Note
October 1, 2026
2 min read
OpenAI, Have Mercy
By Cristiano Pierry
Codex offers to save hours with Fast mode while the weekly allowance is already down to 15% on Wednesday.
Codex just informed me that, across my 30 chats today, Fast mode could have saved me about 2 hours and 24 minutes.
That is a very specific amount of regret to deliver in a pop-up.
Then I look at my weekly usage: 15% left. It is only Wednesday. Fast mode uses more of that allowance, so this feels like the fuel light coming on and the car suggesting I try Sport mode.
Thank you. I was hoping to make it to Friday.
I understand the appeal of faster answers. I would love those hours back. But when I am trying to stretch the rest of my allowance, the suggestion lands a little differently. It feels like my coding assistant has paused work to tell me I could be living a better life if I stopped being cheap.
The banner does say “Increases plan usage.” Fair enough. Still, if you can calculate how much time I could have saved across 30 chats, I wish you would also consider how much usage I have left before encouraging me to spend it faster.
Maybe at 15%, the pop-up could simply say: “You're doing great. Let's get you through the week.”
Please, OpenAI. A little mercy for those of us driving the frontier of AI with the fuel light on.
This writing reflects my personal perspectives on product management, AI, and content discovery. It does not represent the official position of my employer or any affiliated organization.