Asks to verify the phone number, but the code does not arrive

[som1one]

To log in, Codex asks you to enter your phone number. When I try to insert it, it seems to send, but I press "send" again and it says it can't send the SMS, even though everything worked.

I pay for a subscription and can't use GPT.

[Gecko51]

This isn't really a Codex CLI issue, it's the ChatGPT account phone verification step that runs on OpenAI's side. Codex just hands you off to that flow.

The most common cause is rate limiting after pressing "send" more than once. Each click queues another SMS request and the backend silently throttles you, so the second attempt fails even though the first one technically went out. Wait 15 to 20 minutes without touching anything, then retry once.

Second cause is your carrier or country. Virtual numbers, MVNOs, and some Eastern European or Asian carriers regularly drop OpenAI's SMS with no error in the UI. If you have a second SIM lying around, try that.

Third, the number might already be tied to a different OpenAI account, in which case the code will never arrive and the only fix is going through help.openai.com.

If you just want to unblock yourself and use the CLI today, skip the ChatGPT login flow and use an API key instead:

codex login --with-api-key

Or pipe it from an env var:

printenv OPENAI_API_KEY | codex login --with-api-key

Heads up: API key auth is billed against your API credits, not your ChatGPT Plus subscription, and GPT-5.5 isn't available on that path (it's ChatGPT-login only). For most coding work the default API model is fine.

If none of that gets the SMS through, your only real option is opening a ticket on help.openai.com. The Codex repo can't see what's happening on the auth backend.

[EricGT]

I have to wonder if this is not related to the latest ChatGPT update.

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes

Transcribed to text so that it can be found with search engines.

April 30, 2026

Advanced Account Security in ChatGPT

We’re rolling out Advanced Account Security, an optional setting for personal ChatGPT accounts that adds stronger sign-in requirements and stricter account safeguards to help reduce the risk of ATO (account take over), unauthorized access, and data exposure.

With Advanced Account Security enabled, ChatGPT uses stronger sign-in methods like passkeys or compatible security keys and turns off weaker paths like password sign-in, email/SMS sign-in codes, and email-based account recovery. It also adds recovery keys, shorter active sessions, login notifications, and session management controls, giving users more protection and visibility across their account.

Because these protections are stricter, recovery is also stricter. Users should save their recovery keys and keep access to their enrolled passkeys or security keys. If access to all sign-in methods and recovery keys is lost, access to the account may be lost.

Learn more: Advanced Account Security