OpenAI is preparing to fold Work, the mode in which ChatGPT carries out tasks on a user's behalf, into its main chat experience, and to put ChatGPT and Codex on a single usage budget. The company set out both changes in an email to ChatGPT subscribers that BleepingComputer reported on November 1, 2026 and TechCrunch on November 2. Its Help Center now states that from December the usage allowance on Plus, Pro and Business plans will be shared across ChatGPT and Codex.
The interface change targets an app that has grown crowded. The ChatGPT desktop app currently has separate ChatGPT and Codex sections, and inside ChatGPT people choose between a Chat tab for conversation and a Work tab for jobs the assistant executes. According to the email, the combined experience will let someone start with an idea in an ordinary conversation and have ChatGPT finish it in the same place, drawing on their files and plugins to build a website, assemble a presentation or complete tasks on the web while they review and steer its progress.
The merge will not reach everyone at once. OpenAI told subscribers it will test the joint Chat and Work view over the coming weeks with a small group of users and widen access after gathering feedback. It gave no date for a general release. Codex, the company's coding agent, keeps its own space in the desktop app rather than being absorbed into the new view.
The billing change is more concrete. The Help Center page says usage will be measured in tokens and that the share of the allowance a request consumes will depend on the model chosen and the task. More capable models and complex jobs will generally take more of the budget, while Instant chat will not draw on it at all. Subscribers will see their combined remaining usage and reset times in the Usage section of Settings. Once they reach the cap, they can wait for the reset, move to a higher plan or buy credits for eligible features.
OpenAI says it expects most users will not have to wait for resets more often than they do today. TechCrunch's reading of the email is that some people may hit resets more frequently, depending on how much they use the products and which models they pick. The same message, according to BleepingComputer, also confirmed that OpenAI had already doubled Work and Codex allowances on its Pro 100, Pro 200 and Pro 500 tiers, effective October 29.
The consolidation follows a similar step by a direct rival: TechCrunch notes that Anthropic brought the chat and Cowork functions of Claude onto a single screen in September. For subscribers who use both OpenAI products, coding sessions in Codex and long Work tasks in ChatGPT will now draw on the same pool, so the model picked for each request will weigh more heavily on how long the allowance lasts.
Several details remain open. OpenAI has not published how many tokens each plan includes, and the Help Center page names only the Plus, Pro and Business plans, leaving unclear how other tiers are treated. Who joins the first test group, and when the merged view reaches the wider user base, are also unannounced. The account of the email comes from the publications that saw it; OpenAI's own public material on the change is so far limited to the Help Center page.