OpenAI Launches $500 Pro 500 Plan With 300-Token-Per-Second Ultrafast Codex Tier and Halves the $200 Plan's Codex Allowance

Overview

OpenAI used its DevDay event on September 29 to reshape how heavy users pay for its Codex coding agent. According to Engadget, the new Pro 500 plan offers OpenAI’s highest usage allowance, comes with access to a new “Ultrafast” feature, and costs $500 per month. At the same time, the existing $200 Pro plan is being scaled back.

What We Know

• Ultrafast tier. The Next Web reports that Pro 500 is the only Pro plan with Ultrafast, which OpenAI said generates up to 300 tokens per second in Codex, up to eight times faster than standard. Unite.AI adds that the tier offers up to six times faster generation in the API, and that GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast is available now in the API and in ChatGPT Work and Codex on Pro 500 and Enterprise plans, with GPT-6.1 Sol Ultrafast coming soon.
• Pro 500 allowance. Unite.AI reports that OpenAI describes the plan as its highest usage allowance, at 25 times the ChatGPT Plus allowance, and that it is available now.
• Pro 200 cut. According to Engadget, $200 Pro subscribers in Codex and Work will see included usage fall from 20x the Plus allowance to 10x, and GPT-6 Pro message caps in ChatGPT will fall from 200 to 100 per week. The Next Web reports that the change takes effect on October 30, that existing subscribers keep their current limits until October 29, and that they receive a one-time grant of usage credits worth $2,500 that expire at the end of the year. The Next Web adds that OpenAI said it will not reintroduce Pro 200’s five-hour limit, and that Pro 200 is open to new subscribers again, but with a lower usage allowance than before.
• Model update. Unite.AI reports that OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol in the API as gpt-6.1-sol at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, and says the model nearly matches GPT-6 Astra’s intelligence on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work at one-fifth of Astra’s standard input and output token prices. Engadget reports that Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education users can use GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex and Work starting the same day.
• Codex tooling. Per Unite.AI, Codex can now run on a computer, remotely from a phone, or in the cloud from any device, and a refreshed Codex CLI adds voice steering and an /agents view for delegating and tracking multiple tasks. Unite.AI also reports a Code Review experience in the ChatGPT desktop app that can take an automatic first pass on changes in the cloud, with feedback shared on GitHub pull requests or GitLab merge requests, and Codex Security Cloud, which scans GitHub repositories on demand or on a schedule and prepares fixes in the cloud.

What We Don’t Know

• Engadget says existing $200 subscribers will keep their limits “for a time” and later receive a one-time credit without giving a value or dates, while The Next Web supplies the October dates and the $2,500 figure.
• Unite.AI notes that OpenAI states its own model evaluations were run in its research environment or through its API, while competitor-model evaluations were taken from publicly available reports. The GPT-6.1 Sol cost comparisons therefore rest on OpenAI’s own reporting and were not independently verified in the cited coverage.
• Ultrafast pricing for API use and any effective per-task cost for Pro 500 subscribers were not stated in the sources reviewed here.

Analysis

The combination raises the top of the Codex subscription ladder while lowering the value of the tier below it. Engadget’s headline framed the $200 change as a “nerf,” and Engadget wrote that it is possible other competitors will follow suit; that is the outlet’s view, not an announced move. The changes also build on OpenAI’s earlier opening of the Codex harness to developers, previously reported with the Agents API public beta; Unite.AI now says the Agents API supports computer use and is available in Codex and ChatGPT Work on Pro 500 and Enterprise plans.