ChatGPT says you reached your limit. What can you do?

The message means one specific allowance on your plan is used up, and ChatGPT shows the reset time for it in the app, under Settings, then Usage, or in the limit notice itself. Your options are to wait for that reset, switch to a model or tool that still has allowance, upgrade your plan, or, for Codex and ChatGPT Work only, buy credits or an instant reset.

ChatGPT has four separate kinds of limit, and the fix depends on which one you hit. The details below come from OpenAI’s help center and pricing documentation as of late September 2026.

Which limit did you hit?

Chat model allowances. Each model has its own allowance that varies by plan. OpenAI’s Pro tiers article says that at a model’s limit the model may be unavailable until its allowance resets, that ChatGPT displays the reset time when it can, and that a limit does not mean your account is restricted. On Free, everyday text chat with GPT-5.6 Luna is unlimited subject to abuse safeguards, per the Free tier FAQ, while uploads, image generation, voice and data analysis have their own limits. Plus adds higher model limits and priority access, with message caps possible during high demand.

Tool limits. The file uploads FAQ sets a rolling limit of 80 files every 3 hours, with Free users held to 3 uploads a day, 512 MB per file, and project caps of 5 files on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, and 40 on Pro. OpenAI may lower these at peak hours, failed uploads can count against the quota, and ChatGPT does not show how much of the upload quota you have left. Deep research has a per-plan task allowance with an in-product counter. Image generation counts toward usage limits and, in Codex and Work, uses allowance 3 to 5 times faster than a text turn.

Work and Codex allowances. Codex and ChatGPT Work share one pool, measured in a five-hour window and, on most plans, a weekly window. OpenAI’s pricing documentation estimates that a Plus plan covers 5 to 45 local GPT-6 Astra messages, 15 to 160 GPT-6.1 Sol messages or 350 to 3,000 GPT-6 Luna messages per five-hour window, and says Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit. Fast mode uses included allowance at 2.5 times the standard rate. You can hit the five-hour limit while weekly allowance remains, per the Astra usage article.

Limits you set yourself. If you connected another app through Sign in with ChatGPT, that app has a weekly cap you chose, and the other apps article says the app can hit its cap while your plan still has usage left.

When each limit resets

Chat model limits reset on the schedule shown in the app; OpenAI does not publish fixed hours for them. Codex and Work five-hour windows start when you send the first message after the previous window ends. The weekly window starts with your first Work or Codex request after a reset and runs seven days from that request. Upload limits are rolling (3 hours) or daily (Free). For plans with a fixed monthly deep research allowance, the counter resets every 30 days from the date of first use.

Upgrading resets usage on the spot. The Free tier FAQ says rate limits reset when you move to Plus, Pro or Business.

What you can do

Wait, and check the clock. Settings, then Usage shows which limit you hit and when it resets; in the Codex CLI, /status shows remaining limits.
Switch models. At a model’s limit, OpenAI’s advice is to use another available model or wait. In Work and Codex the pool is shared, so switching models does not restore allowance there, but a lower reasoning level, smaller prompts, fewer attached files and fewer MCP servers make the allowance last longer, per OpenAI’s own tips.
Upgrade. Go is $8 a month, Plus $20, and Pro $100, $200 or $500. Pro 200 includes more usage than Pro 100 and Pro 500 the most, and the Pro tiers article notes that new Pro 200 subscriptions carry a lower allowance than earlier ones did.
Buy credits, for Codex and Work only. Plus and Pro users, and some Free and Go accounts, can buy credits in Settings, then Usage. They cover Codex, ChatGPT Work and the Excel, Word and PowerPoint add-ins, not ordinary chat models, and OpenAI says credits do not provide additional usage for every model or feature. Credits are valid 12 months and non-refundable except where the law requires.
Buy an instant reset, for Codex and Work only. Plus and Pro users can buy a reset that restores the five-hour and weekly allowance immediately. It pulls your weekly allowance forward rather than adding to it, so the next automatic weekly reset moves to seven days after your first request following the reset. It cannot be saved for later, and OpenAI generally does not refund it.
Use an API key. OpenAI’s pricing documentation says anyone can run extra local Codex chats with an API key at standard API rates; GPT-6.1 Sol is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens on the API pricing page. This sidesteps plan limits because it bills separately, and it only works in Codex, not in the chat app.

What does not work

Support cannot reset ChatGPT or Codex limits; the Pro tiers article says so directly and adds that no setting bypasses or raises a limit. Signing out and back in, or retrying, does not restore usage, per the other apps article. Sharing credentials or reselling access is against the terms and can get an account restricted. Banked resets handed out during the GPT-6 Astra launch in September 2026 were promotional, expire on the date shown in the account, and are not reissued, per the banked resets article.

When the limit is on one vendor and the work will not wait, a prepaid multi-model chat is the remaining route: Brass sells $10 to $250 packs spendable across Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek at each model’s list price plus 25 percent, with no expiry and no API key.

For what a message costs on the API, and how that compares with a $20 Plus plan, see Is there a pay-as-you-go version of ChatGPT?

Sources

Related guides

Is there a pay-as-you-go version of ChatGPT?
Not for the chat app. ChatGPT sells $8, $20 and $100 to $500 monthly plans. Pay-per-use exists through the API and add-on credits, and most messages cost cents.
Do OpenAI API credits expire?
Yes. OpenAI’s prepaid API credits expire one year after purchase, are non-refundable and cannot be extended. What that covers and how to check your balance.
Where to buy a ChatGPT gift card and what it covers
OpenAI sells digital ChatGPT gift cards of $15 to $250 through US retailers such as Best Buy. How to redeem one, what the balance pays for and what it will not.