For a month, heavy ChatGPT users had been bracing for less. When OpenAI launched its $500 plan in late September, it also reopened Pro 200 with a smaller allowance and told existing Pro 200 subscribers theirs would shrink after October 29. On the day that cut was due, OpenAI reversed course: OpenAI's Thibault Sottiaux (Tibo) posted on X that usage limits were doubling across all Pro tiers and Business Premium, effective immediately.
Below is what changed for each plan, how the September cut led here, the new API credits that arrived a day earlier, and what to check before you pay $100 to $500 a month from outside the US. Details were checked against OpenAI's Pro tiers help page and coverage from October 29 to 31, 2026.
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Get Your Virtual Card →What OpenAI Changed on October 29
| Plan | What changed |
|---|---|
| Plus$20 a month | No change. Usage limits stay where they were. |
| Pro 100$100 a month | Work and Codex allowance doubled. |
| Pro 200$200 a month | The planned cut is cancelled. Accounts on the lower allowance were raised to match the higher one; accounts already on the higher one keep it. |
| Pro 500$500 a month | Work and Codex allowance doubled. Still the only plan with Ultrafast. |
| Business Premium$125 per seat a month ($100 billed yearly) | Usage increased. OpenAI has not given an exact multiple. |
"Work and Codex" is the allowance that agent tasks and coding in Codex draw from. The weekly GPT-6 Pro message limit in ordinary chat is counted separately. OpenAI also says the extended limits for Dots, its always-on assistants, continue "for now" and are tracked apart from your default usage. Free and Go plans were not part of this change.
OpenAI does not publish exact numbers for each tier, so nobody outside the company can confirm the doubling in messages or tasks. It also warns that more allowance does not mean twice as many finished tasks: Fast mode uses your allowance about 2.5 times faster and Ultrafast about 8 times faster than standard speed.
How We Got Here: The Pro 200 Cut That Never Happened
On September 29, 2026, OpenAI added Pro 500, a $500-a-month plan whose included allowance it put at 25 times ChatGPT Plus, with Ultrafast models only on that tier. On the same day Pro 200 reopened to new subscribers, but with a smaller Work and Codex allowance; reports put the drop at roughly half, measured at API prices. Existing Pro 200 subscribers got an email saying they could keep the old allowance only until October 29.
Developers and other heavy users pushed back hard on X and Reddit, and the move came as OpenAI competes with Anthropic's Claude for paying developers. The reversal landed on the last day of the grace period. For long-time Pro 200 subscribers, it simply means nothing gets taken away; for Pro 100, Pro 500 and newer Pro 200 accounts, it is a real increase.
The Other New Perk: API Credits Worth Your Plan Price
A day earlier, on October 28, OpenAI announced monthly API credits for eligible Pro and Business subscriptions:
- Pro: credits equal to the plan price, so $100, $200 or $500 a month.
- Business: $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, pooled per workspace up to $500.
- How to use them: claim them in your ChatGPT billing settings and link an API organization you own. Unused credits do not roll over.
The credits are for building with the API. They do not raise your ChatGPT or Codex limits, and they do not cover Codex used through API keys. If you only chat in ChatGPT, they won't change much for you; if you also build apps, a Pro plan now pays back part of its price.
Is Plus Still Enough, or Is Pro Worth It Now?
- Stay on Plus ($20) if you mostly chat, write and research, and rarely hit a limit. Nothing changed for you, good or bad.
- Pro 100 is the plan this news helps most: double the agent and coding allowance for the same $100. If you hit Plus limits in Codex every week, the gap between $20 and $100 now buys a lot more.
- Pro 200 suits all-day coding and agent work. The fear that it would shrink is gone.
- Pro 500 is for people who need Ultrafast or run agents nonstop. Remember that Ultrafast spends the allowance about 8 times faster.
Our guide to the $100 Pro tier goes deeper on who should upgrade, and our comparison of ChatGPT Free, Go and Plus covers the cheaper plans. If you code with several AI tools, see our guide for developers paying for AI coding tools.
Paying $100 to $500 a Month From Outside the US
A $20 Plus charge is one thing. A $100, $200 or $500 charge every month is where many cards outside the US give up. Before you upgrade, check these:
- Your local price. In some countries chatgpt.com bills in local currency. In India, for example, Pro 100 is listed at about ₹10,699, and UPI is reported to work for Go and Plus but not for Pro, so Pro needs a card. Our India payment guide covers the details.
- Your card's limits. Many cards in emerging markets have a low limit for foreign online payments, per payment or per month. In Kenya, Pro 100 is about KES 13,000 a month, and Pro 500 about KES 64,900, well above what many debit cards allow abroad by default.
- Conversion and tax. If you pay in dollars with a local-currency card, your bank's rate and fees apply, and some countries add tax. One user reported a $200 Pro purchase ending up near $250 on their statement.
- Where you subscribe. Pro 500 sign-ups were web-only at launch. Plans bought in the iPhone or Android app are billed by Apple or Google in local currency, with their own payment rules.
If a payment still fails, our guide to the "payment was not approved" error lists the bank-side fixes, and our app payment guide covers Google Play and the App Store.
Where SiraPay Fits
SiraPay is a privacy-first virtual card for paying ChatGPT and other international subscriptions. You sign up with your email, with no forced KYC, no ID upload and no face scan. The card is a standard Visa accepted at 150M+ merchants, and people use SiraPay in 100+ countries. You fund it with Binance Pay or crypto from any Web3 wallet, so a $100 or $200 plan doesn't depend on your bank's foreign-payment limit.
The ChatGPT Card is made for ChatGPT and other AI subscriptions, and code ChatGPT1 gives 60% off it. No SiraPay card renews automatically, so for a plan you keep month after month, the Yearly Card lasts the longest. Keep the full plan price plus any tax on the card before each billing date. Card prices and spending limits are in the app: Check the app
No card can guarantee that a merchant approves every payment, and a card doesn't change your country's rules on foreign exchange, crypto or tax. Answers to common questions are in our Help Center.
Quick Answers
Did ChatGPT Pro get more expensive?
No. Pro 100, Pro 200 and Pro 500 kept their prices of $100, $200 and $500 a month. Only the usage included in each plan changed.
Do I need to do anything to get the higher limits?
No. OpenAI says existing subscribers get the higher allowance automatically, and new subscribers get it from day one. You do not have to wait for your renewal.
Did ChatGPT Plus limits change?
No. Plus stays at $20 a month with the same limits as before. The October 29 change only covers the Pro tiers and Business Premium.
Does doubled usage mean twice as many tasks?
Not exactly. OpenAI notes that how far your allowance goes depends on the model, the type of task and speed settings such as Fast or Ultrafast, which use usage faster.
Final Thoughts
This was a rare piece of good news on AI pricing: more usage at the same price, and a threatened cut called off. Plus users got nothing new, which is fine if you rarely hit limits. If you do, Pro 100 just became much better value. Before you upgrade, check how much your card can pay abroad each month, because a $100 to $500 subscription only helps if the payment goes through every time.
