TL;DR
ChatGPT has four personal plans and two business seat types as of October 2, 2026: Free ($0), Go ($8), Plus ($20), Pro at $100, $200 or $500 a month, and Business seats at $25 Standard or $125 Premium (billed monthly; $20 and $100 on annual). DevDay on September 29 changed three things: Pro 500 is new and includes the Ultrafast speed tier, Pro 200 reopened with a smaller usage allowance than before (existing subscribers keep the old one until October 29), and Pro and Business Premium now include a "dot," OpenAI's always-on agent. For a solo owner, Plus at $20 is still the plan; for a team, Business Standard at $25 a seat with a two-seat minimum; Pro 100 only if you want the dot. Go is not a business plan (it may show ads). Claude's seat prices are now identical to ChatGPT's at every tier, so the choice is about the product, not the bill.
Pricing pages are built to be scanned, which is why the number people remember is "$20 a month" and the number they are later invoiced is something else. This is every ChatGPT plan with the price, what changed at DevDay, the fine print on usage that the plan cards leave out, and a straight recommendation by business size. Everything was read from chatgpt.com/pricing and the OpenAI Help Center on October 2, 2026, with screenshots.
The personal plans
| Plan | Price | Who it is for | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Trying it | Unlimited text chats on GPT-5.6 Luna; limited uploads, images, voice, deep research, Codex and ChatGPT Work |
| Go | $8/mo | Longer personal use | More messages, uploads and images than Free, longer memory. "This plan may include ads." |
| Plus | $20/mo | Most owners and staff | GPT-6 reasoning models, projects, scheduled tasks, custom GPTs, expanded Codex and ChatGPT Work, early feature access |
| Pro 100 | $100/mo | Owners who want the agent | Everything in Plus, GPT-6 Astra Pro reasoning, longer Codex and Work sessions, a dot, unlimited image creation, maximum deep research and memory |
| Pro 200 | $200/mo | Heavy daily users | Pro 100 with a larger usage allowance |
| Pro 500 | $500/mo | Developers and researchers | Highest allowance plus Ultrafast: GPT-6 Astra at up to 300 tokens a second |
| Verdict | Plus. GPT-6 reasoning, scheduled tasks and projects are the three features a business actually uses, and they start at $20. Pro is billed monthly only, with no annual discount at any tier. | ||
The Pro tiers deserve a paragraph because the news coverage got loud about them. Before DevDay, Pro was a single $200 plan with roughly 20 times the usage of Plus, and OpenAI had paused new sign-ups in September. On September 29 it reopened Pro 200 with, in the Help Center's words, "a lower usage allowance than previously offered" at the same $200 price, launched Pro 500 above it, and grandfathered anyone who held an active Pro 200 subscription between September 22 and 10 a.m. Pacific on September 29. Those subscribers keep the old allowance through October 29, 2026, then drop to the new one. Reddit's headline was that the $200 plan was cut in half; OpenAI's is that models got more efficient. Either way, if you are not already on Pro 200, the plan you can buy today is the smaller one.
The business plans
ChatGPT Business is the plan formerly called Team (renamed August 29, 2025). It is self-serve, needs at least two seats, and comes with the line small businesses care about most: OpenAI does not train on your workspace's data. Seats are capacity, not people; you buy them and assign them, and you can mix the two types.
| Seat | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $25 per user/mo | $20 per user/mo | ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex, GPTs, projects, company knowledge, admin console, no training on your data |
| Premium | $125 per user/mo | $100 per user/mo | Everything in Standard with 5x the usage, no 5-hour usage cap, and a dot |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | SSO, SCIM, data residency, compliance API, custom retention; nonprofits get up to 75 percent off Business or Enterprise | |
| Verdict | A 5-person shop on Standard seats pays $125 a month billed monthly or $100 billed annually. Add one Premium seat for the owner if you want the agent: $225 monthly, $180 annual. Workspace credits can be bought on top for usage beyond the included limits. | ||
Two things the seat table does not say. Business and the API are separate bills; a Business subscription includes no API usage, so if a developer builds you a tool on OpenAI's models you pay for that by the token. And the minimum Business workspace that includes a dot is one Premium seat plus one Standard seat, $150 a month billed monthly, because the plan will not let you run a workspace with a single seat.
Paying for AI seats nobody uses?
We audit the tool stack of service businesses as part of every engagement, and "four ChatGPT seats, one active user" is the most common line item we cut.
What "usage" means, because it is what you are buying
Every paid plan sells an allowance rather than unlimited access, and the allowance is consumed at different rates depending on how you use it. Per the Help Center, Fast mode uses your included allowance at 2.5 times the rate of Standard mode on the same model, and GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast at 8 times. A Business Standard seat carries a 5-hour usage window that Premium removes. When a model hits its limit it goes grey until the reset, and support cannot reset it. For Codex, ChatGPT Work and the Word, Excel and PowerPoint add-ins, you can buy credits that kick in after the included allowance; credits do not extend every feature. The practical reading for a small business: Plus or a Standard seat is plenty for chat, drafting and research, and the expensive tiers exist for people who run agents and code all day.
The API prices, for when someone builds you something
If a developer or an agency wires ChatGPT's models into your website chat, your phone system or a report, you pay per million tokens, and DevDay reset those numbers too.
| Model | Input per 1M tokens | Output per 1M tokens | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-6.1 Sol (new) | $2 | $10 | Cached input $0.10; about one-fifth of Astra's price for most of its capability |
| GPT-6 Astra | $10 | $50 | The top model, and what powers dots |
| GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast | $60 | $300 | Speed tier, 6x the standard rate |
| Luna (Decisions API) | $0.10 | $0.50 | Classification and routing only, limited preview |
| Verdict | A website chatbot answering 2,000 conversations a month on GPT-6.1 Sol costs single-digit dollars in tokens. If an agency quotes you hundreds a month "for the AI," the AI is not where the money goes. | ||
ChatGPT vs Claude, seat for seat
We run our own company on Claude, so here is the comparison without a thumb on the scale. On October 2, 2026, Claude Pro is $20 a month ($17 on annual), Claude Max starts at $100, Claude Team Standard seats are $25 monthly or $20 annual, and Team Premium seats are $125 monthly or $100 annual. Those are ChatGPT's Business numbers to the dollar. The difference is what each company put in the top tier: ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium include a dot, the always-on agent with its own computer; Claude's plans include Claude Code, Skills and scheduled, handed-off tasks. Our full breakdown of the Claude side is in how much does Claude cost, and the decision framework is in which AI platform should you pay for. If your team already lives in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, read that one first; the bundled assistant sometimes wins on price alone.
Which plan, by business
| Situation | Buy | Monthly cost | Skip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo owner, chat and drafting | Plus | $20 | Go: no GPT-6 reasoning, may show ads |
| Solo owner who wants an agent running jobs | Pro 100 | $100 | Pro 200: same price as before, smaller allowance for new sign-ups |
| 2 to 10 staff sharing prompts and files | Business Standard | $25 a seat (2 minimum) | Buying Plus for each person: no admin console, and your chats train the model unless each person opts out |
| Team plus an owner's agent | Business Standard seats plus one Premium | $150 for two seats, $25 per extra Standard | Pro 100 on a personal account alongside the workspace: you lose the shared knowledge |
| Developers or anyone who needs Ultrafast | Pro 500 | $500 | Buying credits on Pro 100 or 200 to get Ultrafast: it does not unlock it |
| Verdict | For nine out of ten service businesses: Plus for one person, Business Standard for more than one. Add the first Premium seat only after you have five hours a month of named work for a dot. Our notes on that are in OpenAI dots for small business. | ||
Three things to skip
Go for business use. At $8 it is the cheapest paid plan, and the pricing page says in plain text that it may include ads and that it runs on the older GPT-5.6 Luna for text. The $12 difference to Plus buys the reasoning models that make the tool worth paying for.
Annual Pro. There is none. Pro is monthly only at every tier, which also makes it the easy plan to try for one month and cancel. Business is where the annual discount lives (20 percent on both seat types).
Buying seats before use. Seats are assignable capacity. Buy two, watch the admin usage panel for a month, and add seats for the people who actually used theirs. The Help Center confirms you can add, remove and reassign seats at any time.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ChatGPT cost per month in 2026?
Free is $0, Go is $8, Plus is $20, and Pro is $100, $200 or $500 depending on the tier. Business seats are $25 (Standard) or $125 (Premium) per user per month billed monthly, or $20 and $100 billed annually, with a two-seat minimum. Prices read from chatgpt.com/pricing on October 2, 2026.
What is the difference between ChatGPT Plus and Pro?
Plus ($20) includes GPT-6 reasoning models, projects, scheduled tasks and custom GPTs with capped usage. Pro ($100 and up) adds GPT-6 Astra Pro reasoning, longer Codex and ChatGPT Work sessions, unlimited image creation, a much larger usage allowance, and a dot, OpenAI's always-on agent. Pro 500 also includes the Ultrafast speed tier.
Did ChatGPT Pro get more expensive?
The $200 price did not change, but new Pro 200 subscriptions after September 29, 2026 include a smaller usage allowance than the plan used to. Subscribers who were active between September 22 and September 29 keep the old allowance through October 29, 2026. A new $500 Pro 500 tier sits above it.
Does ChatGPT Business train on my data?
No. OpenAI states it does not train on content from ChatGPT Business, Enterprise or Edu workspaces by default. Personal plans (Free, Go, Plus, Pro) use your conversations for training unless you turn that off in settings.
Is ChatGPT Team the same as ChatGPT Business?
Yes. Team was renamed Business on August 29, 2025. The plan now has two seat types, Standard and Premium, and requires at least two seats in total.
Is ChatGPT or Claude cheaper for a small business?
They cost the same. Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus are both $20 a month, and Claude Team and ChatGPT Business both charge $25 monthly or $20 annually for a standard seat and $125 or $100 for a premium seat. Pick on the product: ChatGPT's top tiers include the dot agent, Claude's include Claude Code and Skills.
Want to know what your competitors are using?
Free 10-minute website audit for your service business, with a note on where AI would actually save you time, delivered within 48 hours.