ChatGPT pricing: all seven plans, and which one most small businesses need
ChatGPT runs from free to $200 a month across seven tiers. What each one actually adds, why the $8 Go plan exists, and the two-seat minimum on Business that catches solo operators.
Verdict
ChatGPT runs from free to $200 a month across seven plans. Go is $8, Plus $20, Pro Codex $100, Pro Max $200. Business is $20 a user annually with a two-seat minimum.
The seven plans#
| Plan | Cost | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Everyday text chat |
| Go | $8/mo | Regular use on a small budget |
| Plus | $20/mo | Individual power users |
| Pro Codex | $100/mo | Heavy coding work |
| Pro Max | $200/mo | Highest research and reasoning quotas |
| Business | $20/user/mo annually, $25 monthly | Teams, minimum 2 seats |
| Enterprise | Custom | Larger organisations |
Limits, not features
What separates most of these tiers
You are mostly buying more of the same thing, not different things.
That is the part the pricing page does not say plainly. Moving up the ladder rarely unlocks a capability you did not have. It raises how much of it you can use before you hit a wall.
What free actually covers#
More than people assume:
- Unlimited everyday text chat
- A small number of image generations a day
- Basic voice
- File uploads, within limits
What it does not cover: deep research, agent mode, custom GPTs, and the higher reasoning quotas.
If you open ChatGPT a few times a week to draft something or check a fact, free is genuinely enough. Most people paying $20 could not name what they get for it.
The $8 plan exists for a reason#
Go went global in January 2026 at $8 a month.
It is aimed at the gap between free and $20: more messages, more uploads, longer memory, expanded voice including video, and a larger reasoning context window.
Plus at $20, and the Pro split#
Plus is the default paid tier: priority access, faster responses, higher limits.
Pro stopped being one thing in April 2026. It is now two:
| Cost | Aimed at | |
|---|---|---|
| Pro Codex | $100/mo | Heavy Codex and coding use |
| Pro Max | $200/mo | Top deep research and reasoning quotas |
That split matters if you were about to spend $200. If your usage is coding rather than research, the $100 tier is the one built for you, and the extra $100 buys quotas you may never touch.
Business, and the seat minimum#
$20 per user a month billed annually, or $25 monthly. Business took a $5 price cut in April 2026, so older comparisons overstate it.
What you are actually buying is not capability. It is governance:
- A dedicated workspace
- Your data is not used for training
- Compliance certifications
- Admin controls and connectors
The prices moved three times in 2026#
This is why quoted figures go stale:
| When | What changed |
|---|---|
| 16 January 2026 | Go went global at $8 |
| 2 April 2026 | Business cut by $5 |
| 9 April 2026 | Pro split into $100 and $200 tiers |
Any comparison written before April describes a different ladder. Check the date on anything you read, including this page.
Which one you actually need#
| Your situation | Plan |
|---|---|
| A few times a week | Free |
| Daily, hitting limits, budget matters | Go, $8 |
| Daily, want the full individual experience | Plus, $20 |
| Coding is the main use | Pro Codex, $100 |
| Deep research is the main use | Pro Max, $200 |
| A team, or data must stay out of training | Business, 2 seats minimum |
The most common mistake is buying Plus because it is the visible default. Try free for a fortnight and count how often you actually hit a limit. If the answer is never, the $20 is buying you nothing.
What about GPT-6#
GPT-6 Astra was announced on 3 September 2026 and is rolling out in stages. No ChatGPT plan price changed for it, and whether you can use it yet depends on your plan and where you are in the rollout.
The API cost is a different story, and a much bigger one. We work through that in GPT-6 Astra pricing.
The short version
What works
- The free plan covers unlimited everyday text chat, which is more than most free AI tiers offer
- Go at $8 exists specifically for people who found $20 too much, and it is a real plan rather than a trial
- Business at $20 a user annually keeps your data out of training, which the consumer plans do not
What does not
- Seven tiers is a confusing ladder, and the differences between them are usage limits rather than features
- Business has a two-seat minimum, so a solo operator cannot buy it
- The pricing ladder changed three times in 2026, so any figure you read elsewhere may already be stale
Frequently asked questions
- How much does ChatGPT cost?
- Free is $0, Go is $8 a month, Plus is $20, Pro Codex is $100, and Pro Max is $200. Business is $20 per user a month billed annually or $25 monthly, with a minimum of two users. Enterprise is quoted directly.
- What is the difference between ChatGPT Plus and Pro?
- Usage limits, mostly. Plus at $20 gives priority access and faster responses for an individual. Pro splits into two tiers: Pro Codex at $100 aimed at heavy coding use, and Pro Max at $200 which carries the highest deep research and reasoning quotas.
- Is the free ChatGPT plan enough?
- For everyday text chat, often yes. Free covers unlimited standard conversations plus a few image generations a day and basic voice. What it excludes is deep research, agent mode, custom GPTs, and the higher reasoning limits. If you use it a few times a week, free is genuinely sufficient.
- Can one person buy ChatGPT Business?
- No. Business has a two-seat minimum, so the cheapest it can be is two users. A solo operator wanting the data protections that Business provides has to buy two seats or stay on a consumer plan, where conversations may be used for training unless you opt out.
Written by
Tashawar Awais
Researcher and editor
Tashawar handles verification and editing. Every figure in a review is checked a second time before it goes out, and anything that cannot be traced to a vendor page or a documented source is either qualified or cut. Where pricing is genuinely unclear, as it is with Canva team plans or Close CRM tiers, the article says so and tells the reader to confirm directly instead of quoting a number with false confidence.
- Second check on every published figure
- Removes claims the sources do not support
- Flags pricing that changes without notice