OpenAI just found the middle ground between a casual chat and a corporate budget.
On Thursday, the AI leader announced a new $100-per-month subscription tier for ChatGPT, designed to give power users, especially developers, more breathing room without forcing them into the top-tier $200 plan. This move effectively splits the Pro brand into two distinct levels of service, aimed at vibe coders.
For a long time, ChatGPT users had to make a massive leap if they outgrew the $20 Plus plan. Their only option for higher limits was a jump to $200 a month. The new $100 tier offers a just-right alternative for those who need high-intensity access but can’t justify the highest price point.
The plan includes all the bells and whistles of the $200 version, like the exclusive Pro model, Deep Research, and Codex, but with different usage caps. While the $200 plan offers 20 times the limits of the Plus plan, the new $100 option provides five times the allowance.
To sweeten the deal for the launch, OpenAI said on X, “To celebrate the launch, we’re increasing Codex usage for a limited time through May 31st so that Pro $100 subscribers get up to 10x usage of ChatGPT Plus on Codex to build your most ambitious ideas.”
Chasing the vibe coders
The primary driver behind this new tier appears to be the explosion of AI-assisted programming. OpenAI’s coding tool, Codex, has seen its weekly user base swell to over 3 million people, a fivefold increase in just three months.
OpenAI is positioning this tier as a direct response to competitor Anthropic, which already offers a $100 tier for its Claude AI.
“The new $100 Pro Tier is designed to give developers more practical coding capacity for the money, especially during high-intensity work sessions where limits matter most. Compared with Claude Code, Codex delivers more coding capacity per dollar across paid tiers, with the difference showing up most clearly during active coding use,” an OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch.
What changes for everyone else?
While the new plan steals the headlines, OpenAI is also making adjustments to its existing $20 Plus subscribers. The company is modifying Plus usage to favor steady, daily use rather than the long, marathon coding sessions that the new $100 plan is built to handle.
The company also upgraded the fallback model that users see when they hit their usage limits. Instead of dropping down to older models, users will now encounter GPT-5.3 Instant Mini.