OpenAI's new $100 ChatGPT Pro plan aims to compete with Claude Max by providing five times more access to Codex.

OpenAI's new $100 ChatGPT Pro plan aims to compete with Claude Max by providing five times more access to Codex.

      In summary: On April 9, 2026, OpenAI introduced a new $100 per month Pro plan for ChatGPT, creating an additional tier between the existing $20 Plus plan and the $200 Pro plan, specifically aimed at competing with Anthropic’s Claude Max, which is also priced at $100 monthly. The new plan offers five times more Codex usage compared to Plus, grants access to the same model suite as the $200 tier, and features a promotional offer that temporarily increases that advantage: until May 31, 2026, subscribers receive ten times the Codex usage of Plus. This announcement followed a milestone where Codex surpassed three million weekly users on April 8, a growth rate the company described as a fivefold increase in three months.

      Details on the $100 plan and its position within ChatGPT's pricing framework

      The $100 plan represents the sixth pricing tier in ChatGPT’s current lineup, which ranges from a free ad-supported account to an $8 per month Go plan, a $20 per month Plus plan, two Pro versions at $100 and $200 per month, a $25 per user per month Business plan, and custom-priced Enterprise contracts. The $100 Pro plan is nestled between Plus and the $200 Pro tier, providing five times the Codex usage of Plus and aimed at what OpenAI calls “longer, high-effort Codex sessions” where Plus subscribers encounter limits. Conversely, the $200 Pro plan offers 20 times the Codex usage of Plus, making it four times more intensive in Codex usage compared to the new $100 tier.

      Despite differences in usage limits, both Pro tiers access the same model suite, which includes the exclusive GPT-5.4 Pro model, unlimited use of GPT-5.4 Instant and GPT-5.4 Thinking, along with all features found in the $200 plan. The distinction between the two tiers lies in usage volume rather than capability. As part of the launch promotion, new subscribers to the $100 plan will enjoy ten times the Codex usage of Plus until May 31, 2026, after which the standard five times limit takes effect. OpenAI also revealed a redesign of the Plus plan’s Codex usage allocation, moving it toward more consistent daily usage and away from the lengthy usage sessions that the $100 plan is designed to accommodate.

      Codex demand: the statistics that led to the new tier

      On April 8, 2026, the day before the $100 plan was introduced, Sam Altman posted on X announcing that OpenAI was resetting the Codex usage limits across all plans "to celebrate 3M weekly Codex users," and committed to doing so for every additional million users until Codex hits ten million weekly users. Thibault Sottiaux, who heads the Codex product, noted that "Three million people are now using Codex weekly, up from two million less than a month ago." OpenAI characterized the growth as a fivefold increase over the past three months, with a 70% month-over-month rise in users.

      The heartbeat of EU tech

      The latest updates from the EU tech landscape, a tale from our seasoned founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free and arrives in your inbox weekly. Subscribe now! The scale of this growth indicates a change in how developers are utilizing AI coding tools. OpenAI launched a dedicated Codex application for macOS in February 2026, aimed at evolving from simple line-by-line code generation to what the company termed agentic, multi-task coding workflows: coordinating multiple agents simultaneously, executing background jobs, and managing instructions across hours instead of seconds. That framework, with its longer sessions and greater computational demands, aligns with the usage pattern the $100 plan aims to capture. Plus subscribers engaged in extended autonomous engineering tasks encounter limits well before their billing cycle concludes; thus, the $100 plan is intended to serve as the next logical step without jumping to the $200 tier.

      The Claude Max comparison

      OpenAI clearly positioned its new plan in a competitive context. The plan's pricing is directly comparable to Anthropic’s Claude Max 5x tier, also set at $100 per month, which features enhanced limits for Claude Code, Anthropic’s terminal-based agentic coding solution. Claude Code has rapidly become the most dynamic section of Anthropic’s commercial offerings, with projected annual revenue hitting approximately $2.5 billion by early 2026. Additionally, Anthropic is developing a developer ecosystem around it, having launched a marketplace for Claude-powered enterprise software in March 2026, with initial partners like Snowflake, Harvey, and Replit, bridging enterprise customers with third-party applications that utilize Claude.

      The competitive landscape became even more pronounced in the week leading up to OpenAI’s announcement. On April 4, 2026, Anthropic restricted third-party agents from Claude Pro and Max subscriptions, stopping users from routing their plan's usage

OpenAI's new $100 ChatGPT Pro plan aims to compete with Claude Max by providing five times more access to Codex.

Other articles

I appreciate what Framework is offering, but it needs to follow through. I appreciate what Framework is offering, but it needs to follow through. Framework hints at an upcoming hardware event concentrating on open computing and user empowerment. It seems that Apple’s foldable iPhone may not face a delay after all. It seems that Apple’s foldable iPhone may not face a delay after all. A launch that Apple would prefer to avoid overlooking. Microsoft Teams is set to address an incredibly frustrating daily issue in meetings. Microsoft Teams is set to address an incredibly frustrating daily issue in meetings. Microsoft is introducing a pre-join microphone test for Teams, along with the launch of privacy-focused Copilot recaps. This update will provide regular users with a more seamless beginning to their calls and offer businesses enhanced oversight over AI-generated meeting summaries. Dune 3 is arriving earlier than the director initially intended. Dune 3 is arriving earlier than the director initially intended. Director Denis Villeneuve states that he plans to create Dune 3 much earlier than he initially anticipated. The Netherlands is the first country in Europe to give the green light to Tesla's FSD Supervised. The Netherlands is the first country in Europe to give the green light to Tesla's FSD Supervised. On April 10, 2026, RDW granted approval for Tesla's Full Self-Driving Supervised, paving the way for access to Germany, France, Italy, and broader EU approval by the summer of 2026. The smart home was intended to be accessible, yet it is turning into a tollgate. The smart home was intended to be accessible, yet it is turning into a tollgate. The smart home was expected to offer effortless convenience. Instead, it often provides a refined system of control, where screens, speakers, and dashboards dictate what can be viewed, what can be utilized, and what continues to charge even after the hardware costs have been covered.

OpenAI's new $100 ChatGPT Pro plan aims to compete with Claude Max by providing five times more access to Codex.

On April 9, 2026, OpenAI introduced a ChatGPT Pro subscription at $100 per month, aligning its price with Claude Max. The Pro tier offers five times more Codex compared to the Plus version and includes a promotion that provides ten times the usual features until the end of May.