OpenAI tests pricier Pro tier for heavy coding

OpenAI is splitting its coding product into clearer price bands: on April 9, 2026, it introduced a new $100-a-month ChatGPT Pro tier aimed at people who spend long stretches inside Codex, its coding agent inside ChatGPT. (community.openai.com) Codex is the part of ChatGPT that writes, reviews, and edits software code, either in the chat window or through local tools like a terminal and an integrated development environment extension. OpenAI’s help pages describe it as an agent for writing, reviewing, and shipping code faster. (help.openai.com) The new $100 plan gives 5 times more Codex usage than ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 a month, and OpenAI says it is meant for “longer, high-effort Codex sessions.” That is the kind of work where a developer keeps the model running across a large codebase instead of asking for one quick bug fix. (community.openai.com) Through May 31, 2026, OpenAI is temporarily raising that allowance again, so the new $100 subscribers can get up to 10 times the Codex usage of ChatGPT Plus. OpenAI is using the launch window like a free trial with a bigger gas tank, so heavy users can see whether they actually need the extra room. (community.openai.com) This also reshuffles what “Pro” means inside ChatGPT. OpenAI’s current pricing page now shows a $100 Pro plan with 5 times higher limits than Plus and a $200 Pro plan for heavier use, with 20 times higher limits than Plus and a temporary 10 times Codex boost versus Plus. (help.openai.com) On the Codex pricing page, OpenAI still positions the $200 plan as the option for people who rely on Codex for “daily full-time development,” with priority processing, 6 times higher local and cloud task limits, and 10 times more cloud-based code reviews than Plus. That leaves the new $100 tier sitting between casual coders and people effectively trying to replace a chunk of their workday with an agent. (developers.openai.com) OpenAI is also adding a second meter alongside subscriptions: credits. Its help center says Plus and Pro users can now buy extra credits for Codex after they hit their included limits, instead of upgrading plans just to finish one busy week. (help.openai.com) That combination tells you what is happening under the hood. OpenAI is moving from one flat monthly fee toward the pricing logic used by cloud software: a base plan for access, a bigger plan for steady power users, and pay-as-you-go credits for spikes. (help.openai.com 1) (help.openai.com 2) The timing also fits a broader shift in how coding tools are sold. When an AI model answers a single question, the cost is small, but when it scans files, runs longer reasoning passes, and reviews code repeatedly across parallel projects, the bill starts to look more like renting a contractor by the hour than paying for a search box. (developers.openai.com) (help.openai.com) So this is less a simple price increase than a sorting mechanism. A student fixing one script can stay on Plus, a working developer who lives in Codex gets a new $100 middle lane, and teams or all-day power users still have the $200 tier or token-based business pricing above that. (community.openai.com) (help.openai.com)