How to maximize Codex usage

This post goes over how to maximize your OpenAI Codex usage so you don’t go over the 5 hour window.

Problem

You’re constantly hitting the 5 hour usage limit on Codex:

⚠ Heads up, you have less than 25% of your 5h limit left. Run /status for a breakdown.

■ You’ve hit your usage limit. To get more access now, send a request to your admin or try again at Apr 20th, 2026 4:20 AM.

Try disabling fast mode and unused MCPs as well as changing your model.

Disable fast mode temporarily in your current session:

/fast off

Or disable it permanently in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[features]
fast_mode = false

If you have service_tier = "flex" in ~/.codex/config.toml, then delete it or replace it with another value:

service_tier = "flex"

Disable unused MCP servers by editing your config:

vim ~/.codex/config.toml

Search for mcp_servers. For example:

[mcp_servers.figma]
url = "https://mcp.figma.com/mcp"

To disable it, comment it out or set enabled = false:

enabled = false

For example:

[mcp_servers.figma]
url = "https://mcp.figma.com/mcp"
enabled = false

If you’re working on simpler coding tasks (e.g., writing tests), choose a smaller, faster, and more cost-efficient model like gpt-*-mini:

/model

Now you should be able to use Codex more and for a longer period.