Summary: OpenAI has doubled the usage limits for its ChatGPT Pro plans. The change covers ChatGPT Work and Codex, and it starts now. It also cancels a price cut that Pro 200 users were about to face.
What happened
On October 29, 2026, OpenAI changed its ChatGPT Pro plans. The news came from Thibault Sottiaux, who leads Codex and ChatGPT Work at OpenAI. He posted the update on X.
His message was short. He said OpenAI is doubling all usage limits for the Pro 100, Pro 200, and Pro 500 tiers, and for Business Premium. The change took effect at once. No user needs to do anything to get it.
The same post also settled an older worry. OpenAI had planned to cut the Pro 200 allowance after October 29. That cut is now off the table. Sottiaux wrote: “We heard your kind feedback and won’t be reducing usage limits for Pro 200, so your Work and Codex usage will stay the same.”
What changed, plan by plan
ChatGPT Pro plans have two separate usage pools. One pool is the weekly message limit for normal chat. The other pool is shared by ChatGPT Work and Codex. The doubling applies to that second pool only.
Here is what it means for each plan:
- Pro 100 ($100 a month). The shared Work and Codex allowance is now twice as large. The weekly chat limit stays the same.
- Pro 200 ($200 a month). The planned cut is cancelled. All Pro 200 users now sit at the same, higher allowance. No one drops to a lower level because of when they signed up.
- Pro 500 ($500 a month). The shared Work and Codex allowance doubles. The weekly chat limit stays the same.
- Business Premium. The shared Work and Codex allowance doubles too, at the same price.
Two groups see no change. ChatGPT Plus users get nothing extra from this update. And Dots, OpenAI’s always-on assistants, keep their own separate limits. Dots usage does not draw from the Work and Codex pool.
The cut that did not happen
To grasp this news, it helps to know what almost happened. On September 29, OpenAI told Pro 200 users that their allowance would drop after October 29. Reports put the drop at about half the old level — from 20 times the Plus allowance down to 10 times. The weekly GPT-6 Pro chat messages were also set to fall from 200 to 100.
Users pushed back hard. The cut would have hit people who pay $200 a month and use Codex or Work every day. One day before the cut was due, OpenAI changed course. Instead of a cut, users got a doubling.
One honest note: OpenAI does not publish exact usage numbers for each tier. So the doubling is real, but no one outside OpenAI can check it against a public number. Keep that in mind when you read claims about exact limits.
Why this matters for freelancers and students
If you are a freelancer, this news can save you real money. Codex helps coders write, test, and fix code. ChatGPT Work handles long jobs that run in the background. Both tools share one allowance. With twice the room, you can take on more client work before you hit the cap — without moving to a costlier plan.
It also changes how you plan a project. Before this change, a heavy coding week could eat your whole allowance. Now you have more headroom. That means fewer forced breaks, fewer surprise caps, and less pressure to buy a higher tier in the middle of a job.
For students, the news is more mixed. Most students use the free plan or Plus, and those plans did not change. But this update still matters for two reasons. First, if you plan to pay for Pro later, you now get more for the same price. Second, it shows how fast AI pricing moves. Plans, limits, and prices can change in a single month. Before you pay for any AI tool, check the latest limits — not last month’s blog post.
This is also a busy month for OpenAI pricing. Just days ago, the company launched GPT-6.1 Terra with lower API prices. That launch, plus this doubling, points to one trend: OpenAI is competing hard to keep heavy users on its platform.
What to watch next
Three questions will show how big this change really is. First, do Pro users feel the extra room in daily work, or does it only help the heaviest users? Second, does OpenAI keep these limits, or does it change them again in a few months? Third, do rival tools answer with their own price or limit changes?
For now, the message is simple. Pro users get more room at the same price. The planned cut is gone. And if you pay for ChatGPT Pro, your Work and Codex allowance is now twice what it was yesterday.