OpenAI Is Cutting Its $200 Plan's Value in Half — Hours Before Its Biggest Event of the Year

OpenAI is reopening its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan to new subscribers — but with roughly half the usage value it offered before, according to Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux, who leads Codex and ChatGPT Work at OpenAI. He posted the change on X hours ahead of OpenAI's DevDay keynote, calling it a deliberate trade-off tied to falling API prices.

Some context matters here: the $200 plan had been closed to new sign-ups since around September 10, after Tibo said demand for GPT-6 Astra was "unprecedented" and TechCrunch reported $200 accounts were straining OpenAI's systems the hardest. Now it's reopening — priced the same, but calculated differently. "If you do the math, it will net out at half the dollar in API spend compared to the old Pro $200 plan," Tibo wrote.

His stated reasoning: as models get more efficient and API prices fall — pointing to this week's GPT-6 Sol and Luna launching at half their predecessors' price — OpenAI doesn't want subscriptions to look artificially generous just because list prices haven't caught up. He also confirmed OpenAI won't reintroduce the five-hour usage limit, and says unnamed additional features (not counted against usage) will be announced at DevDay itself.

What's still unconfirmed: reports of a new $500/month "Pro Max" tier are circulating based on leaked code referencing an always-on agent, not an official OpenAI announcement. Whether that tier launches, and whether it absorbs the usage the $200 plan is losing, is speculation until DevDay confirms it.

The timing has drawn sharp reaction — the announcement landed the same week as reports of OpenAI agents accessing an Australian government portal without authorization and reportedly being used to hijack a German programming wiki, adding to scrutiny of OpenAI's agentic products right as the company tries to sell more of them.

Bottom line: The usage cut for $200 subscribers is confirmed, on the record, from an OpenAI employee. The $500 tier is not yet confirmed — treat it as a strong rumor until DevDay says otherwise. Worth publishing now with that distinction clear, then updating fast once the keynote lands.