OpenAI Reopens $200 Pro Plan With Half the API-Equivalent Usage

OpenAI is reopening its Pro subscription on September 30, 2026, keeping the price at $200 per month while making the plan available to new users again. [3] The relaunch comes 20 days after sign-ups were suspended on September 10, and the included usage, measured by equivalent public API spending, is half that of the previous $200 Pro plan. [3]

The five-hour usage cap will not return, so subscribers can distribute their weekly allotment however they choose; OpenAI employee Thibault Sottiaux also said subscribers should still accomplish more than they could a month earlier. [2][3] He pointed to GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, released this week at half their predecessors’ API price, while The Decoder characterized the changes as a move away from heavily subsidized subscriptions toward pay-per-use pricing already used by Microsoft Copilot in some areas. [2]

The revised Pro plan exchanges some API-equivalent value for greater scheduling flexibility, making individual usage patterns more important when judging the subscription. OpenAI’s argument depends on GPT-6 Sol and Luna’s lower API prices compensating for the smaller allowance. The pay-per-use direction also places its pricing approach closer to Microsoft Copilot in areas where Microsoft already uses usage-based billing. What the sources don't address: how much weekly usage subscribers receive or which usage patterns still make Pro cheaper than buying API capacity directly.