OpenAI is now giving ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers free API credits every month, up to $500. The company launched the benefit on Wednesday, October 28. For Pro, the deal is easy to describe: the monthly credit equals the plan price, so a $200 Pro subscriber gets $200 of API usage on top of ChatGPT. Plus subscribers get nothing, and the credits don’t make ChatGPT or Codex limits any bigger.
The credits land in an OpenAI API organization you own, and they expire at the end of each billing cycle. That makes them a perk for people who actually write code against the API, not a discount on ChatGPT itself.
- How much: $100, $200 or $500 a month on the matching Pro tier; $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat on Business, capped at $500 per workspace.
- When: launched October 28, 2026. You link your subscription to an API organization once, and credits arrive at each renewal.
- Who’s left out: Plus, Go, Free, Enterprise, Edu, free trials and legacy Codex seats.
- The catch: unused credits expire each cycle, they don’t cover Codex used with API keys, and OpenAI says the benefit may change or be removed.
How much each plan gets
OpenAI published the amounts in its developer docs. Here’s the full table next to what each plan costs, using OpenAI’s own help center prices.
| ChatGPT plan | Plan price | Monthly API credits |
|---|---|---|
| Pro 100 | $100/month | $100 |
| Pro 200 | $200/month | $200 |
| Pro 500 | $500/month | $500 |
| Business Standard seat | $25/month, or $20/month billed annually | $20 per paid seat |
| Business Premium seat | $125/month, or $100/month billed annually | $100 per paid seat |
| Plus, Go, Free, Enterprise, Edu | n/a | None |
Business credits are pooled across the workspace and capped at $500 a month. OpenAI’s help center gives the math: five Standard seats and three Premium seats add up to $400. Ten Standard and four Premium would be $600, so that workspace hits the $500 cap. A Business workspace that pays annually upfront gets the whole year’s grant in one shot, capped at $6,000, and it expires at the end of the annual cycle.
Your first grant is prorated. If you claim halfway through a billing month, you get roughly half the amount, and it still expires when that cycle ends.
What $100 of API credit buys
It depends heavily on the model. At the prices OpenAI lists for GPT-6.1 Terra, its cheaper fast model, $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, $100 covers 100 million input tokens or 20 million output tokens. That’s a lot of room for a side project, a prototype agent or a small internal tool. Run the same budget through GPT-6.1 Sol, which costs twice as much as Terra per token, and it goes half as far. The flagship models with Ultrafast pricing burn through it much faster still.
The credits cover most of what the API sells. OpenAI lists the Responses API (and Chat Completions), the Agents API including hosted sandbox charges, the Decisions API, GPT-Live and the Realtime API for voice, the Images API, and built-in tools such as web search, file search and Code Interpreter, including their storage charges.
One big exclusion: Codex usage through API keys isn’t covered. If you were hoping to point Codex at your new credits and get more coding time, OpenAI says that won’t work. The credits also don’t raise your ChatGPT usage limits or your signed-in Codex allowance. They’re a separate pot that only the API draws from.
Who qualifies, and the fine print
The rules are stricter than the headline. Your paid subscription has to be at least seven days old, and free trials or complimentary subscriptions don’t count. You need to own both sides: the ChatGPT subscription (or Business workspace) and the API organization that receives the money. For Business, being an admin isn’t enough. The person linking has to own the workspace and the API org. And you have to use the same email address on both accounts.
Each subscription links to one API organization, and each organization can hold only one such link. If you pick the wrong org, OpenAI says to contact support, and it warns that a change request doesn’t guarantee the credits move with it. You don’t need a payment method on the API account to spend the free credits, which makes this an easy way to try the API without handing over a card a second time.
OpenAI also says availability “depends on the enabled cohort and country.” If you don’t see the offer in your billing settings yet, that may be why, so don’t assume your plan is excluded.
How to claim ChatGPT API credits
There are two ways in. In ChatGPT, Pro subscribers open Settings, then Billing, and look for the API credits benefit. Business owners find it in the workspace billing settings or the Admin Console. From the other side, you can sign in to the API Platform, open Billing for the organization you want to fund, and link your subscription there. Either way, you confirm once and future grants arrive automatically at each renewal while the program lasts.
When the free balance runs out, the API uses any purchased credits you have. If there aren’t any, requests fail with an HTTP 429 error and the code credit_balance_exhausted. Anyone building something that needs to stay up should set a payment method or Auto Recharge, or watch that balance closely near the end of each cycle.
Why OpenAI is doing this
OpenAI didn’t give a reason beyond pitching the credits for building apps and agents. The timing tells part of the story. It came about a month after the company reshuffled Pro into three tiers, added a $500 plan with Ultrafast access and trimmed usage on new Pro 200 subscriptions. Grandfathered Pro 200 users keep their old allowance only through today, October 29. Free API credits are a cheap way to add value to the expensive plans without adding ChatGPT capacity, because many subscribers will never write an API call.
For those who do, it’s a real benefit. A developer already paying $200 for Pro now gets $200 of API usage that used to cost extra. It also nudges ChatGPT users onto OpenAI’s API instead of a rival’s, which matters as Google and Anthropic fight for the same developers. The open question is how long it lasts. OpenAI’s help center says plainly that the benefit “may change or be removed in the future.”
Frequently asked questions
How much free API credit do ChatGPT Pro subscribers get?
Pro 100 gets $100 a month, Pro 200 gets $200 and Pro 500 gets $500, matching the plan price. The credits go to a linked OpenAI API organization and expire at the end of each billing cycle.
Do ChatGPT Plus subscribers get API credits?
No. Plus, Go and Free aren’t eligible. Neither are Enterprise, Edu, legacy Codex seats, free trials or complimentary subscriptions. Only paid Pro and Business subscriptions at least seven days old qualify.
How much do ChatGPT Business workspaces get?
$20 per paid Standard seat and $100 per paid Premium seat, pooled across the workspace and capped at $500 a month. Workspaces that pay annually upfront get the full year’s grant at once, capped at $6,000.
Can I use the credits for Codex?
Not through API keys. OpenAI says Codex usage via API keys isn’t covered, and the credits don’t increase ChatGPT or signed-in Codex usage limits. They cover API usage such as the Responses, Agents, Realtime and Images APIs.
Do unused API credits roll over?
No. Monthly grants expire at the end of the subscription billing cycle, and the first grant is prorated for the time left in that cycle. Credits already issued stay usable until they expire even if you cancel.
Sources
- OpenAI, “API credits for ChatGPT subscribers” (developer guide): developers.openai.com
- OpenAI Help Center, “API credits benefit for eligible ChatGPT subscriptions”: help.openai.com
- OpenAI Developers (@OpenAIDevs) on X, launch post and video (October 28, 2026): x.com
- OpenAI Help Center, “About ChatGPT Pro tiers”: help.openai.com
- OpenAI Help Center, “ChatGPT Business overview”: help.openai.com
- OpenAI Developers changelog: developers.openai.com
All sources accessed October 29, 2026, between about 10:00 and 10:45 AM ET.
Last updated: October 29, 2026. To report an error, see our corrections page. Articles are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and edited by an editor; see our editorial policy.
