Codex CLI feature protip /statusline

TL;DR: There are a few ways to check your ChatGPT Codex usage, including: the web analytics page (covered in yesterday’s post) and the Codex CLI’s own status line, which can put live 5-hour and weekly percentages right at the bottom of your terminal session. The CLI method is easy to miss if you don’t have it enabled, thankfully it is super easy and configurable with the slash command /statusline.

Codex CLI Configure Status Line menu with five-hour-limit and weekly-limit options checked, plus live status line at the bottom reading gpt-5.5 xhigh, Ready, Context 89% left, 5h 88%, weekly 38%
Codex CLI’s /statusline menu. Toggle the items you want, then press Enter to save. The preview at the bottom shows the resulting status line live.

What Exactly Is the Codex CLI Status Line?

It is a single text line that Codex CLI renders at the bottom of your interactive session. You can enable a variety of features but for usage tracking, the useful part is this: there are two opt-in items called five-hour-limit and weekly-limit that show your remaining quota as a percentage, refreshed as you go. That means fewer trips (or maybe never) to the analytics page while you are working.

How To Turn On the 5-Hour and Weekly Indicators?

  1. Open Codex CLI in your terminal. By running codex
  2. At the prompt, type /statusline and hit Enter. The “Configure Status Line” menu opens.
  3. Use the arrow keys to navigate. Spacebar toggles the [ ] checkbox for each item. Toggle on at minimum five-hour-limit and weekly-limit.
  4. Press Enter to save. If you Esc out without pressing Enter, your changes are discarded.

That last step trip might trip people up. The menu does not auto-save when you toggle. You have to confirm with Enter, the same key you used to open the menu. Once saved, the new status line is live immediately at the bottom of your Codex session.

If you prefer config-as-code over a TUI, the same items can be set in ~/.codex/config.toml under tui.status_line. The slash-command menu is just the friendly front end for that config. 👍

What Each Item on the Menu Does

Item What it shows
run-state Ready, Working, or Thinking
context-remaining Percentage of context window remaining
context-used Percentage of context window used
five-hour-limit Remaining usage on the 5-hour bucket
weekly-limit Remaining usage on the weekly bucket
codex-version Codex application version (mine is 0.130.0)
pull-request-number Open PR number for the current branch, when one exists
branch-changes Committed branch changes against the default branch

The PR-related items only render when they apply, so they do not clutter the line on non-git sessions. 

Tip

The status line shows live percentages but not the reset timestamps or your credit balance. For “when does my window roll over” and “do I have credits banked,” use the web analytics page. The linked walkthrough also covers the rate card numbers for Plus and Pro.

Some Cool Aspects of the Web Usage Analytics Page

The CLI status line is a quick glance tool. Super handy for keeping current status in view but not great for trends etc, the web page at https://chatgpt.com/codex/cloud/settings/analytics has a lot more stuff:

  • Exact reset timestamps for both buckets, such as “Resets 10:16 PM”
  • Credits remaining balance and a button to top up
  • The upgrade prompt and pricing shown on the analytics page
  • Usage breakdown by client (CLI, Extension, Cloud, Code review)

 

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