Let’s look at all of ChatGPT’s plans to see if a subscription is worth it — especially since the free tier has so much.
ChatGPT Go adds more access for $8 a month, without upgrading to Plus.
Plus stays best for priority access and higher limits across top features.
Pro is for power users who need the highest caps and GPT-5.2 Pro.
It’s been a few years since ChatGPT first appeared, and since then, the AI chatbot has continuously updated with new models, features, limitations, and plans. While there’s a lot you can do for free, some tools and perks are reserved for paid tiers.
OpenAI introduced the $20 monthly Plus plan to manage demand and guarantee access during busy periods. But now, it also has ChatGPT Go, a new low-cost plan for just $8 per month. OpenAI has also said that ads are coming soon in the US for the Go and Free tiers as part of early testing, while paid plans like Plus and Pro will stay ad-free.
It’s therefore a good time to re-evaluate if Plus is worth it. Some of you may even be new to generative AI altogether, are wondering whether to try ChatGPT, and are confused about all the plans. Let’s break it down. I’ll help you finally decide whether ChatGPT Free, ChatGPT Go, ChatGPT Plus, or even the $200-per-month Pro subscription is right for you. You should use ChatGPT Plus if.
Since Plus costs $20 per month, you’ve probably asked yourself: Why pay when you can use ChatGPT for free? I’ve pored over the details and used the AI chatbot, and from what I can tell, there are nine main advantages. The TL;DR is that the free tier has heavier usage limits, while Plus gets you the newest features and models first, with priority access during peak times.
When OpenAI launched GPT-5, it initially replaced all legacy models in ChatGPT with a single unified system that automatically switched between fast responses and deeper reasoning. But some paying users preferred older models or depended on them.
CEO Sam Altman later said that suddenly deprecating old models «was a mistake», and so OpenAI reversed course.
Paid subscribers now have access to legacy models: Plus users can enable them in Settings and select options like GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o3, o4-mini, and even phased-out GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 variants from the model picker.
If you have a preferred model from a past era, Plus lets you keep using it.
Since late 2025, OpenAI has steadily iterated on GPT-5 inside ChatGPT.
Plus and Pro subscribers get early access to new model releases, including GPT-5.2 Instant, Thinking, and Auto. Paid users also get deeper personalization controls in Settings, such as tone presets, adjustable warmth and enthusiasm, and emoji frequency.
GPT-5.2 is now the flagship model family. It’s more work-friendly for tasks like spreadsheets, presentations, coding, and analysis. If you want to try new models as soon as they launch, Plus remains the most affordable way to do that. While GPT-5.2 Auto is now the default for all logged-in users, manual selection of GPT-5.2 Instant or GPT-5.2 Thinking requires a paid plan.
Free users are capped at up to 10 GPT-5.2 messages every five hours. Plus users get up to 160 messages every three hours, along with a weekly allowance for GPT-5.2 Thinking, while Pro users have unlimited GPT-5.2 usage as well as access to GPT-5.2 Pro.
OpenAI’s Sora lets you create realistic videos from text prompts or images. ChatGPT Plus gives you access to Sora, while ChatGPT Pro builds on that with faster generations, higher resolutions, and longer video outputs.
Sora is a paid feature. Plus users can generate unlimited images and videos but are limited to videos up to 5 seconds at 720p or 10 seconds at 480p, with up to two concurrent generations at a time. Pro users receive videos up to 20 seconds in length at 1080p, support for up to five concurrent generations, and the ability to download videos without a watermark.
This section is very different from what it was in late 2025. ChatGPT now has a newer image system (aka «New ChatGPT Images» or GPT Image 1.5) that is a major upgrade for both generation and editing. The significant quality improvements include better text rendering and more capable editing, such as recontextualizing an existing image without it falling apart.
And yes, it is available across tiers, including Free. The difference is limits. Free users can create and edit images, but the caps show up faster. Plus and Pro subscribers get much higher quotas, so you can generate more images per day without hitting a wall.
If you regularly do image work, Plus is the sweet spot, and Pro is the «stop worrying about limits» tier.
OpenAI has integrated its powerful Codex AI coding agent into ChatGPT Plus, allowing anyone with the $20-a-month plan to access coding assistance without needing to upgrade to the $200 plan. Since late 2025, Codex has continued to mature, offering larger and longer-running options for agentic coding work, such as Codex Max (GPT-5.1-Codex-Max), which is available to Plus and Pro users.
Codex helps you write and review code. You can point it at your GitHub repository, and it’ll generate code changes, run checks to ensure everything is working correctly, and even handle installing dependencies if you allow it.
