OpenAI has officially introduced a new pricing tier, a $100/month plan, designed to cater to its power users and developers, a long-awaited feature for many in the community. This new 'Pro' tier aims to provide enhanced capabilities, particularly for those heavily utilizing ChatGPT's coding tool, Codex.

Prior to this announcement, OpenAI's pricing structure included a free plan, which now incorporates advertisements, an $8/month 'Go' plan also featuring ads, and a $20/month 'Plus' plan that offers an ad-free experience. At the higher end, a $200 'Pro' plan has existed, also ad-free, though it is currently not explicitly listed on OpenAI's official pricing page. OpenAI has confirmed to TechCrunch that the $200/month tier remains available for those requiring the highest limits.

The new $100 'Pro' tier, alongside the existing $20/month 'Plus' plan, is specifically tailored to support daily usage of ChatGPT’s Codex. The new $100 'Pro' plan offers a significant boost in capacity, providing five times more Codex usage than the 'Plus' plan.

OpenAI has openly stated that the introduction of this new pricing tier is a direct strategic move to challenge its competitor, Anthropic, which has historically offered a comparable $100/month option for its AI model, Claude. An OpenAI spokesperson elaborated to TechCrunch, stating, "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."

Customers considering the $100 plan should be aware of a temporary offer: OpenAI is providing even higher limits of Codex on this plan through May 31st. Therefore, users experiencing exceptionally high coding capacity without rate warnings should note that this situation is likely temporary. It is important to understand that none of OpenAI's plans, including the new 'Pro' tiers, offer truly unlimited usage.

For those with the most demanding needs, the $200 'Pro' plan continues to provide the highest capacity, offering 20 times higher limits than the 'Plus' plan. OpenAI's FAQ assures that this level of access is sufficient to support even the most continuous and parallel demanding workflows. The company clarifies that while both 'Pro' plans offer the same core features, the primary distinction between them lies in their respective rate limits.

The increasing demand for Codex is evident, with OpenAI reporting that over 3 million people globally are utilizing Codex every week. This represents a substantial fivefold increase in usage over the past three months, with month-over-month growth exceeding 70%.