The Daily Model

After Thursday, October 29, every ChatGPT Pro 200 subscriber will be on the new, smaller allowance that replaced the old one, at the same $200 a month. Long-time subscribers are not exempt: OpenAI only let them keep the old allowance until then. A price that stays the same can still be a change.

Who is affected. OpenAI's help center, checked on October 27, 2026, says the old allowance is kept for anyone who had an active Pro 200 subscription at any point from September 22, 2026 through 10 a.m. Pacific Time on September 29, 2026. Those customers can use the previous included allowance through October 29, while their subscription stays active. After that, "your subscription will move to the lower included usage allowance," and the price stays at $200 a month (OpenAI Help Center).

Three details are easy to miss. The old allowance lasts only while the Pro 200 subscription is active. Someone whose subscription ended and who subscribes again on the same account still qualifies, if they were active in that September window. And keeping the old allowance does not turn Pro 200 into Pro 500 or add Ultrafast. OpenAI says only affected users will receive an email.

Anyone who subscribes to Pro 200 now without that history already gets the lower allowance. OpenAI says the new allowance is lower "to reflect our increasingly efficient models" (OpenAI Help Center), and its release notes say the plan is open to new subscribers again at $200 a month (ChatGPT release notes).

How much lower. OpenAI's Pro tiers help page does not say how much smaller the new allowance is. On September 28, Thibault Sottiaux of OpenAI's Codex team wrote on X that Pro 200 would reopen to new subscribers the next day and that "if you do the math, it will net out at half the dollar in API spend compared to the old Pro $200 plan," and committed to not bringing back the five-hour usage limit (post on X). He framed the change in dollars of API spend rather than work done, and argued that subscribers will still get more work done over time as models get more efficient and API prices fall. Android Headlines reported that the allowance fell from 20 times the Plus plan to 10 times, and that weekly GPT-6 Pro messages dropped from 200 to 100 (Android Headlines). OpenAI has not confirmed those figures on its Pro tiers page or in its release notes entry on Pro 200.

A one-time credit. Android Headlines also reported that existing subscribers would receive a one-time credit to help with the switch. OpenAI has not confirmed a credit in the pages we read. The Daily Model's editor, a Pro 200 subscriber, confirms receiving it: on October 27 the editor's ChatGPT app showed 62,500 credits remaining, which "extend usage beyond your plan limits" (editor's note).

Every plan, at a glance. The allowance change OpenAI describes applies to Pro 200; the OpenAI pages we read describe no allowance change for its other plans on October 29. Prices are from OpenAI's pricing page, checked on October 27 (ChatGPT pricing).

Free, $0. Unlimited text chats with GPT-6, with limited uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research and Codex access.

Go, $8 a month. Everything in Free, with more uploads, more image creation and longer memory; OpenAI's pricing page says the plan may include ads. On voice, OpenAI's pages disagree: the pricing page lists more voice chats, while the Go help page says voice mode has the same usage limits as Free (What is ChatGPT Go?).

Plus, $20 a month. The plan the Pro allowances are measured against. It adds advanced reasoning with GPT-6, more messages and uploads, deep research and expanded Codex usage, and OpenAI says it may include usage limits such as message caps (What is ChatGPT Plus?).

Pro 100, $100 a month. OpenAI says Pro 200 includes more usage than Pro 100, and Pro 100 has no Ultrafast. When OpenAI introduced the $100 plan, its release notes described a standard Codex allowance of five times Plus, raised for a limited time to ten (ChatGPT release notes). That was a launch promotion; OpenAI's current pages do not give Pro 100's allowance as a number.

Pro 200, $200 a month. The plan this story is about: a smaller allowance than before, for everyone on it after October 29.

Pro 500, $500 a month. Announced at DevDay on September 29. OpenAI says it has "our highest usage allowance at 25 times the ChatGPT Plus allowance" (DevDay 2026 recap). It is the only Pro plan with Ultrafast, a faster service tier for GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol that draws on included usage at eight times the standard rate; at launch, buying credits on Pro 100 or Pro 200 does not unlock it. Where credits are available for an account, they cover eligible use in Codex, ChatGPT Work and ChatGPT for Word, Excel and PowerPoint once the included allowance is used up. Pro is billed monthly only.

Before the switch. Settings → My Plan shows your options. A week of real usage after October 29 is one useful guide alongside any multiple, because OpenAI says usage depends on the model, the context processed, reasoning, tool use and speed mode.

From October 30 the monthly price still reads $200. What it buys is the part that changed.

Statement by Thibault Sottiaux of OpenAI's Codex team

Reported by Android Headlines (not independently verified)

Statement by The Daily Model's editor, a Pro 200 subscriber