OpenAI discontinues Codex and faces reports of model quality degradation for paid users

According to multiple Reddit and blog posts, OpenAI has discontinued Codex, its last "assistant-like" coding model, and users report quality degradation even for paid tiers. The retirement removes a standalone coding-focused model from OpenAI's product line, shifting developers toward GPT-4 integration. Posts archived on r/codex document developer frustration with reduced output quality.

Update (2026-09-23): According to developer Vincent Schmalbach, OpenAI is retiring GPT-5.5 from Codex on October 14, 2026—174 days after its April 23 launch. Schmalbach reports that GPT-5.5 behaved like an interactive assistant that returned results after...