All coding subscriptions

ChatGPT Pro (20x)

OpenAIultra
$200
Last checked: 2026-07-29
First limit you hit
300–1,800 Codex messages per 5-hour window
Equivalent API value
$887Priced on GPT-5.6 Sol
Value multiple
4.44×
When it runs out
Scenario
Interactive use only

Allowances

This plan publishes no plan-wide allowance; the per-model limits below are the allowance. Limits of the same kind and period share one window, so they are alternatives — you spend it on whichever model you pick, and they do not add up.

GPT-5.6 Sol300–1,800Codex messages per 5-hour window
The vendor's own wording
The usage-limits table gives Pro 20x / GPT-5.6 Sol as "300-1800" messages per 5-hour window.
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GPT-5.6 Terra400–2,200Codex messages per 5-hour window
The vendor's own wording
The usage-limits table gives Pro 20x / GPT-5.6 Terra as "400-2200" messages per 5-hour window.
Open the source page
GPT-5.6 Luna1,000–5,600Codex messages per 5-hour window
The vendor's own wording
The usage-limits table gives Pro 20x / GPT-5.6 Luna as "1000-5600" messages per 5-hour window.
Open the source page

Models included

ModelCapabilityBurn rate
GPT-5.6 Soldefaultown cap 300–1,800untiered
GPT-5.6 Terraown cap 400–2,200untiered
GPT-5.6 Lunaown cap 1,000–5,600frontier

Subscription versus your own API key

This compares two ways of working the same way — in an IDE or CLI, where BYOK tools make a direct API key a real option. It is not a claim that subscriptions are cheaper than the API in general.

ModelEffective price / 1M tokensvs API rateBreakeven
GPT-5.6 Soluntiered$1.120.2340.2M
GPT-5.6 Terrauntiered$0.840.3480.4M
GPT-5.6 Lunafrontier$0.340.34200.9M

Usage terms

Quoted from the vendor's own terms. We do not give legal advice.

The Terms of Use, under "What you cannot do", state: "You may not use our Services for any illegal, harmful, or abusive activity. For example, you may not: ... Automatically or programmatically extract data or Output (defined below)." The same list also prohibits users from "circumvent any rate limits or restrictions or bypass any protective measures or safety mitigations we put on our Services". Note that the clause carries no carve-out for API access — the exemption is not in the wording, so the separation rests on billing rather than on the prohibition itself: OpenAI's pricing page attaches the Codex allowances above to the ChatGPT plan and lists API access as its own line, "usage-based pricing per API documentation".

Change history

  1. 2026-07-27Recorded from the seed file
  2. 2026-07-27Recorded from the seed file
  3. 2026-07-27Recorded from the seed file