Accounts, sign-in, plans and usage

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What you will be able to do

Separate the two billing sources

ChatGPT sign-in and API-key sign-in are separate access methods. The first follows the account plan and workspace permissions; the second follows API organization billing and limits. Sharing an email address does not combine their allowances. An active subscription does not imply a zero API bill, and an API balance does not establish access to every ChatGPT cloud feature. Official authentication documentation requires ChatGPT sign-in for cloud Codex.

This series centralizes pointers to prices here and model availability in model selection, instead of repeating fixed prices or daily counts in every lesson. Before purchasing, check the official plan page and your account display, including currency, tax, monthly or annual billing, seats and workspace conditions. A plan or option mentioned in a tutorial is not evidence that your account can purchase or use it.

Step 1: confirm account and workspace

Open the profile menu in desktop and inspect the current account and workspace. If you have personal and company workspaces, select the one intended for this exercise before checking its plan and features. Your browser and desktop app may use different sign-ins; changing the browser account does not prove that the app changed. On a phone, confirm the sign-in and open usage for the same workspace so that you do not compare different accounts.

CLI users run the following in the operating-system terminal; the command is the same in PowerShell, macOS Terminal and a Linux terminal. It is a shell command, not a message to Codex. It checks authentication state. If codex is missing, return to CLI installation; a missing executable does not establish an account problem.

codex login status

Record only the reported method and signed-in state, not login caches, cookies or keys. Run codex login and complete the browser flow only if you are signed out; a working login does not need to be cleared for this lesson. If your organization manages authentication, follow its administrator settings. Repeated local configuration changes do not remove organization restrictions.

Step 2: open the appropriate usage source

For ChatGPT sign-in, open the official Codex usage page. Confirm the account and workspace before reading the displayed windows, remaining allowance and reset times. In an interactive CLI session, /status shows current status; enter it after starting codex, not in PowerShell. For API-key access, check Usage and Billing in the corresponding Platform organization. ChatGPT usage does not replace an API bill.

/status

Read the label before interpreting percentages. In a fictional example, 30% used means 70% remains; if the display already says 30% remaining, do not invert it again. Missing or loading values are unknown, not zero. Different windows may have different reset times. One countdown does not establish that every limit has reset, and a later refresh is not a separate allowance.

Reading exercise: 30% can mean different things

These are fictional records, not your account data or a plan promise. A: personal workspace, one allowance window, metric “used,” value 30%. B: a different workspace, metric “remaining,” value 30%, reset time absent. Determine the remaining amount in each record, whether B's reset time can be inferred, and whether an API dashboard balance proves A has subscription allowance.

Answers: A has 70% remaining and B has 30%; B's reset time is unknown. Different workspaces must not be added into one balance or used to overwrite each other. An API balance does not establish ChatGPT subscription allowance. If a value or metric label is absent, record unknown rather than zero. On the actual usage page, check the source, workspace, window and timezone before recording the displayed value.

Maintenance note: current documentation states that ChatGPT Work and Codex share usage, so other Work tasks can affect the same account's allowance. Consult the official usage explanation and your usage page; prompt length alone cannot tell you how many tasks remain.

Step 3: make a shareable diagnostic note

Copy this template into a personal note and fill it only with information you can verify on screen. It is a record, not configuration; it need not be placed in the project root. Exclude your email, company name and all keys. Include the time zone, such as Asia/Taipei, to avoid mixing UTC and local times. Use unknown for unavailable fields.

Checked at: YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm timezone
Interface and version: desktop / CLI / browser
Authentication: ChatGPT / API / unknown
Workspace category: personal / managed / unknown
Usage source: Codex dashboard / Platform Usage
Window label: copied without private identifiers
Metric meaning: used / remaining / unknown
Displayed value: value / unknown
Reset time and timezone: value / unknown
Feature or error being checked: short description
Next step: verify account / wait / ask workspace admin

Optionally validate sign-in with a small read-only task, such as listing your practice folder. Success establishes that this interface can perform that task now, not that every model, cloud feature or external service is available. To avoid consuming allowance, stop at the status check and record task verification as not run. Do not test a limit by repeatedly sending large tasks until it is exhausted.

Troubleshooting, stopping and recovery

Browser signed in but CLI signed out: check whether the browser flow completed back to CLI, whether you are in the same system environment and whether CODEX_HOME differs. WSL and Windows have different home directories. Record the error and retry normal sign-in; do not upload auth.json for troubleshooting. For headless environments, consult the documented device-code flow and workspace permission rather than disabling certificate validation.

Signed in but a feature is missing: check interface, version, workspace role and plan support in that order; allowance may not be the issue. For a usage-limit message, record the named limit and reset time, save a handoff note and wait, or independently assess the options your account offers. Treat authentication, feature eligibility and usage limits separately. Reinstalling the app does not add account allowance.

This exercise changes no billing settings, so close the usage page when finished. If you actually want to sign out of CLI, run codex logout in the terminal. It clears the relevant stored authentication, not charges or file changes. Official documentation notes that CLI and IDE can share cached sign-in, so signing out in one may require signing in again in the other. Do not reset real account data merely to obtain a tidy tutorial screenshot.

Completion criteria and next steps

For a small exercise, compare notes made at two times. Confirm the account category, usage source, window and time zone match before comparing remaining values. If any field is unknown, obtain evidence rather than guessing the difference. You are finished when you know which billing source applies and can separate sign-in, eligibility and allowance issues. Continue with CLI commands, context handoff or using allowance effectively.

Checked on 2026-09-14 against official authentication guidance and usage and plan documentation. Account state and prices change; inspect your signed-in display. The template uses fictional fields, publishes no account screenshots and makes no claim that paid transactions were tested.

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Login to Workspace to Usage

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