ChatGPT Pro 500 is OpenAI’s new $500 monthly subscription, with Astra Ultrafast and its highest personal-plan allowance. The $200 tier keeps its price but moves to a lower allowance. Eligible existing subscribers get a temporary cushion, rather than a permanent promise of their old limits.
What changes for Pro 200
According to OpenAI’s current Pro tiers documentation, the monthly lineup now runs from Pro 100 at $100 to Pro 200 at $200 and Pro 500 at $500. New Pro 200 subscriptions are available again, although they come with the revised allowance.
Qualifying Pro 200 subscribers retain their previous included usage through October 29, 2026, while their subscription stays active. Eligibility covers subscriptions active at the cutoff or in the seven days before it. OpenAI says it emails affected users. After that date, the lower allowance applies; the monthly price remains $200.
That distinction matters because a temporary exception can look like an unchanged plan today. Two people paying the same $200 price may have different allowances during this transition. The exception also does not turn Pro 200 into Pro 500 or grant Ultrafast access.
Ultrafast trades waiting time for allowance
In its DevDay announcement, OpenAI says Pro 500 provides 25 times the allowance of ChatGPT Plus. The new tier also includes Ultrafast for GPT-6 Astra, its flagship model.
For Codex, the company claims token generation up to eight times faster than Standard, reaching 300 tokens per second. However, that describes output speed, rather than a guarantee that an entire coding task finishes eight times sooner. Tool calls, tests and other work still take time.
OpenAI’s speed documentation says Ultrafast consumes included subscription usage at eight times the Standard rate. Purchased credits use a separate six-times rate. It draws from the included allowance first, then available credits. Buying credits on other personal tiers does not unlock Ultrafast at launch.
The useful comparison is the workload
The headline allowance multiplier alone cannot describe how far a subscription will stretch. A faster mode can reduce waiting while consuming more of the same pool. Codex and ChatGPT Work share usage limits and credits, so activity in either surface affects that comparison.
For frequent coding work, shorter waits may justify a higher bill. By contrast, occasional use may never approach the limits that make the premium meaningful. These are workload tradeoffs, not results from a Tech My Money hands-on test. The immediate takeaway is clear: Pro 500 adds speed, while Pro 200’s price stays fixed as its included usage changes.
