If you pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus, you are already paying for a very capable model. You are just using it in one place: the ChatGPT app. The same subscription can power a Telegram bot that runs 24/7, answers from your phone's chat list, runs scheduled jobs and browses the web for you, with no API key and no per-token bill.
This post shows the whole setup with Hermes Agent. It takes about ten minutes, most of it creating the Telegram bot.
Why this works
Hermes Agent has an openai-codex provider. Instead of billing each request to the OpenAI API, it signs in with your ChatGPT account the same way OpenAI's Codex tools do, and uses the quota that comes with your subscription. You approve it once with a device code on OpenAI's own site. Hermes never sees your password.
| Monthly | |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus (you already pay this) | $20 |
| Always-on Hermes hosting, OpenClaw Launch Lite | $3 first month (new customers), then $6 |
| Per-token API charges | $0 |
| Total | $23 the first month, $26 after |
ChatGPT Pro works the same way with much higher limits.
Step 1: Create the Telegram bot
- In Telegram, open @BotFather and send
/newbot. - Pick a display name and a username ending in
bot. - BotFather replies with a token like
123456:ABC-DEF.... Copy it and keep it private. Anyone with the token controls the bot.
Step 2: Deploy Hermes with Telegram
- Go to Hermes hosting and start a deploy.
- Choose Telegram as the channel and paste the token.
- Pick any model for now. You will switch to your subscription in Step 5.
- Click Deploy. It is live in under 30 seconds.
Step 3: Pair yourself
Telegram bots are publicly searchable, so Hermes will not answer strangers. DM your bot, and it replies with a short pairing code. Paste that code into the DM Pairing section of your dashboard and approve it. From then on the bot answers you. Anyone else has to be approved the same way.
Step 4: Connect your ChatGPT subscription
- In your dashboard, open the Terminal on your Hermes bot.
- Run:
hermes auth add openai-codex --type oauth - The terminal prints a device code. On your own computer or phone, open
https://auth.openai.com/codex/device, enter the code, and sign in with the OpenAI account that has your Plus subscription. - Back in the terminal you will see
Added openai-codex OAuth credential #1.
Step 5: Switch the model
Send this to your bot on Telegram (or in the dashboard web chat):
/model gpt-5.6-sol --provider openai-codex --globalThe --provider openai-codex part is what makes it use your subscription rather than an API key. It takes effect on the next message, with no restart. GPT-5.6 Sol is the one we recommend for most bots. Terra is a good everyday balance and Luna is the efficient one for high-volume jobs.
Step 6: Give it something useful to do
A few things people set up in the first week:
- A morning brief. "Every weekday at 7:30, send me the weather, my first three calendar events and the top stories on the topics I care about."
- Link summaries. Forward an article or a YouTube link and get the three points that matter.
- Research on the go. "Compare the three cheapest flights to Lisbon next month and tell me which is least painful." The bot uses a real browser to do it.
- Brain dumps. Paste a messy list of everything on your mind and ask for a clean, prioritised to-do list.
Limits worth knowing
- Weekly cap. ChatGPT Plus has a weekly usage limit for Codex access. A bot doing heavy browsing all day can hit it. When it does, the bot returns errors until the quota resets. Keep a cheap fallback model or credits for that case.
- Occasional re-auth. OpenAI rotates refresh tokens. If the bot suddenly cannot reach the model, re-run the auth command from Step 4.
- It shares your allowance. The bot uses your subscription's Codex allowance, including the Plus weekly cap, so heavy bot use leaves less for you.
- ChatGPT only. Claude subscriptions cannot be connected to a hosted agent this way. Anthropic does not permit it.
Is it worth it?
If you already pay for Plus and you mostly want an assistant that is always one message away on your phone, this is the cheapest way I know to get a frontier model into Telegram 24/7. If you do not have Plus, compare the other routes in Hermes Agent pricing: every option compared. For the reference version of these steps, with troubleshooting, see the Hermes ChatGPT subscription guide.
Running OpenClaw rather than Hermes? The same idea works there too. See OpenClaw with a ChatGPT subscription.