OpenAI Launches $100/Month Pro Tier with 5x More Codex Usage

OpenAI announced a new $100/month Pro subscription tier on Thursday, April 9, 2026, positioned to directly compete with Anthropic's existing $100/month Claude offering. The new tier provides 5x more Codex usage than the $20/month Plus plan and sits between OpenAI's existing Plus and $200 Pro tiers, with higher promotional limits available through May 31, 2026. OpenAI claims Codex delivers more coding capacity per dollar than competing Claude Code, particularly during active coding sessions. The launch comes as Codex usage surges, with more than 3 million weekly users globally and 70% month-over-month growth as of April 2026, representing a 5x increase over the prior three months.

New $100/month Pro tier pricing and features

• ▪OpenAI's $100 Pro plan offers 5x more Codex usage than the $20/month Plus plan
• ▪OpenAI's $20/month Plus plan and $100 Pro tier are designed to support daily usage of ChatGPT's coding tool Codex
• ▪OpenAI's pricing tiers include a free plan with ads, an $8/month Go plan with ads, a $20/month Plus plan without ads, and a $200 Pro plan without ads
• ▪OpenAI's $200/month plan offers 20x higher limits than the Plus plan
• ▪OpenAI's $100 and $200 Pro plans offer the same core features, with the main difference being rate limits
• ▪OpenAI is offering higher Codex limits on the $100 plan through May 31, 2026
• ▪OpenAI announced a $100/month plan on Thursday, April 9, 2026

Competitive positioning against Anthropic's Claude

• ▪OpenAI claims Codex delivers more coding capacity per dollar across paid tiers compared with Claude Code, with the difference showing up most clearly during active coding use
• ▪OpenAI designed the new $100 Pro Tier to challenge Anthropic, which has long had a $100/month option for Claude

Codex usage growth and adoption metrics

• ▪Codex weekly usage increased 5x in the three months prior to April 2026
• ▪Codex usage is growing more than 70% month over month as of April 2026
• ▪More than 3 million people globally are using Codex every week as of April 2026

Perspective of OpenAI

• ▪OpenAI designed the new $100 Pro Tier to fill a gap between the $20 Plus tier and the $200 Pro tier
• ▪OpenAI positions the $100 and $200 Pro plans as having the same core features with rate limits being the primary differentiator

Perspective of Anthropic

• ▪Anthropic has long offered a $100/month subscription option for Claude before OpenAI introduced its $100 tier