OpenAI has reopened new subscriptions to its $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan after a capacity-driven pause that began on September 10, pairing the return with a wider overhaul of its premium offerings. The company’s public pricing page now presents Pro as a choice among three usage tiers. An independent report from Japan’s Impress Watch said the reopening was announced on September 29, alongside a new $500 plan built around access to Astra Ultrafast. The change restores a route that had been closed to new U.S. customers during a surge in demand for the company’s fastest model.
The revived $200 plan does not simply restore the old offer. New subscribers receive a lower included allowance than customers who held the plan before the cutoff, while eligible existing subscribers can keep their prior allowance through October 29. The monthly price remains unchanged. The new $500 tier carries the largest included allowance and is the only Pro option with Ultrafast access, creating a clearer divide between users who want more routine capacity and those willing to pay for the company’s highest-speed service. A lower-cost $100 Pro tier remains the entry point for heavier individual use.
That structure helps OpenAI reopen sales without returning immediately to the demand profile that forced the pause. It also shifts more capacity risk onto packaging: the company can steer its most intensive users toward a higher price while offering the restored $200 plan with tighter limits. For customers, the important questions are less about the plan names than the work each allowance can sustain. Codex sessions, research, model access and other tools can consume usage unevenly, so the practical value will depend on how clearly OpenAI displays limits and how consistently it delivers access during peak demand.
The prediction-market response moved quickly once the signup route returned. The Polymarket outcome for resumption by September 30 traded near 99.5% in the latest snapshot, up about 25 percentage points over 24 hours. That outcome drew roughly $120,000 of activity during the period, while the full deadline event had about $145,800 in cumulative activity. The price reflects expectations about the provider’s resolution rules, not a separate guarantee about subscription availability in every account or region.
The next test is whether the new structure can remain open under sustained demand. OpenAI will need to keep purchase flows available, explain eligibility for the temporary grandfathered allowance and show customers what the revised limits mean before the October transition. Users considering the $500 tier will also judge whether Ultrafast performance and the larger allowance justify the premium. Reopening Pro resolves the immediate availability problem, but the durability of the change will depend on capacity, transparent limits and whether subscribers see enough practical value in the new ladder.
