You open the app to finish one task, get a useful result and think of something else it could do.

Soon you're checking on one agent while another works on an idea you hadn't planned to start.

This is the loop I worry about with tools like Codex and Claude Code.

It can feel like TikTok for work, except every new thing comes with a reasonable excuse: this might help me get more done.

Now put that feeling next to the pricing news. OpenAI has introduced Pro 500 at $500 a month and reopened Pro 200 with a lower allowance for new subscribers who aren't eligible to keep the old limits. OpenAI

My concern is that we could build very expensive habits while access feels generous.

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OpenAI's updated plan documentation confirms that Pro 500 includes Astra Ultrafast and the highest allowance among its three Pro tiers. Eligible existing Pro 200 subscribers keep their previous allowance through October 29, 2026, while their subscription stays active. After that, they move to the lower allowance at the same $200 monthly price. OpenAI

Separately, OpenAI's Tibo said the reopened $200 Pro subscription would provide half the previous allowance's dollar value when measured at API prices. That's the pay-as-you-go pricing developers use.

He also argued that more efficient models would let subscribers get more work done, and said the five-hour limit would stay removed. So half the API-dollar value doesn't automatically mean half as many completed tasks.

Still, that is a difficult promise for a customer to judge. You pay the same monthly amount, while the calculation behind what you receive changes. What matters is whether your usual work still fits.

The extra allowances are real. These can be useful benefits. They give people room to test a model or finish interrupted work.

Once more usage is available, it's easy to spend it on another version of a page, a new research idea or an improvement to something that was already good enough.

That's how I think we can become token-hungry monsters. Tokens are the chunks of text these systems process, and burning through more of them can start to feel like an achievement.

The danger is confusing all that activity with progress. A finished project gives you somewhere to stop. An allowance that hasn't run out yet gives you a reason to continue.

Axios reported on September 29 that OpenAI's annualised revenue run rate was approaching $70 billion. That describes its recent revenue pace stretched over a year, rather than cash already earned over twelve months. It also says nothing by itself about profit. Axios

My reading is that getting AI embedded in daily work makes a subscription harder to give up. Once your normal routine depends on it, a tighter allowance becomes a decision about how you work, as well as what you pay.

That doesn't prove resets are a deliberate scheme to make us dependent. They can support product launches, compensate users or reflect better efficiency. The habit can develop without anyone announcing that intention.

My suspicion is that pressure to turn growth into sustainable profit could make generous access harder to maintain, especially around a public listing. That could mean higher prices, tighter limits or charging separately for expensive tasks.

That's a prediction, not an announced post-IPO plan. An IPO doesn't require an immediate price increase, and cheaper models or stronger competition could push the other way. Anthropic's latest release, for example, paired lower pricing with higher subscription limits. Anthropic

But I wouldn't build my working life around the assumption that every reset and temporary allowance will keep coming.

I want these tools to help me finish things. If I spend the evening checking agents, starting side projects and asking for one more version, I need to count that time too.

Before paying for more usage, I'd look at what the last allowance actually helped me complete. A bigger subscription won't fix a workday with no stopping point.

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