ChatGPT Pro now comes with up to $500 a month of API credit

OpenAI is giving paying ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers monthly API credits worth up to $500, according to its developer documentation. The benefit started on October 28 and was noted by developer Simon Willison as a close copy of an Anthropic deal.

The credits can only be spent on the OpenAI API, not on ChatGPT itself. They are meant for people who build apps and agents and who would otherwise pay for API usage separately from their subscription.

Credits scale with the plan you pay for

OpenAI’s developer guide sets the amount by plan. The three Pro tiers get $100, $200 or $500 a month, matching the price of the tier. Business workspaces get $20 for each paid Standard seat and $100 for each paid Premium seat, pooled and capped at $500 per workspace per month. Workspaces that pay annually up front receive the full year’s grant at once, with a $6,000 annual cap.

To qualify, the subscription must be paid, active and at least seven days old. Free trials and complimentary subscriptions do not count. Plus, Go and Free plans are not eligible, and neither is Enterprise. The person claiming must own both the ChatGPT subscription or Business workspace and the API organization that receives the credits, and the same email address must be used on both accounts.

Claiming happens in ChatGPT billing settings or in the API Platform billing page. Either route links the subscription to one API organization. The first grant is prorated for what remains of the current billing cycle, and later grants arrive automatically at renewal. Changing the receiving organization afterward requires contacting support.

Credits expire monthly and have limits

Unused credits do not roll over: they lapse at the end of the billing cycle. OpenAI says free credits are used before purchased ones. When both run out, API requests fail with HTTP 429 and the error code credit_balance_exhausted.

The credits cover paid API Platform usage on the linked organization, including built-in tool and storage charges. They do not raise ChatGPT usage limits, and OpenAI says Codex usage through API keys is not supported. They remain subject to API terms, usage policies and rate limits.

Cancelling a subscription stops new grants, but credits already issued stay usable until they expire. Dropping to Plus, Go or Free removes the API link at the end of the cycle. Moving from Pro to Business ends the Pro link, and a Business owner can create a new link after seven days. Moving from Business to Enterprise also removes the link at the end of the cycle.

OpenAI follows Anthropic’s lead within weeks

Willison describes the offer as “pretty much exactly the same deal” that Anthropic introduced for its Max and Team subscriptions earlier in October. According to secondary reports of Anthropic’s release, that program began on October 7: Max 5x subscribers get $100 a month and Max 20x subscribers $200, while Team seats get $20 (Standard) or $100 (Premium), pooled up to $500 a month. Those reports also say the Anthropic credits cover the Claude API and Console but not Claude Code, and that Free, Pro and Enterprise plans are excluded.

The two schemes line up closely in tier amounts, seat pricing, the $500 pooled ceiling and the exclusion of Enterprise. One visible difference is that OpenAI’s top consumer tier, ChatGPT Pro, qualifies at all three price points, while the reports on Anthropic’s version describe the cheaper Pro plan as excluded. Another is the coding tool: OpenAI states that Codex use through API keys is outside the benefit, while the reports say Claude Code is outside Anthropic’s.

The effect is that the premium subscription tiers at both companies now work partly as prepaid API budgets. For a developer who already pays $200 a month for either subscription, prototyping against the API no longer needs a separate card. Willison wrote that, because he keeps subscriptions with both companies, he may now ship public-facing demos funded by the credits. Because the credits expire each cycle, they favor steady, small-scale use over saving up for a large job.

What the sources leave open

OpenAI’s published pages do not list regional availability. Community forum replies, which are not official, say some users who subscribed through the Google Play or Apple App Store did not see a claim option, and one user needed to create and link an API organization first. Those reports are anecdotal and have not been confirmed by OpenAI. OpenAI’s Help Center article, which covers eligibility and activation in more detail, could not be opened for this report, so the terms above come from the developer guide and the company’s announcement thread.

It also remains unclear whether OpenAI plans to widen the benefit to Plus subscribers. The company has said nothing on that point in the pages reviewed.