OpenAI reopens sign-ups for its $200/month Pro tier, halves API credits per dollar to encourage pay-per-use, and commits to not reinstating the five-hour cap

The 5-hour usage cap is gone for good: subscribers can spread their weekly allotment however they want.

The Decoder 2026-09-29 Matthias Bastian

Context & Ripple Effects

OpenAI had paused new $200 Pro subscriptions amid Astra demand while leaving existing accounts, other plans and the API unaffected. Reopening the tier restores a path for new high-usage customers, but on revised economics rather than the prior allowance structure.

The change also creates a sharper ladder alongside OpenAI's new $500 Pro tier with its highest allowance and Ultrafast access. Anthropic, meanwhile, had raised five-hour limits and added rate-limit resets for its paid users, making usage flexibility a more explicit point of subscription competition.

First-order effects

New $200 Pro customers regain access, while subscribers can distribute their weekly allotment without a five-hour cutoff but receive half as many API credits per dollar.
OpenAI shifts more marginal API consumption toward pay-per-use rather than subsidizing it through the $200 subscription's included credits.

Second-order effects

Anthropic's higher five-hour limits and reset mechanism become a clearer comparison point for buyers weighing predictable subscription access against OpenAI's lower included credit value.
OpenAI's $200 and $500 offerings separate high-usage customers by allowance and speed, giving the company a more explicit upgrade path instead of one broadly provisioned Pro tier.

Third-order effects

If providers continue exchanging broad usage promises for metered credits and tiered allowances, premium AI subscriptions will be governed more by capacity-aware pricing than by a single monthly seat fee.
Competition is moving toward making the cost of sustained model use visible to customers, with flexible access and rate limits becoming product-design levers rather than back-end constraints.

The trend: Consumer AI vendors are segmenting premium access by capacity and usage economics, pairing flexible limits with stronger incentives to pay for incremental compute.

Discussion

@thsottiaux Tibo on x
Hi, Tomorrow we are re-opening the Pro $200 subscriptions to new subscribers, but together with it we are also changing how we calculate the usage for it. In effect, if you do the math, it will net out at half the dollar in API spend compared to the old Pro $200 plan. Now that it…
@synthwavedd Leo on x
Well I think that does it! Goodbye Pro 20x. Sorry, I mean 10x now, apparently.
@forloopcodes @forloopcodes on x
claude: $200 sub gets you ~$9000 worth of usage openai: $200 sub gets you ~$500 worth of usage
@imjustnewatai @imjustnewatai on x
So my 200 dollar plan got cut in half? I want a fucking refund.
@youssofal_ Youssof Al Toukhi on x
Youssof Al Toukhi (@Youssofal_) on X
@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
This tweet reads like an AWS pricing page.
@ns123abc Nik on x
🚨BREAKING: OpenAI just cut the $200 Pro subscription plan's compute allocation by 50% “In effect, if you do the math, it will net out at half the dollar in API spend compared to the old Pro $200 plan” it's unbelievably over
@tekbog @tekbog on x
no clue what this means but if it was something good you'd say it with less words time to hit up my other dealer
@ns123abc Nik on x
Translation: “We are out of compute.”
@theo @theo on x
“if you do the math, it will net out at half the dollar in API spend compared to the old Pro $200 plan.” Ooooof. Mad respect for the transparency here but this hurts a lot
@kunchenguid Kun Chen on x
oh no - codex $200 subscription's dollar value is being cut in half in their defense, openai's models are indeed quite efficient. but anthropic has caught up too and the big cut is only the first order effect the second order effect is that this will give anthropic enough room to…
@haider1 Haider on x
this aged terribly. like, very terribly
@scaling01 @scaling01 on x
OpenAI $200 Pro Sub will only give you half as much usage now 💀
@thsottiaux Tibo on x
That was yesterday, today is DevDay. And it's all good news. I'm surprised we've kept it all under wraps.
@youssofal_ Youssof Al Toukhi on x
There is NO WAY they are openly reducing limits like this after Claud is WIPING the floor with them now. Genuine suicide.
@giadotai Gia on x
i wonder what this means for existing 20x accounts, is this was the plan all along why pause the subscriptions?
@ai_for_success AshutoshShrivastava on x
If my understanding is correct, OpenAI is reducing the usage included in the $200 Pro plan to roughly half the API-spend equivalent of the old plan, while asking you to trust that future model efficiency and price cuts will make up for it. Your 20X is 10X now and 5X is 2.5X. Happ…
@imjustnewatai @imjustnewatai on x
You either die a hero or live long enough to cut the usage budget in half and explain why it's actually better for us 😭
@pradeepxkapoor Pradeep Kapoor on x
WAIT WHAT? You're cutting the $200 Pro plan's effective API usage in HALF and somehow selling this as good news? Models are getting 50% cheaper, but instead of users benefiting from that, you're cutting their usage too? So we're paying the SAME $200 for LESS usage, and the sellin…
@thsottiaux Tibo on x
I'll explain the new Pro 200 plan differently, before I start live tweeting from DevDay on things that are going out! Today we are going to ship a number of things that increase what you can do across the Plus and Pro plans. A lot of compute is online for this increase. As we inc…
@mattshumer_ Matt Shumer on x
The era of subsidized tokens is ending. Prepare accordingly.
@kylehugh.es Kyle Hughes on bluesky
We're almost out of the good ol' days, folks. [embedded post]
@andrewcurran_ Andrew Curran on x
Ultrafast official announcement:
@sama Sam Altman on x
Ultrafast is so fast I do not ever want to go back
@openai @openai on x
Ultrafast is available today for GPT-6 Astra in Codex, ChatGPT Work, and the API, with GPT-6.1 Sol coming soon. To access it in Codex and ChatGPT Work, we're introducing Pro 500—a new plan with our highest usage limits (25x Plus) and access to Ultrafast. https://chatgpt.com/prici…
@openai @openai on x
We're also reopening Pro 200 subscriptions, with continued access to frontier models like Astra, including our new GPT-6.1 Sol model which brings near-Astra capabilities to a model you can use every day. Our commitment is that your subscription will continue to help you get more …
@openai @openai on x
This is Ultrafast. Our premium speed tier, Ultrafast offers up to 8x faster token generation (300 tokens per second) in Codex and up to 6x in the API.
@christianselig Christian Selig on x
Ultrafast looks incredible, that's gonna be a real differentiator I reckon
@notjazii @notjazii on x
openai just announced ultrafast mode astra can generate tokens up to 8x faster with this and team also announced new $500 pro plan with access to it > 25x the usage of plus > astra ultrafast now, 6.1 sol coming soon > ultrafast burns through that allowance at 8x the normal rate >…
@yuchenj_uw Yuchen Jin on x
Fast: 2x faster, 2x the price. Ultrafast: 8x faster, 6x the price. Maybe we should roll out some Ultra-ultrafast OSS model endpoints?
@testingcatalog @testingcatalog on x
BREAKING 🔥: OpenAI announced ChatGPT Pro 500 plan, with x25 usage capacity and access to Ultrafast mode. No 5h limit, too 👀
@mweinbach Max Weinbach on x
GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast is 300 tok/s, but that doesn't seem like Cerebras. Maybe lower batch GB300 or Japaleno?
@amritwt Amrit on x
GPT 6.1 Sol is absurdly good Ultrafast is 8x faster with a 6x increase in cost
@adonis_singh Adi on x
looks like the $500/month plan is real and comes with Ultrafast
@m1astra @m1astra on x
GPT 6 Astra Ultrafast is launching today at 300 tps. 750 tps was the speed announced for 5.6 Sol Ultrafast.
@synthwavedd Leo on x
GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast is an absolutely outrageous $60/$300 per Mtok btw
@angaisb_ Angel on x
GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast, 8x faster than GPT-6 Astra in Standard mode in Codex
@chetaslua @chetaslua on x
Astra Ultrafast will be available in pro 500 subscription Pro 5x is Pro 100$ , Pro 20x is Pro 200$ {reason as they cant rename pro 20 x to pro 10x it will be bad pr if they say truth that they halved the usage > anthropic subs value is skyrocketing now with each announcement
@cheatyyyy @cheatyyyy on x
GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast is now live in the API at 6x price! $60/m input $300/m output!
Joseph Swan Joseph Swan on linkedin
Looks like OpenAI's GPT-6-Astra model is more popular than ever. So much so they have paused subscriptions for the 20x plans …
@airesearch12 Florian S on x
It was obvious, but f*ck that happened fast. Ok, so now I'll have to benchmark it, and I'll do so pretty fast. If anyone at @OpenAI can give me early/free access, to put it on JevBench, it would be appreciated. /cc @sama
@bendee983 Ben Dickson on x
OpenAI (and probably Anthropic and DeepMind) coming after Jev with their own decision model (aka System One Model) was an obvious and predictable outcome. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Jev will be eliminated, because: 1) It was created by one of the former crack eng…
@wesbos Wes Bos on x
curious if this is just an API wrapped on Luna? Luna is VERY cheap, but not Jev cheap Image inputs is great though, I've had it process images for $0.001
@jjacky Jacky on x
it's official “decisions” has won out - openai has chose it (been a “decisions” fan since day 0)
@dejavucoder Sankalp on x
openai jev supports vision too
@enunomaduro @enunomaduro on x
lol, seems like the Decisions API is coming to OpenAPI so i guess.. it's gg for Jev?
@brianyu8 Brian Yu on x
introducing the OpenAI Decisions API. for when you and your girlfriend need to decide where to go for dinner REALLY fast!
@thsottiaux Tibo on x
Decisions API, for lightning fast constrained decision making powered by Luna. Supports visual inputs, and tuned to be able to make decisions in less than a few hundreds of milliseconds end to end.
@marlene_zw Marlene Mhangami on x
New decisions API from OpenAI powered by giving Luna model a predefined set of options to choose from! Looks really good. Congrats to the Jev team for creating a new category too😉
@rudrank @rudrank on x
Decisions API 👀 I am going to integrate it into something I am working with 👀
@mvanhorn Matt Van Horn on x
What in the jev is going on? Decisions model API from @opanai?
@iannuttall Ian Nuttall on x
OpenAI just launched the Decisions API using Luna. Jev killer?
@borismpower Boris Power on x
Decisions API - almost instant responses - very good for computer interaction!
@nousresearch @nousresearch on x
We've partnered with @OpenAI to bring the new Sign in with ChatGPT experience to Nous Portal. Log into Nous Portal with ChatGPT to use your plan in Hermes Agent, with full visibility and controls in ChatGPT settings.
@haider1 Haider on x
this is a holy shit moment your chatgpt subscription now works across 60+ third-party products — so instead of buying separate usage everywhere, you can sign in with chatgpt and use what your plan already includes a very big shift for the AI app ecosystem
@cognition @cognition on x
Starting today, you can now use your ChatGPT subscription directly in Devin. Just sign in to Devin with your ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan and all OpenAI model usage in Devin will drawn down from your quota. Now live in Devin Cloud, Devin Desktop, and Devin CLI.
@charlieholtz Charlie Holtz on x
We've partnered with OpenAI to bring Sign in with ChatGPT to Conductor! You can now bring your Codex subscription to Conductor in a few clicks:
@hamelhusain Hamel Husain on x
🤯🤯🤯🤯 10:46 sign in with ChatGPT, which lets people sign into your app and use the tokens they are paying for already.
@thsottiaux Tibo on x
You can now use your ChatGPT subscription directly in over 60 partners products. No little rules, you can just use all your included usage right there. This includes things such as Devin, OpenCode, Lovable, and many more. Sign in with ChatGPT and go.
@llm_wizard Chris on x
Sign in with ChatGPT lets peeps use their subscription and their tokens in your app
@petergyang Peter Yang on x
Wow sign in with @ChatGPT and letting people use their ChatGPT plan inside your app is a game changer
@t3dotcodes @t3dotcodes on x
getting started with T3 Code has never been easier, excited to be a launch partner of Sign in with ChatGPT! install t3 code, sign in to your ChatGPT accounts (yes... plural, t3 code supports multiple accounts), and send your first prompt. no external dependencies required. availa…
r/OpenAI r on reddit
Pro 200 usage halved, with existing subs grandfathered. New Pro 500 plan includes “ultrafast”
@bingxu_ Bing Xu on x
Inference speed is the new moat in business. It will determine how fast you can build and respond. That's why @int21_ai first solved the ultra-low-latency inference problem with swarm.

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