OpenAI Cancels the ChatGPT Pro 200 Cut and Doubles Pro Limits: What Changed on 29 October

OpenAI reversed a planned ChatGPT Pro usage cut on 29 October 2026, the day before it was due to take effect. The original plan, emailed to Pro subscribers after DevDay on 29 September, would have reduced included ChatGPT Work and Codex usage for Pro 200 from 20 times the ChatGPT Plus allowance to 10 times, and reduced GPT-6 Pro messages in Chat from 200 to 100 per week, at the same $200 a month. Existing subscribers who held an active Pro 200 subscription at any point from 22 September through 10 a.m. Pacific Time on 29 September were to keep the old 20 times allowance through 29 October, then move to the lower allowance on 30 October. That plan is now cancelled, according to OpenAI's release notes for 29 October and a post the same day from Thibault Sottiaux, who leads Codex and ChatGPT Work at OpenAI.

Sottiaux posted, as part of a daily improvement update: "We are doubling all usage limits for all Pro 100/200/500 tiers and Business Premium, effective today." He added: "We heard your kind feedback and won't be reducing usage limits for Pro 200, so your Work and Codex usage will stay the same." Those two sentences are the whole story, but they need careful reading, because the broad doubling claim and the detailed help page account differ in one important place. The help page account, as reported by multiple outlets that read the release notes, says Pro 100 and Pro 500 get twice their previous Work and Codex allowance, Pro 200 subscribers on the lower allowance get doubled to match the higher allowance, and subscribers who already had the higher allowance keep it. For Pro 200, that is a restoration, not a doubling on top of the old higher allowance. For Pro 100 and Pro 500, it is a genuine doubling of the Work and Codex allowance. Business Premium usage is increasing, but OpenAI's official note gives no multiplier or new allowance figure for that tier in the sources checked, so this article does not invent one.

That distinction is the difference between a correct budget and a wrong one. If you are on Pro 200 and you already had the higher allowance, your Work and Codex allowance stays the same, it does not double. If you joined Pro 200 after the September reopen and you were on the lower allowance, your allowance doubles to match the higher level. If you are on Pro 100 or Pro 500, your Work and Codex allowance doubles. If you are on Business Premium, your usage is increasing, but you need to check your own account for the new figure, because the public note does not state it. Prices do not change in this update: Pro 100 stays $100 a month, Pro 200 stays $200 a month, and Pro 500 stays $500 a month, according to the reporting on the release notes.

What exactly changed, tier by tier?

ChatGPT Work and Codex share one allowance. Work is the longer, multi step task mode in ChatGPT, and Codex is OpenAI's coding agent. When you run a long task in Work or an agent job in Codex, both draw on the same pool. That shared pool is what this update changes. ChatGPT Chat, the ordinary chat mode, has separate message limits for certain models, and those separate limits are not all changed by this update. Reporting on the release notes says the weekly GPT-6 Pro chat limits for Pro 100 and Pro 500 remain unchanged, even though their Work and Codex allowance doubles. Do not assume that a doubled Work and Codex pool means doubled everything. Check the Chat limit and the Work and Codex allowance separately in your own account.

Table: Plan | Price per month | Work and Codex change on 29 October | What it means in practice. Rows: ChatGPT Pro 100 | $100 | Work and Codex allowance doubled | Twice the previous Work and Codex pool, same price. ChatGPT Pro 200, higher allowance | $200 | Planned cut cancelled, allowance stays the same | The 20 times Plus level is kept, not reduced to 10 times. ChatGPT Pro 200, lower allowance | $200 | Allowance doubled to match the higher level | Subscribers who joined after the reopen move up to the higher level. ChatGPT Pro 500 | $500 | Work and Codex allowance doubled | Twice the previous Work and Codex pool, same price, plus Ultrafast access as before. ChatGPT Business Premium | Per seat pricing, as before | Usage increasing | OpenAI's note gives no multiplier, so check your own account. ChatGPT Plus | As before | No change reported in this update | Do not assume Plus gains from a Pro update.

Pro 500 deserves a separate note, because it is the tier OpenAI introduced alongside the original cut plan. Pro 500 costs $500 a month, includes the highest Work and Codex allowance OpenAI sells, and adds access to Ultrafast, a faster generation mode that OpenAI says generates tokens at up to eight times the normal speed for supported models. The doubling applies to Pro 500's Work and Codex allowance as well, so Pro 500 subscribers get twice their previous pool at the same price. Ultrafast itself is not a separate allowance in this update, and the credit rules for Ultrafast, where included allowance is consumed faster and additional credits are consumed at a different rate, are a separate detail to check in OpenAI's pricing documentation before you run a large Ultrafast job.

Dots, OpenAI's always on agents, also need a separate note. Sottiaux said OpenAI will continue offering extended limits for dots for now, and that usage of a dot will still continue to be separate from default usage. That means a dot's work does not simply draw down the same pool in the same way as ordinary Work and Codex work, at least under the current arrangement. If you run dots, check their usage separately, and do not budget dot work as if it were ordinary Work usage, or the reverse.

What happened to the 62,500 credit grant?

The original September email also offered affected Pro 200 subscribers a one time grant of 62,500 usage credits, which OpenAI valued at $2,500, to soften the planned cut. Those credits were described as appearing in Settings, Usage, expiring on 31 December 2026, and usable as a top up after included usage runs out, across supported features such as Codex, ChatGPT Work, and ChatGPT for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They were not API credits, they were not cash, and they did not reduce the subscription price.

After the reversal, the status of that grant is not confirmed in the sources checked for this article. At least one outlet that tracked the reversal notes that OpenAI has not said what happens to the 62,500 credit grant now that the cut is cancelled. This article therefore does not tell readers that the grant still applies, that it has been withdrawn, or that it still expires on 31 December. The honest action is to open Settings, Usage in your own account and look for a credit balance, its amount, and its expiry date, before you plan any work around it. If the credits are there, they are a top up, not a replacement for your allowance, and they are still subject to whatever expiry date your account shows. If they are not there, do not budget as if they were. A grant tied to a cancelled cut cannot be assumed to survive the cancellation, and a grant that was already issued cannot be assumed to be taken back either. Your account page is the only source that settles it for you.

The same caution applies to the old 30 October deadline. Articles published before 29 October, and still circulating on 30 October, describe the cut as happening on 30 October. Those articles were correct about the original plan, and wrong about the outcome, because the plan changed on 29 October. If you read a post that says Pro 200 drops to 10 times on 30 October without mentioning the cancellation, that post is out of date. Check the date on anything you read about Pro limits this week, and prefer OpenAI's release notes and your own Usage page over a summary that was written before the reversal.

What should Pro subscribers do now?

First, check your own account before you change plans, cancel, upgrade, or buy extra credits. Open Settings, Usage, and note three separate figures: your Work and Codex allowance and how much of it you have used, your ChatGPT Chat limits for the models you actually use, and any credit balance with its expiry date. Those three figures are the only numbers that matter for your next month, and they will differ by tier, by join date, and by whether you were on the higher or lower Pro 200 allowance. A subscriber who upgrades on the basis of a headline doubling, without checking which pool doubled, can easily buy the wrong tier.

Second, reprice your seat on the new allowance, not on the old cut plan and not on the broad doubling headline. If you are on Pro 100 or Pro 500, you have twice the Work and Codex pool you had last week, at the same price, so a workflow that was tight last week may now fit comfortably, and a workflow you were about to move to a higher tier may no longer need the move. If you are on Pro 200 with the higher allowance, your pool is unchanged, so do not add work on the assumption that it doubled. If you are on Pro 200 with the lower allowance, your pool has moved up to the higher level, so work that was capped last week may now run. If you are on Business Premium, wait for your own account figure before you reprice team seats, because the public note does not give the new amount.

Third, keep the five hour limit question separate. Earlier reporting on Pro plans noted that OpenAI said the five hour limit would not return, so subscribers can use their weekly allowance when they need it, rather than in fixed five hour windows. That point is about when you can use the allowance, not how large it is, and it is not changed by the doubling. If you schedule large agent jobs, schedule them when the work needs to run, and check the Usage page for reset timing, rather than assuming a window that no longer applies.

Fourth, do not buy extra usage credits to cover a cut that no longer exists. Extra credits are a top up for work beyond your included allowance, and they make sense only when your included allowance is actually exhausted on a regular basis. After this update, many Pro subscribers will have more included allowance than they had under the old plan, so the first step is to measure a full month on the new allowance, with the same workload, before you spend on top ups. The cheapest upgrade is often a workflow change: shorter agent runs, cached context where the tool supports it, and a human review step before a long job reruns, rather than a higher tier.

OpenAI's reversal is good news for Pro subscribers, but it is not a simple doubling for everyone, and it is not a reason to stop checking your own account. The cut is cancelled, Pro 100 and Pro 500 Work and Codex allowances are doubled, Pro 200 is restored to its higher level for everyone on that tier, Business Premium is increasing by an unstated amount, prices are unchanged, and some Chat limits are unchanged. Those are the verified contours. Your own Usage page fills in the exact numbers for your seat, and that page, not a headline, is what your November budget should be based on.

Key takeaways:

• OpenAI cancelled the planned ChatGPT Pro 200 usage cut on 29 October 2026, one day before it was due, according to OpenAI's release notes and Thibault Sottiaux's post the same day.
• Pro 100 and Pro 500 Work and Codex allowances are doubled at the same prices, $100 and $500 a month, while Pro 200 at $200 a month keeps its higher allowance instead of dropping to the lower level.
• Pro 200 subscribers who were on the lower allowance after the September reopen get doubled to match the higher allowance, which is a restoration for that group, not a doubling on top of the higher level.
• Business Premium usage is increasing, but OpenAI's note gives no multiplier or new figure in the sources checked, so Business Premium subscribers should check their own account.
• Weekly GPT-6 Pro chat limits for Pro 100 and Pro 500 are reported unchanged, and dots usage remains separate from default usage under the current arrangement.
• The status of the 62,500 credit grant tied to the original cut is not confirmed after the reversal, so subscribers should check Settings, Usage for a balance and expiry date rather than assuming it applies.

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Sources: OpenAI ChatGPT release notes, 29 October 2026, as reported by MadRobot, StrongMocha, Windows Report, Technijian, and The Hype News on 29 to 30 October 2026; Thibault Sottiaux post on X, 29 October 2026, quoted in those reports; OpenAI subscriber email of 29 September 2026, as published by a subscriber and quoted in the same coverage; OpenAI Help Center pages on Pro tiers and usage credits, as cited in that coverage.