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/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')