Breaking

OpenAI will reopen $200 ChatGPT Pro on Sept. 30 at half the previous API-dollar usage

September 29, 2026 at 04:50 EDT

Foundation Models
Software Dev & Coding

OpenAI will reopen new sign-ups for its $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan on September 30 and says included usage will be worth half as much, in API dollars, as the previous Pro $200 plan. The monthly price does not change. The company says it will not restore a five-hour usage cap, and that subscribers should still finish more work than they could a month ago because newer models cost less to run.

September 30, 2026 · OpenAI

$200 Pro returns at half the API value

OpenAI will reopen ChatGPT Pro sign-ups and says included usage will equal half the previous plan's API spend. The monthly price stays $200.

Included usage, in API dollars

Same price. Half the allowance.

100%

Previous Pro $200

50%

Reopened plan

The column height is the included API spend: two blocks for the old plan, one block after the change. The $200 fee is unchanged.

$200

Monthly price, unchanged

50%

API-dollar usage vs old plan

GPT-6 Sol input per 1M tokens

Sep 30

New sign-ups set to reopen

What OpenAI is offering

No return of the five-hour cap, so a weekly allowance can be used in one stretch.

Cheaper Sol and Luna prices are meant to buy more work per dollar than a month ago.

Added features are promised not to draw on usage. They are not named.

What users are pushing back on

Half the API-dollar value reads as a smaller plan, not a benefit.

It is unclear whether new buyers get half of what current subscribers keep.

Coming so soon after a capacity pause, some take it as a compute squeeze.

How the plan got here

Sep 10 — new $200 sign-ups paused after Astra demand

→

Sep 22 — Sol and Luna API prices cut about in half

→

Sep 30 — sign-ups reopen on the thinner usage math

Still unpublished

The help page still shows the September 10 pause.

No new message table has been posted. Whether current subscribers move to the 50% API-dollar budget, and how Chat, Work, and Codex are counted, is not in the public rate card.

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