OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, announced Tuesday that it would reopen the $200 Pro tier to new subscribers while cutting its included usage roughly in half.
In a post on X, OpenAI’s Tibo Sottiaux said the company would retain weekly usage rather than restore a five-hour limit. He said subscribers should still accomplish more work as models become more efficient and API prices fall.
OpenAI also launched Pro 500, a $500-a-month tier that includes Astra Ultrafast.
Alex Finn, a YouTube creator who focuses on AI coding tools, interpreted the change as a sign that metered pricing will replace subscriptions as AI companies face pressure to curb subsidies. OpenAI and Anthropic, maker of Claude, both filed confidential paperwork for potential initial public offerings in June.
“The days of AI subsidies are coming to an end,” Finn wrote.
The DeAI angle: OpenAI’s ability to rewrite subscription economics shows how users of centralized AI platforms remain price takers. Decentralized compute markets could offer an alternative by letting suppliers compete on open platforms, but their lower-cost claims still need like-for-like evidence on model quality, latency, reliability, total cost and convenience.
HOW AI WAS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS PIECE: I created the first draft of this piece on ChatGPT using a custom skill designed to write stories based on posts on X. I used the Distro Publisher MCP connector to file the draft directly to DeAI News on DistroVerse, our web app. I then used the DistroVerse built-in story-editing interface to edit the piece. I checked details of the Pro 500 tier against OpenAI’s official Help Center.