OpenAI Doubled, Anthropic Renamed: The $200 AI Plan War

At 9:56 AM PT on October 29, OpenAI announced it was doubling usage on every ChatGPT Pro tier. At 10:29 AM PT the next day, Anthropic renamed Max 20x to Ultra and wrote down its weekly limit: 10x Pro.

OpenAI’s $200 plan now says 20x. Anthropic’s $200 plan now says 10x. Tibo Sottiaux, who leads Codex at OpenAI, replied under Anthropic’s post: “Better announce 28 days of reset.”

Both announcements are smaller than they look.

OpenAI’s Month

• September 11: OpenAI pauses new $200 Pro sign-ups. Astra demand is straining capacity.
• September 29: an email tells Pro 200 subscribers their usage “will decrease from 20 times to 10 times the ChatGPT Plus allowance” on October 30. Pro 500 launches at 25x. Sottiaux says the 5-hour limit will never come back, and that “you will still get more work done.”
• October 4: Sottiaux pledges 28 days of either one clear improvement or a full usage reset, every day.
• October 11: his poll asks Pro users to choose. 240,643 votes: 37.8% want no 5-hour limit at the same usage, 33.2% want 2x the week with the 5-hour limit back.
• October 29: “Day 25/”. All Pro tiers double, and “we won’t be reducing usage limits for Pro 200.”

What the Doubling Was

I am on Pro 200. Here is the email I got:

As of October 29, your Pro 200 plan will keep the same Work and Codex allowance you have today. We heard your feedback and are no longer making the reduction we announced in our September 29 email.

— OpenAI, email to Pro 200 subscribers

Existing subscribers had kept 20x for a month as a grace period. Now that is permanent. New subscribers, who got 10x, now get 20x too. OpenAI’s help page puts it precisely: “On Pro 200, only the lower allowance doubled.”

So Pro 100 and Pro 500 really doubled. At $200, OpenAI cancelled its own cut and called it a doubling.

Anthropic’s Answer

Anthropic’s change is the mirror image: a real gift on the limit few people hit, and no change on the one people do hit.

When we launched our top plan in April 2025, it had a single limit: 5 hours. It gave you 20x Pro’s limit, so we called it Max 20x. When we added weekly limits to Max 20x, we set them to 10x Pro’s (the 5-hour limit stayed at 20x).

— Mike Overell, product lead for Claude subscriptions, October 30

For over a year, the $200 plan gave twice the week of the $100 plan, not four times. Ultra keeps that weekly limit and drops the 5-hour limit for “verified” accounts. Verification is automatic, from account and payment history, and there is no way to apply. My three accounts flipped on day one. Some long-time subscribers on Reddit were still waiting hours later.

In June I wrote about Kahn v. Anthropic, which alleges the 20x tier’s “50% savings” claim is false. My point then: “20x” is a number, and numbers can be tested. Now the number is gone from the name.

20x vs 10x Is the Wrong Comparison

On the label, OpenAI is now twice as generous. But OpenAI’s multiple is of ChatGPT Plus, and Anthropic’s is of Claude Pro. Those are different amounts.

Neither lab publishes the base. Two users who measure it do:

• Claude Pro: about $230 a week of usage at API prices, from a Reddit user who tested Pro, Max 5x and Max 20x side by side.
• ChatGPT Plus: about $47 a week on GPT-6.1 Sol, from an r/codex user who tracks each model’s allowance.

If both hold, Ultra at 10x is about $2,300 a week, and Pro 200 at 20x is about $940. Different models, different list prices, one person each. Treat it as a direction, not a result.

Both Labs Are Building the Same Plan

The same OpenAI email describes the next change: “Use of ChatGPT and Codex will draw from the same allowance.” Chat on advanced models will eat into your coding allowance. When the pool runs out, you “wait for it to reset, upgrade your plan, or buy credits.”

Put the two plans side by side and the design is the same:

• No 5-hour limit. OpenAI’s Pro plans have none, and OpenAI promised in September not to bring it back. Anthropic dropped it for Ultra this week.
• One weekly pool. Anthropic already shares usage across claude.ai and Claude Code. OpenAI is merging ChatGPT and Codex.
• Credits when you run out. Both sell top-ups.
• Promises about outcomes, not units. Anthropic said in September it would make users “feel like you’re getting more”. Sottiaux said “you will still get more work done” in the post that halved Pro 200.

Without a 5-hour limit, nothing stops a runaway loop until the week is gone. That is now true on both sides.

What Comes Next

This part is my guess.

• A $500 Claude tier. OpenAI has Pro 500. Anthropic’s top plan now has the same shape as OpenAI’s $200 plan, and nothing above it.
• Verification as the gate. “Verified” is a new per-account flag on Anthropic’s top tier. A $500 tier, or a restricted model, would sit behind it.
• More of the same wording. Overell’s post ends with “We’ve got more cooking.” Expect a bigger number on a unit nobody can see.

The Takeaway

• OpenAI’s $200 “doubling” cancelled its own cut. Existing subscribers got the same allowance and an email saying so.
• Anthropic’s weekly limit did not change. It was 10x all along. Only the 5-hour limit went.
• 20x vs 10x compares different bases. Rough measurements suggest Ultra may give more in API dollars.
• The plans are converging. No 5-hour limit, one pool, credits, and no published unit.
• Watch for a $500 tier from Anthropic. It will probably need a verified account.