OpenAI’s $100 Pro Push

OpenAI just put a $100 price tag on a problem developers kept hitting: the model was useful, but the usage ceiling arrived before the work was done. On April 9, the company launched a new ChatGPT Pro tier that gives about five times more Codex usage than the $20 Plus plan. (cnbc.com) Codex is OpenAI’s coding agent inside ChatGPT, which means it writes code, edits files, and helps with longer software tasks instead of just answering one prompt at a time. OpenAI said the new $100 plan is aimed at “longer, high-effort Codex sessions,” which is another way of saying people were running into limits during real work. (theverge.com) The timing is not random. Anthropic’s Claude Code has become a serious rival with programmers, and CNBC reported OpenAI framed the new tier as a direct answer to that pressure. (cnbc.com) OpenAI’s own pricing page shows where the company is heading. Codex is now bundled across Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Education, and Enterprise plans, and users who hit limits can buy extra credits instead of changing plans. (developers.openai.com) That is a different sales pitch from the old “pay for the smartest model” story. The menu now revolves around how much coding work you do, how many seats a team needs, and whether an administrator wants controls like single sign-on and multi-factor authentication. (chatgpt.com) OpenAI also disclosed this week that enterprise now makes up more than 40% of its revenue, and the company says that share is on track to match consumer revenue by the end of 2026. That means the center of gravity is shifting from individual subscribers to workplaces buying access in bulk. (openai.com) The scale numbers explain why usage limits suddenly matter so much. OpenAI said its application programming interfaces are now processing more than 15 billion tokens per minute, which is like charging not for the hammer but for how many nails people hit with it every minute. (openai.com) Codex itself is no side feature anymore. OpenAI said Codex has reached 3 million weekly active users, which helps explain why a coding-specific tier can justify a separate $100 price point. (openai.com) The company is also naming the kinds of customers it wants more of. OpenAI said new enterprise demand includes Goldman Sachs, Philips, and State Farm, while existing customers using its tools include Cursor, DoorDash, Thermo Fisher, and LY Corporation. (openai.com) So the new $100 plan is less about a flashy new model than about meter design. OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into something that looks more like business software: base subscription, usage caps, extra credits, and admin controls layered on top. (developers.openai.com) (chatgpt.com)