A new offer providing six months of free Codex access to open-source maintainers has drawn criticism from developers who view the time-limited promotion as a marketing stunt to drive future paid subscriptions. Commenters also argue the program is overly GitHub-centric and express concern that the restricted tier will still be used for AI training data. Many developers advocate for perpetual free access models, like those offered by JetBrains, rather than temporary deals that may disrupt long-term project workflows.