diff --git a/src/main/rate-limits/codex-fetcher-auth-errors.test.ts b/src/main/rate-limits/codex-fetcher-auth-errors.test.ts
index 43b3bc44e5d..b172551e1dd 100644
--- a/src/main/rate-limits/codex-fetcher-auth-errors.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/rate-limits/codex-fetcher-auth-errors.test.ts
@@ -97,6 +97,51 @@ describe('fetchCodexRateLimits auth errors', () => {
     expect(ptySpawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
   })
 
+  it('returns the app-server chatgpt-auth-required error without spawning the PTY probe', async () => {
+    const rpcChild = makeRpcChild()
+    const authError = 'chatgpt authentication required to read rate limits'
+
+    childSpawnMock.mockReturnValue(rpcChild)
+    rpcChild.stdin.write.mockImplementation((line: string) => {
+      const msg = JSON.parse(line) as { id?: number; method?: string }
+      if (msg.method === 'initialize') {
+        setTimeout(() => {
+          rpcChild.stdout.emit(
+            'data',
+            Buffer.from(`${JSON.stringify({ jsonrpc: '2.0', id: msg.id, result: {} })}\n`)
+          )
+        }, 0)
+      }
+      if (msg.method === 'account/rateLimits/read') {
+        setTimeout(() => {
+          rpcChild.stdout.emit(
+            'data',
+            Buffer.from(
+              `${JSON.stringify({
+                jsonrpc: '2.0',
+                id: msg.id,
+                error: { code: -32600, message: authError }
+              })}\n`
+            )
+          )
+        }, 0)
+      }
+    })
+
+    const resultPromise = fetchCodexRateLimits()
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(1)
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(1)
+
+    await expect(resultPromise).resolves.toMatchObject({
+      provider: 'codex',
+      session: null,
+      weekly: null,
+      status: 'error',
+      error: authError
+    })
+    expect(ptySpawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+  })
+
   it('preserves Codex PTY auth errors when the CLI exits before status is available', async () => {
     const ptyHandlers: { onData?: (data: string) => void; onExit?: () => void } = {}
     const authError =
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/tooltip.test.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/tooltip.test.ts
index d9387633fa0..6daf47a8c1c 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/tooltip.test.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/tooltip.test.ts
@@ -185,6 +185,20 @@ describe('provider usage error copy', () => {
     )
   })
 
+  it('classifies the Codex chatgpt-auth-required rate-limits read error as auth, not Limited', () => {
+    // Why: the message mentions "rate limits" only as the object it failed to
+    // read; labeling it "Limited" would wrongly imply the user hit a limit.
+    const p = provider({
+      provider: 'codex',
+      error: 'chatgpt authentication required to read rate limits'
+    })
+
+    expect(getProviderUsageStatusLabel(p)).toBe('Refresh failed')
+    expect(getProviderUsageErrorMessage(p)).toBe(
+      'Codex usage could not be refreshed. Agent sessions may still be signed in.'
+    )
+  })
+
   it('keeps generic OAuth and network failures as raw refresh details', () => {
     const oauth = provider({ error: 'OAuth API returned 500' })
     const network = provider({ error: 'Network error while refreshing OAuth usage: ECONNRESET' })
diff --git a/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/usage-error-copy.ts b/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/usage-error-copy.ts
index 83fc1888beb..0b0c3bc2eb6 100644
--- a/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/usage-error-copy.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/src/components/status-bar/usage-error-copy.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,13 @@ export function getProviderDisplayName(provider: ProviderRateLimits['provider'])
 }
 
 function isUsageRateLimitError(message: string | null): boolean {
-  return Boolean(message && /\brate[- ]?limits?\b|\brate[- ]?limited\b/i.test(message))
+  // Why: Codex app-server's "chatgpt authentication required to read rate
+  // limits" mentions rate limits only as the thing it could not read; treat
+  // authentication-required failures as auth, never as the user being limited.
+  if (!message || /\bauthentication required\b/i.test(message)) {
+    return false
+  }
+  return /\brate[- ]?limits?\b|\brate[- ]?limited\b/i.test(message)
 }
 
 const USAGE_AUTH_ERROR_PATTERNS = [
@@ -45,6 +51,7 @@ const USAGE_AUTH_ERROR_PATTERNS = [
   /\bauth (?:is missing|tokens are missing|does not expose)\b/i,
   /\bunauthori[sz]ed\b/i,
   /\bunauthenticated\b/i,
+  /\bauthentication required\b/i,
   /\bplease reauthenticate\b/i,
   /\bsign in\b/i,
   /\blogged in to another account\b/i,
diff --git a/src/shared/codex-auth-errors.ts b/src/shared/codex-auth-errors.ts
index 04bf9c9f71e..9f25a4b444c 100644
--- a/src/shared/codex-auth-errors.ts
+++ b/src/shared/codex-auth-errors.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,11 @@ const CODEX_AUTH_ERROR_PATTERNS = [
   /please reauthenticate/i,
   /not logged in/i,
   /token data is not available/i,
-  /auth (?:is missing|tokens are missing|does not expose)/i
+  /auth (?:is missing|tokens are missing|does not expose)/i,
+  // Why: app-server rejects account/rateLimits/read with this when auth.json
+  // holds only an API key; without classification the fetcher falls through to
+  // a hidden PTY probe that can only time out (15s) on every refresh.
+  /chatgpt authentication required/i
 ]
 const ANSI_ESCAPE_RE = new RegExp(`${String.fromCharCode(27)}\\[[0-9;]*[a-zA-Z]`, 'g')