April 3, 2026
Price cut or token trap?
Lower Price for ChatGPT Business
Cheaper seats land, but “pay-as-you-code” sparks instant drama
TLDR: OpenAI trimmed ChatGPT Business seats by $5 and introduced a Codex-only, pay-as-you-go option with credits for current users. Comments split between cheering savings and warning of a shift to token-based upsells, with requests for a pricey power tier and jokes about surprise bills and the two-seat minimum.
OpenAI just knocked $5 off ChatGPT Business seats and rolled out a new Codex-only seat that’s pay-as-you-go—think “only pay when you code.” Current customers get a credit for the price drop, and for most regions standard seats now run about $25/month ($20 if billed annually), with a two-seat minimum. Codex pricing was also rejigged to charge by “tokens” (tiny chunks of text), while ChatGPT rates stay the same. See the pricing page and the updated rate card for details.
Cue the comment chaos. One camp is convinced this is a sneaky push toward consumption billing, with mritchie712 arguing it’s about moving companies from flat fees to pay-per-use. Another camp is like, “nice, cheaper seats,” but they want more options—daft_pink is begging for a $200 ultra-seat for power users. The memes wrote themselves: folks joked the Codex-only seat is a gym membership where the treadmill charges per step, and solo founders rolled their eyes at the “two seats minimum” with “guess I’m buying one for my imaginary coworker.”
Under the jokes, real anxiety: team leads worry about surprise bills if coders go wild, even with spend controls; finance types love the centralized billing and credits. Fans say the $5 cut is a good-faith move; skeptics call it “$5 off the cover charge, pay-per-dance inside.” Either way, everyone’s watching how those token meters spin link.
Key Points
- •OpenAI introduced a Codex-only seat for ChatGPT Business with usage-based, no-minimum pricing that requires workspace credits.
- •Standard ChatGPT seat prices were reduced by $5 per user per month; most countries now pay $25/month (monthly) or $20/month (annual).
- •The Codex Rate Card was updated to align with token-based usage pricing; ChatGPT rate card pricing remains unchanged.
- •Existing subscribers will see the lower price on their next bill and receive a pro-rated credit for the difference.
- •Standard seats include ChatGPT and Codex plus features like GPTs, Projects, Apps, Company Knowledge, ChatGPT Agent, and Deep Research; a minimum of two standard seats is required.