Igeekphone News: OpenAI has temporarily lifted the five-hour usage limit for select premium subscribers using its AI coding tools, while also revealing plans to further optimize the efficiency of its latest GPT-5.6 Sol model.
The announcement was made by Thibault Sottiaux, Engineering Lead for Codex at OpenAI, in a post on X.
Temporary Removal of Usage Limits
According to Sottiaux, the five-hour usage cap has been temporarily removed for both Codex and ChatGPT Work for users subscribed to the Plus, Business, and Pro plans.
The temporary change is intended to give eligible subscribers uninterrupted access to the company’s AI-assisted coding and productivity tools during the testing period.
Sottiaux also noted that platform usage limits would be reset within the next hour after the announcement, indicating that the change is temporary rather than a permanent policy adjustment.
GPT-5.6 Sol to Receive Efficiency Improvements
In addition to the usage-limit update, Sottiaux revealed that OpenAI is working on further efficiency optimizations for the GPT-5.6 Sol model.
The planned improvements are designed to:
- Increase overall inference efficiency
- Reduce computational resource consumption
- Allow users to complete more tasks with the same available compute budget
- Improve overall responsiveness and productivity
He added that more detailed information will be shared once internal performance statistics have been finalized.
OpenAI Platform Surpasses 6 Million Active Users
Sottiaux also disclosed that the number of active users across the OpenAI platform has exceeded six million, highlighting the rapid growth of the company’s AI ecosystem as demand for coding assistants, reasoning models, and productivity tools continues to expand.
The milestone reflects increasing adoption among both individual subscribers and enterprise customers.
GPT-5.6 Sol Delivers Strong Benchmark Performance
Introduced as OpenAI’s latest high-performance reasoning model, GPT-5.6 Sol includes several advanced capabilities aimed at complex problem-solving and software development.
Among its notable features are:
- Max inference strength, providing deeper reasoning for difficult tasks.
- Ultra Mode, which accelerates complex workflows by coordinating multiple specialized sub-intelligences.
According to OpenAI’s benchmark data, GPT-5.6 Sol has achieved industry-leading performance in programming tasks.
On Terminal-Bench 2.1, the model recorded:
| Model | Terminal-Bench 2.1 Score |
|---|---|
| GPT-5.6 Sol (Standard Mode) | 88.8% |
| Claude Mythos 5 | 88.0% |
| GPT-5.6 Sol (Ultra Mode) | 91.9% |
The 91.9% score achieved in Ultra Mode represents a significant improvement over the standard configuration, demonstrating the effectiveness of OpenAI’s enhanced inference architecture for demanding programming workloads.
Outlook
The temporary removal of usage limits, together with the planned efficiency upgrades for GPT-5.6 Sol, underscores OpenAI’s ongoing efforts to improve both accessibility and performance across its AI platform. As competition in AI-assisted software development continues to intensify, enhancements that reduce computational costs while delivering stronger reasoning capabilities are likely to become increasingly important for both professional developers and enterprise customers.