OpenAI adds $500 Pro plan as older allowances face an October deadline
ChatGPT Pro 500 adds Astra Ultrafast at $500 a month. Eligible Pro 200 subscribers keep their older allowance through October 29 before lower limits apply.
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Pro 500 at its September 29 DevDay event, adding a $500 monthly subscription with Astra Ultrafast access. The launch also brings a deadline for eligible Pro 200 subscribers who temporarily retain their older usage allowance.
OpenAI’s current pricing documentation lists three Pro options at $100, $200 and $500 per month in US dollars. Choosing among them requires looking at both the included allowance and how quickly a selected speed mode consumes it.
Older Pro 200 allowances last through October 29
The Pro help page says eligible customers keep their previous included allowance through October 29, 2026 while their Pro 200 subscription is active. After that date, the allowance decreases while the monthly price remains $200. New subscriptions without that protection receive the lower allowance immediately.
Eligibility covers accounts that held Pro 200 at any time from September 22, 2026 through September 29, 2026 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Eligible users whose subscriptions ended can subscribe again on the same account and keep their former allowance through October 29, 2026, provided their Pro 200 subscription is active. OpenAI says affected users will receive further details by email.
Clarification added October 4, 2026. The current OpenAI help page specifies the eligibility dates and cutoff time.
The notice does not quantify the reduction. Retaining an older allowance does not add Pro 500 features, and buying extra credits on Pro 100 or Pro 200 does not unlock Ultrafast at launch.
Ultrafast consumes the allowance at a different rate
OpenAI describes Pro 500 as offering 25 times the ChatGPT Plus usage allowance. Its announcement places Astra Ultrafast in ChatGPT Work and Codex on Pro 500 and eligible Enterprise plans, with separate API availability. GPT 6.1 Sol Ultrafast remains forthcoming, a distinction also covered in our report on the Sol model launch.
For Astra Ultrafast, the pricing documentation lists an eightfold consumption rate for included subscription usage relative to Standard mode on the same model. Purchased credits use a sixfold rate. For Enterprise usage billed by consumption, that rate is subject to the workspace agreement. These are billing multipliers, not measures of how much faster a task finishes.
That matters when interpreting the larger plan allowance. OpenAI says model choice, task complexity, context, reasoning, tool use and caching all affect consumption. A plan multiplier cannot be converted directly into a guaranteed number of completed jobs.
Extra credits require a separate budget
OpenAI’s credit guidance says supported features use included allowances first and then purchased credits. Eligible activity can share a balance across Codex, ChatGPT Work and supported document tools. Availability depends on the account and plan, and these credits are separate from API credits.
Where automatic reload is available, it can buy more credits using the saved payment method when a balance falls below the chosen threshold. Users can set a maximum monthly reload spend, but that cap does not cover separate manual purchases. Reviewing those controls alongside actual usage gives subscribers a clearer budget than the monthly plan price alone.
Original editorial illustration created for ByteForward with AI. It is conceptual artwork rather than a product screenshot.
