OpenAI Reopens Pro Plan but Cuts API Credits in Half

OpenAI has reopened sign-ups for its ChatGPT Pro subscription at $200 a month, a plan it had previously closed to new users. At the same time, the company cut the amount of API credit included per dollar of subscription in half. It did remove the five-hour usage cap, though, so now the weekly limit can be spent however you like. OpenAI says the new GPT-6 Sol and Luna models, which launched this week, cost half as much in the API as the previous versions. So users should still be able to do more with fewer credits.

This pricing shift shows where the large-model market is heading. Flat subscriptions are giving way to pay-as-you-go pricing, because it suits the vendor better to count tokens than to count months. My company runs two Claude subscriptions, and for now that is still cheaper and more predictable than paying through the API. But if OpenAI's API really did get twice as cheap, the gap between a subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing starts to close. A $200 subscription slowly stops making sense for anyone who is counting tokens rather than paying for peace of mind.