Codex Errors May Signal Temporary Account Restrictions, Not Capacity Limits

Codex users have reportedly been seeing repeated “Selected model is at capacity. Please try a different model” messages even when the chosen model has not reached its actual capacity. SecurityOnline claims the message may instead indicate that OpenAI has temporarily restricted the account following automated checks based on account activity. The report says switching models or changing reasoning levels does not resolve the issue, and repeated retries continue to fail. It does not provide figures on how many users are affected or independently verify that every such error reflects account flagging.

An OpenAI staff member reportedly told the company’s community forum that access to particular models can be temporarily limited according to account activity, including for users with active paid subscriptions. The staff member said OpenAI cannot provide details of the security checks, but that access is reassessed automatically and may return after the activity prompting the restriction stops. Users are advised to review OpenAI’s Terms of Use and troubleshooting guidance.

The article says support tickets are not expected to resolve these cases, while refund requests may be possible, depending on the appeal; it separately claims Apple-channel refund requests often work for iOS subscribers.