How much does Codex cost on each ChatGPT plan?
Codex has no price of its own. OpenAI sells it inside ChatGPT, so what you pay for is the size of the allowance. We read each row from OpenAI's Codex pricing page, its Pro tiers article and its Business pricing page on 2 November 2026. US prices, before tax:
| Plan, read 2 November 2026 | Price | What Codex gets | 5-hour window | When you run out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, "subject to rollout" | No range published | Upgrade; credits for a small test group |
| Go | $8 a month | Same as Free | No range published | Upgrade; credits for a small test group |
| Plus | $20 a month | Web, CLI, IDE extension, iOS, GitHub code review, Slack | Yes, 15 to 160 GPT-6.1 Sol messages, plus a weekly cap | Buy credits or upgrade |
| Pro 100 | $100 a month | Everything in Plus, more usage | None | Buy credits |
| Pro 200 | $200 a month | More usage than Pro 100 | None | Buy credits |
| Pro 500 | $500 a month | The most usage, plus Ultrafast | None | Buy credits |
| Business, Standard seat | $20 a seat billed annually, $25 monthly | Same ranges as Plus | Yes | An admin buys workspace credits |
| Business, Premium seat | $100 a seat billed annually, $125 monthly | More usage than Standard | None | An admin buys workspace credits |
| Enterprise and Edu | Through sales | No fixed limits on flexible pricing | Plus limits per seat without it | Workspace credits |
| API key | Per token, at API rates | CLI, SDK and IDE extension; no cloud features | None | You pay per token |
Plus is the cheapest plan with all of Codex. Free and Go get one small model in one app, and OpenAI's tagline for Free is "Explore Codex capabilities on quick coding tasks." The pricing page also says "Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit," though weekly limits still apply. Pro bills monthly only. OpenAI's Pro article says annual billing "and payment for multiple months in advance are not available."
What does a month of Codex actually cost?
A month of Codex costs $100 to $200 per developer on credit billing, by OpenAI's own average. Its ChatGPT rate card says so, and adds that actual costs "vary significantly depending on the model used," the number of instances, automations and fast mode. Anthropic's Claude Code cost docs give a higher figure for its own agent. We read both on 2 November 2026:
A credit is worth exactly $0.04 of API usage. We divided OpenAI's Codex credit rates by its API prices for the 10 general models on both lists: the eight GPT-6 and GPT-5.6 models from Astra down to Luna, plus GPT-5.3-Codex and GPT-5.2. All 30 rates (input, cached input and output) come out at 25 credits per dollar. That holds whichever model you pick.
So OpenAI's own task figure turns into dollars. Its rate card says: "A typical Codex task using GPT-6.1 Sol may consume between 2 and 15 credits per task." At 25 credits per dollar, that's $0.08 to $0.60 a task. The $100 to $200 month is 2,500 to 5,000 credits, or roughly 170 to 2,500 of those typical tasks. Heavy months land far outside that range. OpenAI's Codex pricing page prints the same 2 to 15 range under GPT-5.6 Sol, which costs twice as much per token, so read it as a rough guide, not a quote.
How much do 1,000 Codex credits cost?
1,000 Codex credits cost $40 in the packs WorkOS reported, the same 25 credits per dollar as OpenAI's own tables. OpenAI sells credits in Settings, then Usage, and prints no price on any public page we found. Its credits article says purchase amounts and prices "can vary by account, region, and plan." WorkOS reported on 4 September 2026 that "Credits sell in packs of 1,000 for $40." Here's what each model costs in credits, next to its API price, as of 2 November 2026:
| Model | Credits per 1M input tokens | Credits per 1M cached input | Credits per 1M output | API price per 1M, in and out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-6 Astra | 250 | 25 | 1,250 | $10 and $50 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | 100 | 10 | 500 | $4 and $20 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | 50 | 2.5 | 250 | $2 and $10 |
| GPT-6 Sol | 50 | 5 | 250 | $2 and $10 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | 50 | 5 | 300 | $2 and $12 |
| GPT-6.1 Terra | 25 | 1.25 | 125 | $1 and $5 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 2.5 | 0.25 | 12.5 | $0.10 and $0.50 |
| GPT-5.3-Codex, used for code review | 43.75 | 4.375 | 350 | $1.75 and $14 |
So credits don't save you anything over an API key. They buy the same tokens at the same price. What they keep is the cloud side, since OpenAI says an API key gets "No cloud-based features (GitHub code review, Slack, etc.)" Credits last 12 months from purchase and aren't refundable. One balance covers Codex, ChatGPT Work, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Pro and Business also come with API credits, and they can't pay for Codex. OpenAI's API credits benefit grants $100, $200 or $500 a month on Pro 100, 200 and 500, and $20 per Standard or $100 per Premium Business seat, pooled up to $500 a month. It says plainly: "This benefit does not cover Codex usage through API keys." Plus doesn't qualify. The grant expires each billing cycle and works for your own apps on the API.
Speed costs extra. Fast mode spends purchased credits at 2x the Standard rate and Ultrafast at 6x, per the rate card. On your plan's included allowance, the same modes burn 2.5x and 8x. Among personal plans, only Pro 500 sells Ultrafast. Both OpenAI lists show a promotional GPT-5.6 Sol rate that runs through at least 21 November 2026.
Is Codex free with ChatGPT Plus?
Yes. Codex comes with ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month, with nothing extra to pay until you run out. Plus is also the first plan with GitHub code review, Slack and the iOS app. OpenAI's tagline for it is "Power a few focused coding sessions each week." The allowance is a range of local messages per 5 hours for each model, as of 2 November 2026:
| Model on Plus | Local messages per 5 hours |
|---|---|
| GPT-6 Astra | 5 to 45 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | 15 to 160 |
| GPT-6.1 Terra | 35 to 285 |
| GPT-6 Sol | 15 to 150 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 350 to 3,000 |
OpenAI calls these estimates, not fixed limits. A weekly cap sits on top, with no number published. Cloud tasks spend more of it than local ones. A Standard Business seat gets the same ranges. When the window shuts, the Codex usage limit page shows what each plan's message offers and how the two caps interact. If Codex says a model is full, that's a capacity error, covered in Codex selected model is at capacity.
Do you need to pay $100 to use Codex?
No. You need $100 a month only if Plus's 5-hour window stops you most days. Pro 100 removes that window and leaves only a weekly cap. It launched on 9 April 2026 with "5x more Codex than the Plus plan," per TechCrunch. At the end of October 2026, OpenAI gave Pro 100 and Pro 500 "twice their previous Work and Codex allowance." It also canceled the Pro 200 cut announced in its 29 September email, and the Pro article now says "Plus usage is unchanged."
Pro 200 buys more than Pro 100. Pro 500 buys the most and adds Ultrafast. OpenAI prints no multiple for either one today. Buying credits on Pro 100 or Pro 200 "does not unlock Ultrafast," per the same article. If one bad week a month is your problem, price it in credits first: $80 buys 2,000 credits, the gap between Plus and Pro 100. ChatGPT Plus vs Pro works through that choice, and ChatGPT Pro limits puts the three Pro tiers side by side.
Is Codex cheaper than Claude Code?
Codex and Claude Code cost the same at $20, $100 and $200 a month, and only OpenAI sells a plan below $20 or above $200. We read OpenAI's pages and Anthropic's pricing page on the same day, 2 November 2026. Anthropic now calls its $200 plan Ultra:
| Price, read 2 November 2026 | OpenAI Codex | Anthropic Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | Free: GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app | Free: no Claude Code |
| $8 a month | Go: same as Free | No plan |
| $20 a month | Plus: 5-hour window and weekly cap | Pro: 5-hour window and weekly cap, or $17 a month billed annually |
| $100 a month | Pro 100: no 5-hour window | Max: 5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week |
| $200 a month | Pro 200: no 5-hour window | Ultra: no 5-hour limit on verified accounts, 10x Pro usage every week |
| $500 a month | Pro 500: the most usage, Ultrafast | No plan |
| Team seat, billed annually | Business: $20 Standard, $100 Premium | Team: $20 Standard, $100 Premium |
| API credits included each month | Pro 100 $100, Pro 200 $200, Pro 500 $500; not for Codex | Max $100, Ultra $200 |
| Vendor's monthly average per developer | $100 to $200 on credits | $150 to $250 on enterprise API use |
| Mid-tier API model, per 1M tokens | GPT-6.1 Sol: $2 in, $10 out | Claude Sonnet 5.5: $2 in, $10 out |
Codex wins at the low end, with a free taste and an $8 plan, and at the top with Pro 500. Claude Code wins on price at the entry tier: Anthropic sells Pro at $17 a month on a yearly plan, and OpenAI has no annual Plus or Pro. The API credits are a tie. Anthropic's Max card lists "$100 a month in API credits to build on the Claude Platform," and OpenAI's Pro 100 grants the same $100, though OpenAI rules out spending it on Codex. On the API, the mid-tier rates are identical. Anthropic's own monthly average runs $50 higher than OpenAI's. Claude Code pricing breaks down Anthropic's side.
What does Codex cost for a team?
A Business seat with Codex costs $20 a month billed annually, or $25 monthly, for teams of 2 to 200. A Premium seat costs $100 annually or $125 monthly and has "no 5-hour limit," per OpenAI's Business page. For ten developers, here's the monthly bill:
| 10 developers on | Monthly cost | Where usage stops |
|---|---|---|
| Business Standard, annual | $200 | Plus-sized ranges per seat, plus a weekly cap |
| Business Premium, annual | $1,000 | More than Standard, no 5-hour window |
| Credit billing at OpenAI's average | About $1,000 to $2,000 | Your workspace's credit balance |
We built the last row from OpenAI's $100 to $200 average, so it's an estimate. Your team's habits set the real bill. Enterprise and Edu go through sales, and workspaces on flexible pricing have "no fixed rate limits," per the rate card. OpenAI also sold Codex-only seats with no seat fee from 2 April 2026. Its announcement now says new pay-as-you-go seats "will no longer be available for Business plans" since 24 June. Existing ones keep working. ChatGPT Business vs Plus covers what a seat adds beyond Codex.
Will Codex pricing change in December?
The prices stay, but the allowance changes: starting in December, Plus, Pro and Business share one token-based allowance across ChatGPT and Codex. OpenAI's usage limits article says your usage "will be measured in tokens" and that "Instant chat will not draw from your usage." A long reasoning chat will then cost you Codex time, and the reverse.
OpenAI says it expects "most users won't need to wait for their usage to reset more often than they do now." It hasn't published the new allowance sizes. You'll see the combined balance and reset times in Settings, then Usage. When the shared limit runs out, the options are the same three: wait, upgrade or buy credits.
How can you pay less for Codex?
Stay on Plus, switch models before you switch plans, and use an API key for uneven months. GPT-6 Luna's range on Plus is 350 to 3,000 messages per window against 15 to 160 on GPT-6.1 Sol. Turn Fast mode off. And price a bad week in credits before you pay $80 more for Pro 100. An API key bills the same tokens at the same rate as credits, so it's the cheaper route only when you don't need code review or Slack.
Whizi, which publishes this page, doesn't include Codex, Claude Code or any coding agent, and it has no API access. It's a chat app. Whizi Pro costs $29.99 a month for 2,500 credits, and it puts Claude, GPT and Gemini in one chat, with credits per message varying by model. That helps if you want a second opinion on code while a Codex window refills. If you need the agent itself, pay OpenAI.
- Start on Plus at $20 and move to Pro 100 only if the 5-hour window stops you most days
- Switch to GPT-6 Luna for file edits and reading, at 350 to 3,000 messages per window on Plus
- Turn off Fast mode, which spends credits at 2x and included usage at 2.5x
- Price a heavy week in credits at 25 per dollar before upgrading
- Use an API key for CI and automation, since it bills the same rate with no window
- For a team, price Business Standard seats at $20 against OpenAI's $100 to $200 credit average
Frequently asked questions
Is Codex free?
Yes, in a limited form. ChatGPT Free and Go include GPT-6 Luna in the Codex desktop app, "subject to rollout," as of November 2026. The full Codex, with the CLI, IDE extension, cloud tasks and code review, starts at Plus for $20 a month. ChatGPT pricing lists what each plan adds outside Codex.
How long do 2,500 Codex credits last?
2,500 credits last about 170 to 1,250 typical GPT-6.1 Sol tasks, at OpenAI's figure of 2 to 15 credits a task. That's $100 of credits at 25 per dollar. On GPT-6 Astra, input and output tokens cost five times as much and cached input ten times, so the same balance goes a fifth as far or less.
Is it cheaper to use Codex with an API key?
No, it costs the same per token. OpenAI's credit rates equal its API prices at 25 credits per dollar on every model we checked on 2 November 2026. An API key does skip the 5-hour window and weekly cap, but it has no GitHub code review, Slack or other cloud features. The API credits that come with Pro and Business don't help here, since OpenAI excludes Codex usage through API keys.
Do Codex credits expire?
Yes. OpenAI says credits "are valid for 12 months from purchase," and unused ones don't roll over. They're also non-refundable unless the law, a contract or an approved exception says otherwise, and they can't be transferred.
