For two years, ChatGPT gave heavy users a binary choice: $20/month for Plus or $200/month for Pro. On Thursday, OpenAI filled that gap with a $100/month tier.
The 10x price jump from Plus to Pro was a consistent complaint. Users who burned through Plus limits faced a difficult call: live with the restrictions or triple their spending. The $100 tier lands at the midpoint and gives those users a more proportional upgrade path.
OpenAI hasn't published a detailed feature breakdown for the new tier, but the positioning suggests meaningfully expanded usage limits over Plus without full Pro access. The move mirrors what Anthropic did with Claude - a $20 standard tier, a $100 Max tier for heavier use, and a higher ceiling above that - suggesting both companies are finding that users cluster at different usage intensities and that two price points was leaving money on the table.
For small business owners and freelancers using ChatGPT as a primary work tool, $100/month can be justified as a business expense in a way that $200 often can't. The new tier doesn't change what Pro offers, but it makes the overall pricing structure harder to argue with.