August 13 reset chronology

DateMechanism and scopeEvidence status
ScheduledFive-hour and possible weekly recovery under current pricingvalidated; current documentation
June 11 onwardEligible users can hold and manually apply expiring banked resetsvalidated; effect remains account-dependent
July 12/13500,000-user banked grant plus first broad banked grant announced for the 7M milestonedirect announcement; archive-pending
Current Desktop referralsOffer-specific benefit after an eligible invitee completes the listed action in Chat, Work, or Codexvalidated; exact offer remains account-dependent
June 26–29Incident recovery after fraud/abuse systems incorrectly rate-limited some accountsvalidated; status incident
July 25Reset for all Codex and ChatGPT Work users after an almost global outagevalidated; direct announcement
July 28Reset for all paid Codex and ChatGPT Work usersvalidated; direct announcement
July 29Reset for all Codex and ChatGPT Work users, plus Sol and five-hour updatesvalidated; direct announcement
August 1Reset for Codex and ChatGPT Work, announced with efficiency and Luna messagingdirect announcement; archive-pending
August 8Reset for all paid ChatGPT Work and Codex usersdirect announcement; archive-pending
August 11Reset for all paid ChatGPT Work and Codex usersdirect announcement; archive-pending
August 13Reset announced for “everyone” after Codex crossed 15M active usersdirect announcement; archive-pending

These are not interchangeable. Scheduled recovery follows the applicable clock. A provider-wide hard reset refreshes the announcement’s group automatically. Incident or promotional resets have event-specific scope. A banked reset is expiring product functionality that an eligible user controls. Purchased usage credits let work continue after included limits; they do not refill the five-hour or weekly counters.

The perishable-capacity analysis explains why a hard reset can erase the opportunity to use remaining non-rollover allowance without turning that allowance into owned tokens, cash, API credit, or purchased balance.

Five-hour status: documented, not currently in use

OpenAI pricing documents shared five-hour windows for local messages and cloud chats, with possible additional weekly limits. OpenAI Support said the five-hour display was temporarily removed during incident response.

On July 29, OpenAI product lead Tibo Sottiaux said enforcement had been temporarily paused while OpenAI investigated and announced restoration for July 30. The windows did not return and are not currently in use; current reports continue to show weekly-only displays. No cited first-party announcement confirms a completed restoration or formal deprecation.

Their future policy state is therefore unresolved/uneven. AIHackers does not expect dependable five-hour enforcement to return in the near term, while some community reports say it might. That expectation is a falsifiable site forecast, not provider policy.

The same announcement said OpenAI expected typical Sol allowance to last around 18% longer after improvements. That is a provider projection, not an AIHackers benchmark or a guarantee for every task, effort level, plan, or account.

What OpenAI has confirmed about banking

OpenAI announced reset banking for eligible users on June 11. The current ChatGPT Desktop referral program is broader and offer-specific: a promotion can name Chat, Work, or Codex and can grant usage credits, a rate-limit reset, temporary additional usage, or another listed benefit. Eligibility, cap, cooldown, qualifying action, redemption window, and expiry can vary by offer. A referral credit is not API credit unless that offer explicitly says otherwise; a reset or temporary usage benefit is not cash, purchased ChatGPT credit, or a transferable balance. The extra Codex usage referral guide keeps those terms separate from this chronology.

OpenAI’s release notes say banked resets are usable for 30 days after grant. The July 12/13 announcement described a 500,000-user grant and the first broad banked grant for the 7M milestone. The bounded August 13 review found no later directly announced broad banked grant. Dated community reports of grants disappearing around August 12–13 are community-observed, not proof of universal behavior or a formal product withdrawal.

The initial Plus and Pro referral window ran through June 24, 2026. In that historical offer, a qualifying referral could grant another reset after the invited user completed the required Codex action and passed eligibility checks. A reset earned during that offer could remain usable afterward until its own expiry. Do not reuse that reward or deadline as the terms of a current invitation.

The practical rule is to keep a banked reset while normal capacity remains, then apply it when an active limit blocks valuable work or expiry is near. This preserves option value without pretending the feature is permanent rollover.

No verified caching cause

There is no verified evidence that the July 25, July 28, July 29, August 1, August 8, August 11, or August 13 resets compensated for prompt-caching or compaction defects. The July 25 announcement attributed that reset to outage recovery. Later posts used efficiency, product, calendar, or milestone framing; none establishes that caching work caused a reset.

For the separate cache and token claims, use Prompt Caching: Cut AI Agent Token Costs and the Codex verification ledger.

Sources

Last verified: August 13, 2026. Reset scope, limits, commands, promotions, credits, and account behavior can change.