OpenAI launches $100/month ChatGPT Pro plan to compete with Claude's $100 tier

OpenAI has introduced a $100 per month ChatGPT Pro plan, closing a pricing gap that customers have requested for months. The new tier sits between the existing $20 Plus plan and the $200 Pro plan.

Plan Specifications

The $100 Pro plan delivers 5x more Codex capacity than the $20 Plus tier. Critically, it includes the same advanced tools and models as the $200 Pro plan—the primary difference being Codex allocation. The $200 tier provides 4x more Codex than the $100 option.

OpenAI is offering a limited-time promotional boost: customers subscribing to the $100 plan will receive double the standard Codex allocation, bringing it to 10x the amount available with Plus.

Strategic Context

The move directly addresses Anthropic's $100 per month Claude offering. An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch: "Compared with Claude Code, Codex delivers more coding capacity per dollar across paid tiers."

OpenAI's product strategy centers on Codex capacity as its primary differentiator across tiers. This reflects the company's positioning of coding capabilities as a key value driver for power users, following recent releases of GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.3-Codex that significantly enhanced speed and reasoning abilities.

Market Response

Users have been requesting a mid-tier plan through OpenAI's developer community forums. The $200 price point reportedly deterred many power users from upgrading, creating a gap between casual daily use ($20 Plus) and professional development workflows.

OpenAI stated: "The Plus plan will continue to be the best offer at $20 for steady, day-to-day usage of Codex, and the new $100 Pro tier offers a more accessible upgrade path for heavier daily use."

What This Means

OpenAI is acknowledging that its pricing ladder had become too coarse, with a 10x jump from $20 to $200 eliminating conversion opportunities for mid-market developers. The $100 tier targets users who need more than casual usage but don't justify the $200 commitment—a segment Anthropic has already captured with Claude's pricing structure. The competitive framing around "coding capacity per dollar" suggests OpenAI sees Codex throughput as its primary competitive lever against Claude Opus for development workflows.