ChatGPT Pro and Business plans now include up to $500 a month in OpenAI API credits

OpenAI published the terms of a new benefit on October 29, 2026. Eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers can now claim free credits for the OpenAI API, and the credits go to one API organization that the subscriber links to the plan. For a developer who already pays for ChatGPT, the subscription now covers the first part of each month's API spending.

How much each plan gets

Each of the three Pro tiers returns its price as credits. The $100 tier gets $100 per monthly billing period, the $200 tier gets $200, and the $500 tier gets $500.

Business workspaces earn credits per paid seat: $20 for each Standard seat and $100 for each Premium seat. The amounts are pooled for the whole workspace and capped at $500 a month. In OpenAI's example, 5 Standard and 3 Premium seats add up to $400, while 10 Standard and 4 Premium seats reach $600 and are cut to the cap.

Workspaces that pay annually upfront receive the whole year's credits at once, capped at $6,000 per annual cycle. On every plan, the first grant is prorated for the time left in the current billing period.

ChatGPT Plus and free trials do not qualify. Enterprise and Edu plans are not covered either.

What the credits pay for

The credits cover paid usage billed to the linked API organization. That includes the Responses API, the Agents API, the Realtime API, image generation, and built-in tools such as web search and file search, along with their storage charges.

They do not cover Codex used through API keys. They also do not raise the usage limits of ChatGPT, or of Codex used with a ChatGPT sign-in.

No payment method is needed while free credits remain, and those credits are spent before any purchased ones. When no credits of either kind are left, requests fail with HTTP 429 and the error code credit_balance_exhausted. A credit balance does not lift rate limits.

Conditions and expiry

The paid subscription must be at least seven days old before the credits can be claimed. The person claiming them must own both the subscription or workspace and the API organization, and both accounts must use the same email address. One subscription links to exactly one API organization.

Monthly credits expire at the end of the billing cycle and do not roll over. After the first claim, new credits arrive automatically at each renewal. OpenAI says the benefit may change or be removed in the future. Availability also depends on the country, and the help center does not list which countries qualify.

Anthropic introduced a similar benefit on October 7, 2026. Claude Max 5x subscribers get $100 a month in API credits, Max 20x subscribers get $200, and Team plans get up to $500 pooled across their users.