | Output / week | One 5-hour window ≈ | Accounts | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Pro | $20/mo | $162 ($149–$175), ≈ $703/mo | 35× | 25.3M | 1.0M | $14 (≈ 12 a week) | 280 | 2026 10/01 – 10/08 |
| Claude Max 20x | $200/mo | $1,727 ($1,665–$1,829), ≈ $7,482/mo | 37× | 227M | 15.3M | $271 (≈ 6.4 a week) | 21 | 2026 10/01 – 10/08 |
| ChatGPT Plus (Codex) | $20/mo | $92 ($77–$107), ≈ $399/mo | 20× | 16.0M | 921K | $15 (≈ 6.2 a week) | 10 | 2026 10/01 – 10/08 |
| ChatGPT Pro $200 (Codex) | $200/mo | Collecting (3 accounts; published at 5) | ||||||
Accounts on the same plan differ too: the middle half of Claude Pro accounts sits between $149–$175 (±8%); the middle half of Claude Max 20x accounts sits between $1,665–$1,829 (±6%); the middle half of ChatGPT Plus (Codex) accounts sits between $77–$107 (±16%). Vendors A/B-test limits on a few accounts (SemiAnalysis found one of three identical accounts about 20% lower); we measure dozens to hundreds of accounts per plan, so a single outlier does not move the median.
Compared with SemiAnalysis
SemiAnalysis measures with controlled tests what one model on a fixed workload can be worth at most; we measure what a plan is worth in real use. The two agree on scale; the FAQ below explains the gap.
| SemiAnalysis: Max 20x, Opus 5.5 only, agentic | $11,726/mo |
|---|---|
| SemiAnalysis: Max 20x, Opus 5.5 only, chat | $9,200/mo |
| SemiAnalysis: Max 20x, Fable 5.1 only (half the limit) | $2,485/mo |
| Wokey measured: Max 20x, real traffic (89% cache reads, 21 accounts) | $7,482/mo |
| SemiAnalysis: ChatGPT Plus, GPT-6 Astra only | $162/mo |
| SemiAnalysis: ChatGPT Pro $200, GPT-6 Astra only | $2,897/mo |
| SemiAnalysis: ChatGPT Pro $500, GPT-6 Astra only | $6,955/mo |
| Wokey measured: ChatGPT Plus, real traffic (10 accounts) | $399/mo |
Weekly API value per $1 of monthly price
- Claude Pro: $8.1
- Claude Max 20x: $8.6
- ChatGPT Plus (Codex): $4.6
Subscription or pay-as-you-go
A plan is the best deal when you use all of it. Most people do not: below the share shown here, paying per token costs less than the subscription. When you hit the weekly limit, you can keep using the same model on Wokey.
- Claude Pro: if you use less than 19% of its weekly limit, Wokey pay-as-you-go costs less
- Claude Max 20x: if you use less than 18% of its weekly limit, Wokey pay-as-you-go costs less
- ChatGPT Plus (Codex): if you use less than 47% of its weekly limit, Wokey pay-as-you-go costs less
Week over week
Remeasured every Monday. When a vendor changes its limits, these lines move; changes under about 10% in a single week are mostly sampling noise.
- Claude Pro: 09-24 $125 → 10-01 $145 → 10-08 $162
- Claude Max 20x: 09-24 $1,404 → 10-01 $1,510 → 10-08 $1,727
Limit changes
- 2026-09-13: The Claude Code summer promotion that raised weekly limits by 50% ended (r/ClaudeCode)
- 2026-09-22: Opus 5.5 launched and Anthropic raised 5-hour limits on Pro, Max and Team; SemiAnalysis measured Opus 5.5 limits about 20% higher on Max and 50% higher on Pro (Claude on X)
- 2026-09-29: OpenAI halved the ChatGPT Pro $200 allowance (from 20× Plus to 10×) and added a $500 tier; existing subscribers keep the old limits until Oct 29 (SemiAnalysis)
How we measure
- The data comes from limit changes on real subscription accounts behind the Wokey gateway, together with the traffic they served. When an account’s weekly usage rises by at least 10 percentage points, the requests in that span, divided by the rise, give a full week of traffic.
- Each span needs at least 10 requests, with no more than 5% failed or boundary-crossing requests. Spans are first reduced to a median per account, then to a median across accounts, so every account counts once.
- Traffic is priced at each model’s official API rates, including cache reads and 5-minute and 1-hour cache writes. The dollar figure means "what this traffic would cost on the official API"; it is not the unit the vendor meters in.
- Every Monday after 04:00 UTC the past 7 days are remeasured. A plan is published once at least 5 accounts are measured. If a value moves more than 15% from the previous week, it is checked by hand before the page updates.
- The limit is worth more or less depending on the model mix: the same limit spent on a different main model converts to a different API value. Each plan lists its model mix.
These are measured estimates, not figures published by the vendors. Vendors can change limits at any time, and use outside the gateway or delayed metering can shift the results.
FAQ
What is the ChatGPT Plus weekly Codex limit?
Measured, a ChatGPT Plus week of Codex is worth about $92 of official API usage (10 accounts, 2026 10/01 – 10/08), 20× its price and about 16.0M tokens excluding cache reads. OpenAI changed its plan limits on 2026-09-29; only data after that change is used.
How many tokens does Claude Pro give per week?
A median account that uses the full week runs about 120M tokens, of which about 25.3M are not cache reads and 1.0M are output. At official API prices that is about $162 a week, 35× the monthly fee. Total tokens swing with your cache hit rate, so treat them as a rough guide.
How much Codex does ChatGPT Pro give?
ChatGPT Pro $100 (Codex) (3 accounts), ChatGPT Pro $200 (Codex) (3 accounts) have too few measured accounts so far; published here at 5. OpenAI changed the Pro plan limits on 2026-09-29.
Why do these numbers differ from SemiAnalysis?
SemiAnalysis (2026-10-05) measured with controlled tests: a Claude Max 20x plan spent entirely on Opus 5.5 is worth about $11,726 a month on an agentic workload (96.6% cache reads) and about $9,200 on a chat workload; Fable 5.1 can use only half the weekly limit, about $2,485 a month. We measure real traffic: Max 20x is about $1,727 a week (≈ $7,482 a month). Two things explain the gap: real workloads are about 89% cache reads, below 96.6%, and cache reads barely count against the limit while still costing money on the API, so the more cache reads, the higher the dollar value; and real traffic includes older Opus models that weigh more on the limit. The two agree on scale: theirs answers "the most one model can be worth", ours "what it is worth in real use".
Why do these Codex numbers differ from SemiAnalysis?
SemiAnalysis (2026-10-05) measured an agentic workload entirely on GPT-6 Astra: ChatGPT Plus about $162 a month, Pro $200 about $2,897 and Pro $500 about $6,955; since Sep 29 the three Pro tiers give the same value per dollar. We measure ChatGPT Plus at about $92 a week (≈ $399 a month), higher than their Astra figure because most of the value in real traffic comes from Sol-class models, and SemiAnalysis finds Plus gives more value per dollar on Sol than on Astra.
Where does the data come from, and how often is it updated?
From limit changes on real subscription accounts behind the Wokey gateway and the traffic they served, remeasured every Monday. Plans with too few accounts are marked as collecting and show no numbers.