What moved around Plus this year, dated and sourced, and how to decide whether to stay, downgrade or switch when the tiers change.
If you searched this because someone told you Plus went up, you're not imagining the rumour. It has been around for two years.
In September 2024 the New York Times reported on internal OpenAI documents that projected Plus rising from US$20 to US$22 by the end of that year, and to US$44 by 2029 (as covered by TechCrunch on 27 September 2024). They were internal projections, and the US$22 price never appeared.
In August 2026 a second version started circulating, claiming Plus rose to US$24 on 15 June 2026. The article making that claim links only to OpenAI's home page. OpenAI's Plus page shows US$20, and neither TechCrunch's coverage of the August free-tier change nor its report on the September Pro pause mentions any change to Plus. Treat US$24 as unconfirmed unless it shows up on your own invoice.
Every row below is dated and comes from OpenAI or from named reporting, last checked on 24 September 2026. Oppermind is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI.
| When | What changed | What it means for a Plus subscriber |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2023 | Plus launches at US$20 a month | Still the price on OpenAI's Plus page, September 2026 |
| 16 to 19 Jan 2026 | ChatGPT Go rolls out worldwide at US$8 a month, A$13 in Australia (Mumbrella, 19 Jan). OpenAI says ads will be tested on Free and Go | A cheaper paid plan now sits under Plus. Plus stays ad-free |
| Mar to Apr 2026 | OpenAI extends its ads pilot to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, on Free and Go accounts (Mumbrella, 27 Mar) | If you drop from Plus to Go or Free here, you'll see ads |
| 9 Apr 2026 | A US$100 Pro plan is added below the US$200 one (prices in A$) | "Pro" on a bill now means one of two plans |
| 6 Aug 2026 | Free and Go get unlimited text chats, with separate limits still on files, images, voice and image generation (TechCrunch) | Plain text chat is no longer a reason to pay for Plus |
| 10 Sep 2026 | New sign-ups and upgrades to the US$200 Pro plan are paused, citing demand for a new model. Go and Plus remain available (TechCrunch), and OpenAI's Pro help page says the US$100 Pro plan is unaffected | Cancel a US$200 Pro plan now and you may not be able to get back on it while the pause lasts |
The August row matters most. The case for Plus used to start with "more messages", and for everyday text that case is gone. What Plus still sells, according to OpenAI's Plus page, is its advanced models, image creation, expanded memory and deep research, projects and custom GPTs, and more access to OpenAI's work and coding tools, with more messages and uploads than the plans below it. It also carries no ads.
This takes five minutes with your last invoice or card statement open. The price guide covers GST, currency and card fees across every tool, so only the ChatGPT-specific part is here.
Write the monthly figure down in A$. You need it for the next part.
Take the last two weeks of your ChatGPT history and sort what you used it for. Where most of it lands tells you the answer.
Mostly plain questions and short drafts. Since August, Free and Go do this without a message cap (files, images and voice still have their own limits). Try Go or Free for a month before your renewal date. The cost of trying is seeing ads, and the saving is most of the Plus bill.
Long reasoning, uploads, image generation, deep research. This is where Plus still sells more than Go, and the price hasn't changed the maths. If you hit Plus limits often, the US$100 Pro plan is the step up. The US$200 one is closed to new sign-ups for now.
Chat that ends in a file. If the pattern in your history is "ask, copy, paste into Word, fix the formatting, repeat for the spreadsheet and the deck", the subscription isn't the problem. The copying is. That's a category question, covered in Notion AI vs ChatGPT vs an all-in-one workspace, and a consolidation question, covered in One AI subscription replaces 8. If you're weighing a different chat assistant, Claude, Gemini or Grok? compares them by job, with their prices in A$.
Whichever way you go, export your chat history before you cancel anything, and cancel at renewal rather than mid-month. Replace your AI subscriptions, one tool at a time has the week-long test and the order to do it in.
Next time a price headline appears, check OpenAI's plan page and your own invoice before you act. Neither the 2024 projection nor the 2026 US$24 claim has appeared on OpenAI's plan page.
Oppermind is for the third group in the list above, the people whose ChatGPT sessions end with a paste. One prompt produces the finished thing, a document, a spreadsheet, a deck or a PDF, and it opens in a proper editor with real .docx, .xlsx and .pptx round-trip. You fix a wrong figure in the editor instead of re-prompting. Workspace Agent modes plan and use tools, and Autonomous Workers take on repeating jobs with a dry-run preview and approval gates you set. Unlimited documents, spreadsheets, decks and designs on every plan.
It also sits beside the tools you already use, with a Chrome extension side panel, iOS and Android apps, and add-ins for Word, Excel and PowerPoint (downloadable, manual install). If you're new to it, the Academy's first useful result takes a real piece of work to a clear, shareable result in five minutes, and choosing a chat mode and reasoning depth covers when a quick answer is enough and when to hand a job to an agent.
Plans are Free with no card, Starter A$9.95, Pro A$29.99 and Pro Plus A$59.99 a month, and the listed price is what you're charged, with nothing added at checkout. Try it on the task you last copied out of ChatGPT.
Whatever you're here to make, make more of it.
Plus is still the right call if you use ChatGPT for long reasoning every day, rely on deep research, or already get your work to the finish line inside ChatGPT. It is still US$20 and still ad-free, which the cheaper tiers are not. What changed is that you now have a cheaper paid plan to compare it with, and a free plan that handles more than it used to.
Some people keep Plus for thinking and use a second tool for the files. That's a reasonable setup, as long as you've chosen it on purpose.
No. OpenAI's Plus page still lists US$20 a month as at 24 September 2026. We found no OpenAI page or major news outlet supporting a claim that it rose to US$24 in June 2026. The older US$22 and US$44 figures come from 2024 projections, and the US$22 price never appeared.
The list price is US$20 a month. Subscribers on OpenAI's community forum reported in 2024 and 2025 an Australian checkout of A$29.99 before GST, around A$33 with it. Check your own invoice, because currency, GST and card fees all move the final number.
Go is OpenAI's lower paid plan, launched worldwide in January 2026 at US$8 a month and A$13 at its Australian launch. It shows ads and sits below Plus on limits and features. Since August 2026, text chats on Go are unlimited.
OpenAI paused new sign-ups and upgrades to that plan on 10 September 2026 because of demand, and had given no end date as at 24 September 2026. Plus, Go and the US$100 Pro plan are still available. OpenAI's Pro help page sets out the limited cases in which a former US$200 subscriber can rejoin.
Prices are OpenAI's published list prices and dated reports as at 24 September 2026, and change without notice. Australian-dollar figures for Plus are user-reported, not published by OpenAI. Oppermind's A$ prices are the amount charged at checkout with nothing added on top, while the user-reported Plus figure is shown before GST, so the two are not a like-for-like comparison. Your final charge depends on your billing currency, any card fees and your own GST position. This article is general information about software pricing and is not tax, accounting or financial advice. Oppermind is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI. ChatGPT is a trade mark of OpenAI. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are trade marks of Microsoft, Chrome and Android of Google, and iPhone of Apple, and Oppermind is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them. Check OpenAI's current plan page before you decide.
One prompt to a finished document, spreadsheet, deck or PDF, open in a real editor. Free with no card.