Key Notes
- ChatGPT Pro 500 costs $500 a month and offers 25 times the Plus usage allowance.
- Astra Ultrafast generates tokens up to eight times faster in Codex but consumes included usage at eight times the Standard rate.
- Eligible Pro 200 subscribers keep their previous allowance through October 29 before moving to the reduced level.
OpenAI has introduced a $500 monthly ChatGPT Pro plan with 25 times the usage allowance of Plus and access to GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast. Announced at DevDay on September 29, Pro 500 becomes the company’s highest-usage individual subscription.
The headline speed improvement is substantial: OpenAI says Astra Ultrafast can generate tokens up to eight times faster in Codex, reaching 300 tokens per second. That measures how quickly the model produces output, rather than promising that every coding project, research assignment or document will finish eight times sooner.
The launch follows a separate change to the $200 Pro tier. OpenAI’s Thibault Sottiaux explained that revised usage accounting would halve its allowance when measured in equivalent API spending. The new $500 option therefore arrives as customers reassess both the amount of work included and the price of faster responses.
Where the $500 Plan Fits
OpenAI’s DevDay announcement describes Pro 500 as available immediately, with its largest included allowance. It sits above the existing $100 and $200 Pro subscriptions. Those cheaper tiers remain available, but neither includes Ultrafast at launch.
| Individual plan | Monthly price | Astra Ultrafast at launch |
|---|---|---|
| Plus | $20 | No |
| Pro 100 | $100 | No |
| Pro 200 | $200 | No |
| Pro 500 | $500 | Yes |
These are the published monthly U.S. dollar prices. Compared with Plus, Pro 500 costs 25 times as much and advertises 25 times the allowance. The usage multiplier alone therefore does not imply a lower price per unit; the premium tier also sells access to a faster mode.
In practice, the allowance is not a fixed number of messages or completed jobs. OpenAI’s usage guidance says consumption depends on the model, task complexity, context, reasoning and tools. ChatGPT Work and Codex draw on shared usage, so a lengthy coding session can reduce the capacity available for other agent tasks.
Ultrafast Also Uses the Allowance Faster
The speed option carries a material trade-off. According to OpenAI’s speed documentation, Astra Ultrafast consumes included subscription usage at eight times the Standard rate. Once a Pro 500 subscriber exhausts that allowance, available purchased credits can cover further usage, at six times the Standard credit rate.
Those consumption multipliers are separate from the performance claim. A bigger allowance does not translate directly into 25 times as many Astra Ultrafast tasks as a Plus customer could run at Standard speed. The selected model and speed setting change the comparison.
Faster generation may matter most during interactive work: reviewing a proposed code change, testing an approach and asking for another revision. It can shorten pauses between decisions. Workflows that spend much of their time waiting for external websites, software builds or human input may see a smaller overall improvement.
OpenAI’s access guidance places Ultrafast in ChatGPT Work and Codex on Pro 500 and eligible Enterprise and Edu workspaces. Plus, Pro 100, Pro 200 and Business cannot unlock it by buying credits at launch. Eligible users choose Astra and then Ultrafast in the model picker.
What Changes for $200 Pro Subscribers
AIstify previously covered the Pro allowance change ahead of DevDay. Sottiaux’s explanation concerned the API-dollar value of the included budget, with model efficiency and lower API prices central to OpenAI’s justification. It was not a claim that every ChatGPT feature would suddenly permit half as many messages.
Sottiaux pointed to recent price reductions for Sol and Luna and argued that subscribers would get more useful work as models improve. That argument depends on which models and workloads customers use; cheaper processing for one model does not automatically compensate someone whose work relies on another.
OpenAI’s updated Pro guidance now confirms that new $200 subscriptions are available again with a lower included allowance unless they qualify for grandfathering. Eligible subscribers retain their previous allowance through October 29, 2026 while maintaining an active Pro 200 subscription, before moving to the reduced level at the same monthly price.
Eligibility covers subscriptions active at OpenAI’s cutoff or during the preceding seven days. Keeping the older allowance does not add Pro 500 features or Ultrafast access. OpenAI says affected customers will receive an email with details.
A Larger Budget for Ongoing Agent Work
The timing connects Pro 500 to OpenAI’s broader push into delegated work. DevDay also brought Dots agents, designed to take on ongoing responsibilities, and GPT-6.1 Sol, which offers another model option for coding and professional tasks. Longer assignments make usage budgets increasingly relevant to the subscription decision.
OpenAI’s pricing documentation says Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit, allowing subscribers more flexibility over when they use their allowance. Weekly usage constraints still matter. This is particularly relevant for people who concentrate demanding work into a few long sessions.
For an individual already relying on Astra throughout the working day, the new tier offers a larger budget and a speed option unavailable on cheaper personal plans. Its practical value will depend on completed work: how often limits interrupt a project, how much waiting Ultrafast removes and how quickly that mode spends the expanded allowance.
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