Pricing
Codex Plans and Pricing (2026): Every ChatGPT Tier, Compared
Every ChatGPT plan that includes Codex, what each costs, monthly or yearly, and which tier fits how much you code. Prices from OpenAI, dated.
12 min read
Plans, limits and Enterprise terms checked Nov 1, 2026 on OpenAI’s Codex pricing page and OpenAI’s Codex help article; ChatGPT plan grid and billing FAQ checked Oct 26, 2026 on ChatGPT pricing; Business seat prices checked Oct 30, 2026 in OpenAI’s Business help article. Other dates are under Sources. No affiliate links on this page (how we work).
There’s no “Codex plan” to buy. Codex comes inside every ChatGPT plan, from Free at $0 to Pro at $500 a month, or you run it on an API key at per-token prices. The cheapest plan with the full set of Codex surfaces (web, CLI, IDE extension, iOS) and published limits is Plus at $20 a month. Every individual plan is monthly only (verified Oct 26, 2026; prices seen unchanged Nov 1, 2026).
Quick answer
- Cheapest plan with Codex: Free ($0). Go ($8) gets the same Codex line: “GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout”. No limit numbers for either.
- Cheapest plan for real coding: Plus ($20). Web, CLI, IDE extension and iOS, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna on the plan card (GPT-6.1 Terra too, since Oct 26, 2026), cloud code review and Slack, and published five-hour estimates.
- What Pro adds: “Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit”. Pro comes at $100, $200 or $500, and only Pro $500 gets Ultrafast.
- No subscription at all: an API key, billed at API rates, without the cloud features.
Just want the free answer? See is Codex free
Codex plans compared (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise)
All prices in USD per month. Individual plans are from OpenAI’s Codex pricing page (verified Nov 1, 2026); Business seat types from OpenAI’s Business help article (verified Oct 30, 2026). The Codex price tracker keeps the dated history.
| Plan | Price | Codex usage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited, desktop | Trying it |
| Go | $8 | Limited, desktop | Chat extras |
| Plus | $20 | 5-hour estimates | Daily coding |
| Pro | $100 / $200 / $500 | No 5-hour limit | Heavy solo use |
| Business | $25/user ($20 yearly) | Plus-level per seat | Small teams |
| Business Premium | $125/user ($100 yearly) | No 5-hour limit | Heavy team seats |
| Enterprise / Edu | Contact sales | Flexible or Plus-level | Large orgs |
| API key | API rates | Pay per token | Bursty or CI use |
Business prices are per user, 2+ users; the yearly figure is the per-month price when billed annually. Go, Plus and Pro are monthly only. Enterprise/Edu “with flexible pricing have no fixed rate limits”; without it, they get “the same per-seat usage limits as Plus for most features” (Codex pricing page, verified Nov 1, 2026).
ChatGPT Codex plans
OpenAI’s pricing page opens with the answer: “ChatGPT Work and Codex are included in your ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise plan.” Codex and ChatGPT Work also share one usage pool (Codex pricing, verified Oct 26, 2026). Here’s what each tier actually gets.
Free and Go. Both get “GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout”. The ChatGPT pricing grid marks Codex “Limited” on both, and the help center says Codex Cloud “is not included with Free or Go”. No limit numbers are published, and Go “may include ads” (ChatGPT pricing, help article, verified Oct 26, 2026). On Codex, Go lists nothing Free doesn’t, so the $8 buys chat extras, not coding.
Plus ($20). Where Codex stops being a demo: “Codex on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension, and on iOS”, “Cloud-based integrations like automatic code review and Slack integration”, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, and the option to “Flexibly extend usage with ChatGPT credits”. The grid says Codex “Yes” and the plan card says “Expanded Codex usage” (verified Oct 26, 2026). OpenAI’s estimates for Plus run from 5–45 local messages per five hours on GPT-6 Astra and 15–160 on GPT-6.1 Sol to 35–285 on GPT-6.1 Terra and 350–3,000 on GPT-6 Luna, and weekly limits may also apply (Codex pricing page, verified Nov 1, 2026). Terra reached Plus, Pro, Enterprise and Edu on Oct 26, 2026, per OpenAI’s launch post (verified Oct 28, 2026), and the Codex pricing page lists it for Business too. The full table and reset rules are in Codex usage limits.
Pro ($100, $200 or $500). “Everything in Plus”, plus “Ultrafast mode access on Pro $500”, and the grid upgrades Codex to “Expanded”. The Pro card promises “Longer Codex and ChatGPT Work sessions” (verified Oct 26, 2026). The headline difference: “Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit.” Note the “currently”.
Business. A Standard seat gets Plus-level estimates plus SAML SSO and MFA, at $25 per user monthly or $20 billed annually, 2+ users (“$20 / user / month*”, “*2+ users, billed annually. $25 per user per month when billed monthly”, Codex pricing page, verified Nov 1, 2026). Business also has a Premium seat at $125 per user monthly or $100 billed annually, which “includes higher usage for ChatGPT Work and Codex than Standard seats, no five-hour usage limit” (Business help article, verified Oct 30, 2026). How much “higher” isn’t published. The seat-by-seat comparison is in Codex Plus vs Business.
Enterprise and Edu. Contact sales, no list price. OpenAI’s card adds “Priority request processing”, SCIM, EKM, RBAC, “Audit logs and usage monitoring via the Compliance API” and “Data retention and data residency controls”. With flexible pricing there are “no fixed rate limits. Usage scales with credits”; without it, the per-seat limits match Plus for most features (Codex pricing page, verified Nov 1, 2026). On token-based Enterprise agreements, “Codex usage … is billed in US dollars (USD), instead of deducted from credits” (help article, verified Nov 1, 2026).
Pro $100 vs $200 vs $500
OpenAI doesn’t say how much more usage each step buys. The help article says “Pro 200 includes more usage than Pro 100. Pro 500 offers the highest included usage of the three plans.” No usage multiple is published for any of them (Pro help article, verified Oct 21, 2026).
| Pro tier | Ultrafast | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pro 100 | Not included | Credits don’t unlock it |
| Pro 200 | Not included | Smaller for new subs |
| Pro 500 | Included | Highest usage |
“At launch, buying credits on Pro 100 or Pro 200 does not unlock Ultrafast.”
Pro 200 got smaller, and the grace period is over. “New subscriptions that aren’t eligible for grandfathering include a lower usage allowance.” Pro 200 subscribers who were active from Sep 22 to Sep 29, 2026 kept the old allowance through Oct 29, 2026; after that date, they’re on the lower allowance too, at the same $200 (Pro help article, verified Oct 21 and Oct 29, 2026).
Same $200, less usage, and the size of “less” isn’t published. Cutting the heavy-use tier without a number leaves new subscribers paying full price for a mystery. That one stings.
Torn between $20 and $100? See Codex Pro vs Plus.
Yearly vs monthly: is there a yearly Codex subscription?
Not for individuals. OpenAI’s exact wording:
- ChatGPT pricing FAQ: “We offer monthly plans for Go, Plus and Business and annual plans for Business and Enterprise.” (ChatGPT pricing, verified Oct 26, 2026)
- Plus: “Currently, we do not support annual billing or the option to pay for multiple months in advance for ChatGPT Plus subscriptions.” (Plus help article, verified Oct 25, 2026)
- Pro: “Pro is billed monthly. Annual billing and payment for multiple months in advance are not available.” (Pro help article, verified Oct 21, 2026)
- Business: the only tier with a published annual price, $20 per user per month, 2+ users, against $25 monthly (verified Oct 25, 2026).
So a year of Codex on Plus is simply 12 × $20 = $240, and a year on Pro 100 is $1,200. There’s no annual discount to chase.
Is there a separate Codex license?
No. As of Nov 1, 2026, neither the Codex pricing page nor OpenAI’s Codex help article mentions a Codex license, and OpenAI doesn’t publish a standalone Codex subscription. There are two ways to pay for Codex, and only two:
- A ChatGPT plan. Sign in with ChatGPT in the desktop app, CLI, IDE extension or Codex web: “Codex is included across ChatGPT plans, including Free and Go. Usage limits vary by plan.” (help article, verified Oct 26, 2026)
- An API key. “Codex in the CLI, SDK, or IDE extension”, “Model availability follows the API models available to your key”, “Pay for Codex usage based on API pricing”, and “No cloud-based features (GitHub code review, Slack, etc.)” (Codex pricing, verified Oct 26, 2026).
The help article mentions “Codex credit plans for business users” on chatgpt.com/pricing, but that page lists no Codex-only plan, just “Enterprise and Business can purchase credits for more access” (verified Oct 26, 2026). So “codex buy” means: buy ChatGPT, or buy API tokens. For a company, the “license” is a Business or Enterprise seat, and Codex comes with it.
There’s no Codex family plan either. Neither the Codex pricing page nor the ChatGPT plan grid lists a family or household option (checked Nov 1 and Oct 26, 2026), so each person needs their own plan or seat.
The API key wins for light, bursty or CI use; daily users are better off with a flat plan. Per-token prices: AI API pricing.
Credits when you hit the cap
Hit your limit mid-week and you have three options short of upgrading. “ChatGPT Plus and Pro users who reach their usage limit can purchase additional credits to continue working without needing to upgrade their existing plan”; Business, Edu and Enterprise on flexible pricing “can purchase additional workspace credits”; and “All users may also run extra local chats using an API key, with usage charged at standard API rates” (Codex pricing, verified Oct 26, 2026). The catch is that OpenAI still prints no dollar price per credit: “Credit purchase prices and applicable discounts depend on your plan or agreement”, so check current price at checkout. Credits last 12 months from purchase (credits help article, verified Oct 24, 2026). Rates per model, expiry and speed multipliers are in Codex credits.
Students: verified university students in the US and Canada “can claim $100 in ChatGPT credits to use in Codex”, expiring 12 months after the grant; there’s no discounted plan (OpenAI students page, verified Oct 21, 2026).
Codex vs Claude Code, Cursor and Copilot on price
| Tool | Entry plan | Top plan | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Codex | $8 Go ($20 Plus for full surfaces) | $500 Pro | OpenAI, Nov 1 |
| Claude Code | $20 Pro ($17/mo yearly) | $200 Ultra | Anthropic, Nov 1 |
| Cursor | $8 Plus ($80/yr) | $200 Ultra | Cursor, Oct 31 |
| Copilot | $10 Pro | $100 Max | GitHub, Oct 31 |
Claude Code and Cursor publish yearly prices; Codex and Copilot list none. One naming note: Anthropic renamed its $200 Max 20x plan to Ultra, and “Existing Max 20x subscribers move to Ultra automatically, with no price change” (Ultra plan, verified Nov 1, 2026). The $20-vs-$20 matchup has its own page: Codex Plus vs Claude Code Pro. The head-to-head is Codex vs Claude Code, and the wider field is in AI coding tools compared.
Here’s what I’d do
Curious: Free. If Codex sticks, skip Go and go straight to Plus, the first plan with the CLI, IDE extension, cloud tasks and published limits.
Daily user: Plus at $20. Use GPT-6 Luna for routine work (350–3,000 local messages per five hours, by OpenAI’s estimate), try GPT-6.1 Terra (35–285) for mid-weight tasks, and save GPT-6.1 Sol for the hard stuff. Limits and resets are in Codex usage limits.
Hitting Plus limits: a few times a month, buy credits. Most days, Pro 100 before Pro 200; with no published multiple, the cheapest Pro is the cheapest way off the five-hour cap.
Need Ultrafast: Pro 500 is the only individual door.
Paying for a team: Business Standard seats for most people, a Premium seat ($125, or $100 yearly) only for the one or two who hit five-hour limits daily, and Enterprise only when you need SCIM, audit logs or data residency.
Related reading: Codex Pro vs Claude Code Max, Cursor vs Codex, ChatGPT Plus cost, Claude Code pricing and the GPT-5.5 retirement error in Codex.
New model in the picker? GPT-6.1 Sol vs Terra compares the two on Codex credits, messages per five hours and which plans get each.
If Codex stops mid-run with a stream error, that’s usually network or provider config, not your plan: Codex “stream disconnected” error.
If Codex has already stopped you with “You’ve hit your usage limit”, what that Codex error means walks through the reset and the legit ways to keep going.
Paying for a team? Codex on Plus vs Business compares per-seat price, limits and admin controls.
If a paid plan’s cloud tasks keep failing to start, the Codex “Error creating task” timeout fix shows what to check first.
FAQ
What Codex plan do I need? For regular coding, ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month is the cheapest plan with Codex on the web, CLI, IDE extension and iOS plus published limits.
Can you buy Codex on its own? No, OpenAI sells Codex only inside ChatGPT plans or through an API key billed at API rates.
Is there a yearly Codex plan? No, Go, Plus and Pro are monthly only; Business is the only tier with an annual price, $20 per user for 2+ users.
How much is Codex Pro? ChatGPT Pro comes in three tiers, $100, $200 and $500 a month, and only Pro $500 includes Ultrafast.
Is Codex free? ChatGPT Free includes limited Codex with GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, subject to rollout, with no published limit numbers; details in Is Codex free?.
Do you need a Codex license? No, OpenAI publishes no separate Codex license; Codex comes with a ChatGPT plan or seat, or runs on an API key billed at API rates.
Is there a Codex family plan? Not published; OpenAI lists no family or household plan for Codex or ChatGPT, so each person needs their own plan.
What’s the cheapest Codex plan? Free at $0 includes limited Codex, but Plus at $20 a month is the cheapest plan with Codex on the web, CLI, IDE extension and iOS.
How much does Codex Enterprise cost? OpenAI publishes no price; Enterprise and Edu are contact-sales, and token-based Enterprise agreements bill Codex usage in US dollars.
Sources
- OpenAI, Codex pricing (plans, surfaces, API-key path, limits incl. Terra and Astra, Business and Enterprise cards, credits wording): https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing (verified 2026-11-01)
- ChatGPT pricing (Codex Limited/Yes/Expanded, billing FAQ, Business annual): https://chatgpt.com/pricing (verified 2026-10-26)
- OpenAI Help Center, Using Codex with your ChatGPT plan (Free/Go access, no Codex Cloud on Free/Go, clients, token-based Enterprise billing in USD, no license wording): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11369540-using-codex-with-your-chatgpt-plan (verified 2026-11-01)
- OpenAI Help Center, What is ChatGPT Plus (no annual billing): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6950777-what-is-chatgpt-plus (verified 2026-10-25)
- OpenAI Help Center, About ChatGPT Pro plans (tiers, Ultrafast, monthly billing; Pro 200 grandfathering ended Oct 29): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9793128-about-chatgpt-pro-plans (verified 2026-10-21; grandfathering end verified 2026-10-29)
- OpenAI Help Center, Using credits for flexible usage (12-month validity, price not published): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12642688-using-credits-for-flexible-usage-in-chatgpt-personal-plans (verified 2026-10-24)
- OpenAI, Codex for students: https://developers.openai.com/community/students (verified 2026-10-21)
- Claude pricing (Pro $20/$17, Ultra $200): https://claude.com/pricing (verified 2026-11-01)
- Cursor pricing: https://cursor.com/pricing (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub Copilot plans: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans (verified 2026-10-31)
- OpenAI Help Center, What is ChatGPT Business (Standard and Premium seats): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8792828-what-is-chatgpt-business (verified 2026-10-30)
- OpenAI, Introducing GPT-6.1 Terra (Oct 26, 2026 launch, plans): https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-1-terra (verified 2026-10-28)
- Anthropic Help, What is the Ultra plan (Max 20x renamed): https://support.claude.com/en/articles/17728952-what-is-the-ultra-plan (verified 2026-11-01)