OpenAI tests gifting Codex credits as new growth strategy

OpenAI is testing a feature that would let Codex users gift credits to others, as indicated by a hidden widget and a new Gifts entry on user profile pages. The feature would revise OpenAI's current terms that prohibit credit transfers, potentially creating a referral-like system to attract new and lapsed users. This strategy aims to compete with rivals like Anthropic's Claude Code and Cursor by turning the user base into a distribution channel.

OpenAI appears to be preparing a gifting layer for Codex that would let people pass credits to others rather than keeping usage tied to a single account. A recent build surfaces a hidden widget designed to help friends bring their ideas to life by sharing credits, plus a Gifts entry on the user profile page. The link points to a page that is not yet live, indicating groundwork ahead of a rollout rather than anything usable today. No timeline is attached, and the mechanics, such as how many credits can move, whether recipients must be new to Codex, and what caps or expirations apply, remain unsettled. The feature sits awkwardly with OpenAI's published terms, which currently state that Codex credits are non-transferable and not giftable. That implies any gifting flow would revise those terms or route through a separate promotional structure, closer to how referral rewards work than to a transfer of purchased balance. It would most plausibly appear in the same lower-left profile menu where invite-a-friend flows already live. The timing is the tell. OpenAI https://www.testingcatalog.com/tag/chatgpt/ ran a referral pilot from June 11 through June 24 in which eligible Plus and Pro users could invite up to three friends. Once a recipient sent their first Codex message, both people received a banked rate-limit reset. That window has now closed. Gifting credits reads as the next probe along the same line: a loop that pulls new and lapsed users into Codex through existing users, with a clear path toward selling bundles later. For a product competing with Anthropic's Claude Code and Cursor for daily developer attention, turning the user base into a distribution channel is cheaper than discounts, and a credit economy that can be gifted, earned, and eventually bought tends to grow once the plumbing is in place. Whether it graduates from a dead link to a shipping feature is the question worth watching.