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Odds OpenAI cancels the Pro 200 cut? "Low, but not zero." Thirteen hours later, it did.

SummaryOpenAI had planned to halve the Work and Codex usage in its $200 ChatGPT Pro plan on October 30. On October 29 it canceled the cut and doubled the allowance on Pro 100 and Pro 500 instead.

· MODEL Editors · 2 min read

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Two-panel cartoon styled as a TV weather forecast. Headline: Q: Odds OpenAI cancels the $200 plan's limit cut? The forecast, 13 hours apart. Left panel, Wed Oct 28, 8:37 PM PT: a smiling robot forecaster in a suit points at a small grey cloud with one rain drop; the on-screen banner reads Chance of reversal: low, but not zero. Right panel, Thu Oct 29, 9:56 AM PT: the same robot, wide-eyed and sweating, stands in a downpour of gold coins each marked 2x under dark storm clouds, while a red umbrella blows away inside out; the banner reads Forecast update: 100%. Cut canceled. Plus 2x. Footer: Pro 200 cut canceled; Pro 100 and Pro 500 Work/Codex allowance doubled, per OpenAI. Sources: OpenAI Help Center, @thsottiaux on X, Oct 28-29, 2026. Watermark: MODEL, readmodelmag.com.
The forecast changed overnight. Illustration by MODEL. Original. Image source.

On Wednesday night, October 28, an X user asked OpenAI's Codex lead, Thibault Sottiaux, a simple question: "What are the chances that OpenAI cancels the usage limit halving for $200 plan?" At 8:37 p.m. Pacific time, he replied: "Low, but not zero."

At 9:56 a.m. the next morning, he posted that OpenAI is "doubling all usage limits for all Pro 100/200/500 tiers and Business Premium, effective today," and that "we heard your kind feedback and won't be reducing usage limits for Pro 200." That is about 13 hours from "low" to done.

What was supposed to happen. At DevDay on September 29, OpenAI said that from October 30, the Work and Codex usage included in Pro 200 would fall from 20 times to 10 times the Plus allowance, and weekly GPT-6 Pro chat messages from 200 to 100, per The Next Web. Existing subscribers kept their old limits through October 29. Users on X and Hacker News called it a halving, and some said they were leaving for other tools.

What OpenAI's help page now says.

  • Pro 200: "The reduction announced in our September 29 email is canceled." If you already had the higher Work and Codex allowance, you keep it. If you had the lower one, it doubled to match. The price stays $200 a month.
  • Pro 100 ($100) and Pro 500 ($500): twice their previous Work and Codex allowance.
  • New and existing subscribers get the change automatically, with no need to cancel and resubscribe.
  • Plus is unchanged. Ultrafast is still Pro 500 only.
  • Weekly GPT-6 Pro chat message limits stay the same on Pro 100 and Pro 500; on Pro 200, the lower limit now matches the higher one.

Sottiaux's post also says Business Premium limits are doubling and that "dots" keep their separate, extended limits for now. OpenAI notes that "a larger allowance does not guarantee twice as many completed tasks," because usage depends on the model, context, tools and speed mode.

Our take. The joke writes itself: the odds were "low, but not zero," and zero was not the answer. The real lesson for anyone paying for AI coding plans is that limits are moving fast in both directions. Check Settings, then Usage in ChatGPT before planning a big week of agent work, and do not assume today's allowance is next month's. Sottiaux summed up the mood himself a few minutes after the announcement: "Graduating from The Reset Company to The Token Company."

Not tested by MODEL: we did not measure any plan's actual allowance.

Sources

  1. About ChatGPT Pro tiers (updated Oct 29, 2026)

    OpenAI Help Center

  2. Tibo (Thibault Sottiaux), "Day 25" post on usage limits (Oct 29, 2026)

    X

  3. Tibo (Thibault Sottiaux), reply "Low, but not zero" (Oct 28, 2026)

    X

  4. OpenAI halves Pro 200 usage and launches a $500 ChatGPT plan at DevDay (Sep 29, 2026)

    The Next Web

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