Previously, OpenAI halted the $200 Pro subscription due to compute constraints, and today it reopened subscriptions while also adjusting how usage is calculated.
To sum up in one sentence: the price stays the same, but the quota is halved. That's not the point. The point is this wordplay from Tibo (original text at the end), which is truly top-tier play.
How does it work?
The company says that because the API prices of the newly launched GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna have been reduced by 50%, even if the subscription quota is halved, users can still get more actual work done than a month ago.
Is that a bit convoluted? A bit hard to understand? If you don't understand it, that's exactly the point.
The API price is halved. Normally, $200 should buy twice the quota it used to. The result is: our new models are cheaper, and for users' "benefit," we decided to keep the quota the same as before—users lose nothing and may even "come out ahead."
What?
To keep users from feeling unhappy, they also deliberately offered a few sweeteners:
- A promise not to reintroduce the 5-hour usage limit, allowing users to freely allocate their weekly quota
- A promise that model efficiency will improve further and API prices will fall further
- A batch of new features that do not consume daily quota will be launched; details are currently unknown, but they will definitely make the subscription look more worthwhile
Being able to calculate a disguised price increase for you so clearly—OpenAI is really something.
Hi,
Tomorrow we are re-opening the Pro $200 subscriptions to new subscribers, but together with it we are also changing how we calculate the usage for it. In effect, if you do the math, it will net out at half the dollar in API spend compared to the old Pro $200 plan.
Now that it's said, let me explain why this is happening and why you will still get more work done than if you were on the Pro $200 subscription one month ago.
(a) We didn't want to compromise in other ways and are committing to not reintroducing the 5h limit, so that you can fully use the weekly usage when you want.
(b) On the subscription, we guarantee that over time you always get more work done and with an increasing level of quality. This means that you will continue to get more value per dollar spent as a result of models getting more efficient and us passing down the improvements in the form of API price reductions.
(c) We don't want to put an incentive on ourselves to artificially inflate the API list prices to make it look like you are getting a lot (and workaround it through discounts, etc). Instead we want to continue to both rapidly reduce prices and increase capabilities of models on the API. This week we introduced GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna at 50% of their previous price. Over time, we see prices go low enough that it makes sense for most to buy usage as needed without there being a significant gap between what you get in a subscription and what you get in the API for a dollar spent.
(d) Tomorrow, we are adding more things to the subscription that won't draw on the usage, I won't reveal what that is yet.
I wanted to be transparent before all the big announcements tomorrow. Lots of new exciting things are coming to the subscriptions that will make it super compelling, but I wanted to make sure to share this change ahead of time so you can all understand it before we shower you with good news.
Codexingly,
Tibo