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.