01 · The 5-hour window: same idea, one difference
On both, the window opens with your first message and closes 5 hours later — it is not tied to the clock, and everyone's start time is different. Claude Code drains it on a rolling basis (usage from ~5 hours ago frees up gradually); Codex on Plus is a hard bucket that empties at the 5-hour mark.
The one structural difference: Codex Pro ($100 and $200) dropped the 5-hour gate in August 2026, leaving only the weekly allowance. Every Claude plan, Max included, keeps the 5-hour session.
02 · Weekly reset: rolling vs fixed
This is the difference people trip over. Codex's weekly window rolls from your first request after the previous reset — use it on Tuesday and it resets the following Tuesday, use it on Friday and it moves. Your billing date is irrelevant.
Claude Code's weekly allowance resets at a fixed time each week assigned to your account, visible under Settings → Usage. It does not move, no matter when you start using it. If you plan work around a known reset time, Claude is predictable; if you want a fresh week whenever you come back from a break, Codex's rolling window is friendlier.
03 · Plans side by side
Codex: Plus ($20) is gated by both windows. Pro $100 is roughly 5× Plus, Pro $200 roughly 20×, and both drop the 5-hour gate. Business / Enterprise seats default to roughly Plus level.
Pro costs $20/month, Max 5x $100/month and Max 20x $200/month. Max provides approximately 5× or 20× Pro usage. All retain a 5-hour and general weekly limit; Max also caps Fable within that weekly allowance.
Neither publishes absolute token counts. Both moved to token-based metering in 2026 (Codex in April; Claude has always metered input + output tokens), so "messages per day" figures you find elsewhere are outdated.
04 · How often each one actually resets everyone
This is where the two companies differ most, and it is the part no pricing page tells you. OpenAI's Codex lead announces fleet-wide resets on X — after outages, at user milestones, at model launches, and as compensation for metering bugs. Anthropic does the same on @ClaudeDevs, but far less often, usually around a model launch or an incident.
The numbers below come straight from our records and update as we log new resets. In practice, a Codex Plus subscriber gets meaningfully more allowance than the plan states because of these resets; a Claude subscriber should plan on the stated allowance.
05 · Banked resets
Only Codex has them. OpenAI sometimes issues a reset credit you redeem yourself from the profile menu instead of applying it immediately; they stack, expire 30 days after issue, and redeeming one refreshes both windows. Anthropic resets are always applied directly — there is nothing to save or time.
06 · Checking where you stand
Codex: /status in the CLI shows both bars; /usage shows banked resets and their expiry; on desktop, avatar → Usage. Claude Code: /usage shows both windows (and Fable separately on Max); when you are limited, the message itself states the reset time.
07 · So which one?
Compare your workload with the limits shown in your account. Codex Pro removes the 5-hour gate; Claude Max keeps it and adds a Fable weekly cap within the overall allowance. Neither plan promises unlimited usage.
Either way, the top of each provider page here tells you the last time that company reset everyone, and the "since last reset" figure tells you how the current wait compares to history.
// AND THE OTHER FIVE
Codex Plus, Claude Code, Gemini and Kimi retain 5-hour windows. New Cursor and Grok plans share weekly usage; legacy Cursor remains monthly. New Kimi plans have a monthly cap, while legacy Kimi also has a weekly limit.