OpenAI drops a $100 ChatGPT Pro tier as Codex usage expands

OpenAI has introduced a $100-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan, a new midmarket tier built around heavier Codex use as the company pushes its coding agent deeper into paid workflows. The move narrows the gap between ChatGPT Plus and the top-end Pro offer while making OpenAI’s developer tooling more accessible to power users.

A cheaper ChatGPT Pro option lands on April 9, 2026

OpenAI announced the new tier on April 9, 2026, according to TechCrunch’s reporting on the launch. Until now, ChatGPT pricing ran from the free tier to ChatGPT Go at $8 a month, ChatGPT Plus at $20, and ChatGPT Pro at $200. The new $100 plan fills a long-missing middle rung for users who need more than Plus but do not want the company’s highest-priced subscription.

The company’s pitch is focused on Codex, OpenAI’s coding tool. OpenAI said the $100 plan is intended to support daily usage, and that it offers five times more Codex than Plus. OpenAI also told TechCrunch that it is temporarily giving the new tier higher Codex limits through May 31, 2026.

Codex is becoming the product OpenAI is pricing around

The launch follows a broader push to simplify Codex access across ChatGPT plans. On April 2, 2026, OpenAI said teams on ChatGPT Business and Enterprise could add Codex-only seats on a pay-as-you-go basis, while also lowering the annual price of ChatGPT Business from $25 to $20 per seat. OpenAI said that within ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, the number of Codex users had grown sixfold since January.

That pricing change matters because it shows where OpenAI sees the clearest paid demand: developers, engineering teams, and organizations that want agentic coding capacity without signing up for a top-tier enterprise package. The new $100 plan looks designed to capture that middle layer more efficiently.

What changes for paying users

For individual subscribers, the practical effect is simpler access to more intensive coding workflows inside the ChatGPT ecosystem. The new tier is aimed at users who hit rate limits on Plus but do not need the $200 Pro plan. OpenAI says the two Pro plans share core features, with the main difference coming down to usage limits.

That matters commercially because it gives OpenAI another step between consumer subscriptions and premium power-user pricing, while keeping the company’s most demanding workflows attached to Codex. It also puts OpenAI in more direct pricing competition with Anthropic, which has long offered a $100 monthly option for Claude, TechCrunch reported.

OpenAI is widening the path from chatbot to developer tool

The bigger signal is that ChatGPT is being sold less as a standalone chatbot and more as an environment that bundles writing, coding, and agentic work. OpenAI’s recent pricing changes suggest Codex is becoming central to that strategy, with ChatGPT acting as the distribution layer for heavier technical use.

For developers, that means the subscription decision is now tied more closely to how often they rely on AI to write, edit, test, and iterate on code. For OpenAI, it creates another route to convert ChatGPT usage into recurring revenue without pushing every power user straight to the most expensive plan.