OpenAI smooths Codex pricing and credits

OpenAI has recast how customers pay for Codex, its coding agent, by moving pricing onto a token-based credit system and widening the ways users can keep using the product without changing plans. Help center pages updated in May show Plus and Pro subscribers can now buy credits after they hit included limits, while Business, Enterprise, Edu, Health and Gov customers are covered by a public Codex rate card and workspace-level credit rules. April 2, 2026, was the key changeover date for most plans. OpenAI said in its Codex rate card that it updated pricing that day to align with API token usage rather than per-message pricing for Plus, Pro, ChatGPT Business and new ChatGPT Enterprise plans, then extended the update on April 23 to existing Enterprise plans, including Edu, Health, Gov and ChatGPT for Teachers. (help.openai.com) The result is a hybrid structure. ChatGPT subscriptions still include baseline Codex access on eligible plans, but additional usage can now be bought as credits instead of forcing some users into a higher tier. OpenAI says credits are currently supported for Codex for Plus and Pro users, and for ChatGPT for Excel as that feature moves onto flexible pricing. (help.openai.com) ### When does a user have to buy more instead of upgrading? Plus and Pro users keep their included usage first. OpenAI says that after those users hit plan limits in Codex, usage draws from a purchased credit balance, and eligible users can also enable automatic top-ups from the Codex settings panel. (help.openai.com) Free and Go users are treated differently. OpenAI’s credits FAQ says those users are prompted to upgrade to Plus instead of adding Codex credits directly. That distinction matters because OpenAI is keeping subscriptions as the entry point for individuals. Its Codex plan page says Free and Go include lighter access, Plus costs $20 a month, and Pro starts at $100 a month, while extra credits are positioned as overflow capacity after included limits are exhausted. (help.openai.com) ### What changed in the actual Codex meter? (help.openai.com) The Codex rate card now prices usage in credits per 1 million tokens. OpenAI lists separate rates for input, cached input and output tokens, replacing what it described as average per-message estimates with a direct mapping to token consumption. GPT-5.5 is listed at 125 credits per million input tokens, 12.50 credits for cached input tokens and 750 credits for output tokens. (developers.openai.com) GPT-5.4 is listed at 62.50, 6.250 and 375 credits, while GPT-5.3-Codex is listed at 43.75, 4.375 and 350 credits. OpenAI also says fast mode consumes credits at a higher rate on supported models. OpenAI says the token model is meant to show more clearly how spend changes with prompt size, cached context and generated output. (help.openai.com) The company’s help page says actual credit usage depends on the mix of those token types in each task. ### How do team and enterprise accounts handle this? Business and Enterprise customers got a broader restructuring on April 2. (help.openai.com) OpenAI said teams on ChatGPT Business and Enterprise can add Codex-only seats with pay-as-you-go pricing, giving access to Codex without a fixed seat fee. Business workspaces still have per-seat limits for advanced features, according to OpenAI’s flexible pricing FAQ. (help.openai.com) If a user exceeds those limits and the workspace has purchased credits, that user can continue drawing from the shared pool; if no credits are available, the feature is blocked and the user can request more from an admin. (openai.com) Enterprise and Edu workspaces use a shared credit pool at the contract level. OpenAI says all users and seat types draw from that pool for advanced features, and owners can set spend controls by group through role-based access controls. ### What numbers best show OpenAI’s push here? OpenAI said on April 2 that it lowered the annual price of ChatGPT Business from $25 to $20 per seat while introducing Codex-only seats for teams. (help.openai.com) The same post said eligible Business workspaces can receive $100 in credits for each new Codex-only member who joins and starts using Codex, up to $500 per team, for a limited time. The company also disclosed adoption figures in that post. OpenAI said more than 9 million paying business users rely on ChatGPT for work, more than 2 million builders use Codex every week, and the number of Codex users inside ChatGPT Business and Enterprise has grown sixfold since January. ### Where can users see what happens next? OpenAI says users can monitor remaining credit, purchase more credit and manage auto-reload in Codex settings under the Usage panel. (openai.com) On the web, the balance appears in the Codex Usage Dashboard, according to the credits FAQ. May 31, 2026, is the next date attached to the current pricing rollout. (openai.com) OpenAI’s Codex pricing page says the temporary higher Pro usage limits remain in place until then, with the $100-a-month Pro tier carrying double its normal Codex usage during the promotion. (developers.openai.com) (help.openai.com)