Do Son 
Tibo, the Codex engineering manager, has announced on social media a notable change. Starting tomorrow, the ChatGPT Pro 20x subscription reopens to new users. Existing subscribers can renew as usual.
At the same time, Codex will change how it counts usage on this plan. In API spending terms, the new allowance equals 50% of the old one.
What the New 20x Plan Includes
The revised plan offers these main points:
- By API spending value, the new allowance equals half of the old one.
- Despite the smaller quota, users can complete more actual work.
- The 20x plan will not add a five-hour limit in the future.
- More features that consume no usage will arrive, though details remain unknown.
The five-hour remark raises a question about the 5x plan. Its future looks uncertain by comparison.
Why Tibo Says the Change Is Needed
Tibo explained the reasoning behind the overhaul. He does not want to inflate API prices on paper. That trick would make a subscription look like it offers a larger allowance. Later, other quiet adjustments could shrink the real usage.
Instead, OpenAI wants to keep cutting API prices while it improves model capability. Over time, model prices should fall low enough. Consequently, buying usage on demand would make sense for most users. At that point, a dollar of subscription value and a dollar of API value should differ little.
Less Spend, More Work
By his account, API-priced spending drops by 50%. Yet users can still complete more work. Measured by workload, the new plan lasts longer than the old one.
Earlier, while answering a user about a usage reset, Tibo asked a pointed question. Why not simply buy more credits once the allowance runs out? Codex credits work like purchases at API pricing.
The Price Problem Remains
For many users, API pricing is still too high. Direct API use is costly. Buying credits inside Codex costs just as much.
Tibo says subscription and API prices will converge in the future. For example, a 200-dollar ChatGPT Pro 20x plan would equal 200 dollars of API credit.
No one can yet judge the real results. Whether this shift helps or hurts users remains to be seen.
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