ChatGPT: Is It Free, What Each Plan Costs and Who Gets GPT-6 Astra

ChatGPT is OpenAI's AI assistant: you type (or talk), it answers, writes and searches the web, and since October it runs on GPT-6 models on every plan. Is ChatGPT free? Yes. The free plan gives you unlimited text chats with GPT-6 Luna, subject to abuse guardrails, and you can even start without an account. Paying starts at $8 a month for Go, which may show ads and stays on the same GPT-6 Luna. Plus ($20 a month) moves you up to GPT-6 Sol, and Pro (from $100) adds Pro reasoning with GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI's top model, right in the chat. All prices are for the US, in dollars and before sales tax.

That's the short answer. Here's what the free version did for me without an account, what each plan really adds, and which GPT-6 you actually get on each one.

ChatGPT pricing in 2026, plan by plan

OpenAI sells 4 plans for individuals and 2 for companies. Here they are side by side, with what actually separates them:

"Unlimited" on these plans always comes with an asterisk: the page says unlimited is "subject to abuse guardrails." The FAQ adds that Go and Plus are billed monthly, Enterprise yearly, and Business either way.

One thing the cards don't show: Pro is listed "from $100" with "Your choice of 3 usage tiers," and the other 2 prices aren't there. OpenAI's release notes and Help Center fill in the gap: the tiers are $100, $200 and $500 a month, and only the $500 tier gets Astra Ultrafast, a faster way to run Astra in ChatGPT Work and Codex. If you're weighing Pro, start with the $100 tier.

If you're a developer looking for API prices, that's a separate product priced per token. This page is about the ChatGPT app.

Is ChatGPT free? What you get without paying

Yes, and I mean actually free. When I opened chatgpt.com without logging in, I got a chat box ("Ask ChatGPT"), the line "Where should we begin?", and a side menu with New chat, Images, Plugins, Deep research and a link to plans and pricing. I typed my question and the answer came back in a few seconds.

There's a catch, and the sidebar says it plainly: "Log in to get answers based on saved chats, plus create images and upload files." Without an account, your chat isn't saved, and you can't make images or send it a file. The footer also reminds you that "Chats may be reviewed and used to improve our AI models." The pricing table says every individual plan lets you opt out of training on your content, which is worth knowing before you paste anything personal.

So I asked it the obvious questions: is it free, which model was I talking to without an account, and what happens when I hit the free limit? On that first visit, it said I was talking to GPT-5.6 Luna, which it said OpenAI listed as the default model for free users, logged-out users included. The Free card on the pricing page said the same. It also cited OpenAI's Help Center for each point, so it had searched the web, even without an account. That answer didn't age well: OpenAI brought GPT-6 to the free plan right after, and when I asked again 3 days later, the answer was GPT-6 (more on that below).

On limits, its answer was more relaxed than you might expect. Everyday text chats are unlimited, within those abuse guardrails. Image creation, uploads, data analysis and voice each have their own limits; when you hit one, ChatGPT tells you and you wait for it to reset. If it's a model's allowance you run out of, it may switch you to another model. With only a handful of questions, I never hit a limit myself. That's how ChatGPT explained it, citing OpenAI's Help Center, and it's worth checking on your own account.

Sign up for a free account and you get saved chats, plus the free plan's allowances for image creation and file uploads. It's the same $0 with or without an account; what changes is what you can do.

What I asked it, and how it did

A "what model are you" question tells you about the product. To see whether it's useful, I gave it something from real life: "I'm moving from Chicago to Austin, Texas in January. Give me a short checklist of the official paperwork and deadlines: driver's license, car registration, voter registration and USPS change of address."

It assumed I meant January 2027 and gave me 4 items, each with a deadline and a source chip (Texas.gov, TxDMV, USPS FAQs): get a Texas driver's license within 90 days of moving, register the car within 30 days (with the Texas vehicle inspection first), register to vote at least 30 days before an election, and file the USPS change of address up to 90 days before the move, or up to 30 days after. It finished with a sensible order to do them in.

I checked those deadlines against the official sites. The Texas DMV says new residents have 30 days to register their vehicle and must get a Texas driver's license within 90 days of moving. VoteTexas.gov says you must register by the 30th day before Election Day. USPS says a change of address can be submitted 90 days before the move and up to 30 days after. 4 for 4.

My one quibble: I asked it twice, worded slightly differently, and one answer came as a table with a calendar, the other as this list. Same deadlines, different shape. Not a big deal, but don't expect the exact same answer twice.

Is GPT-6 free? Which GPT-6 you get on each plan

Yes, GPT-6 is free now, just not the same GPT-6 on every plan. On October 7, 2026, OpenAI made GPT-6 the default in ChatGPT's chat, starting with paid plans, and began rolling it out to Free and Go the next day. Its release notes spell out the split: "Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise use GPT-6 Sol; Free and Go use GPT-6 Luna." They replace GPT-5.6 Sol and Luna as the default chat models. So GPT-6 itself costs nothing; what you pay for is a stronger model and more thinking:

The thinking levels and the Astra column come from OpenAI's Help Center. Without an account there's no model name on screen, so I asked: "Which model am I talking to right now, without an account? Is this GPT-6?" It answered "You're talking to GPT-6," and added, fairly, that it couldn't independently verify the model shown in my app. Put that together with OpenAI's release notes, and it's GPT-6 Luna.

The headline feature of this update is what OpenAI calls Intelligent UI: answers that can mix text with visuals, buttons, forms, charts and small tools, like a bill splitter, right in the chat. OpenAI says it works with GPT-6 from Instant through Extra High, but not with Pro reasoning. So I gave the logged-out chat a bill to split: $186 among 4 friends with a 20% tip, one of whom only had a $14 salad. The math was right ($16.80 for the friend with the salad, $68.80 each for the other 3), but it came back as a plain list, with no interactive splitter. OpenAI says ChatGPT picks the format itself and still uses plain text when that works best, and the rollout is gradual, so you may see something fancier.

GPT-6 Astra is still OpenAI's top model. OpenAI introduced it on September 3, 2026 as "our most intelligent and aligned model yet, with state-of-the-art capabilities across computer use, coding, cybersecurity, and science." OpenAI's safety write-up also calls Astra its first model to reach the "Critical" level of cybersecurity capability under its Preparedness Framework. Since then, OpenAI has added cheaper and faster siblings: GPT-6 Sol and Luna on September 22, and GPT-6.1 Sol on September 29, which OpenAI pitches as "near-Astra intelligence" at a fifth of Astra's API price.

In the pricing page's model table, GPT-6 Astra has a dash for Free and Go, a check for Plus and "Expanded" for Pro. The Plus card says "Advanced reasoning models with GPT-6," with a "Limits apply" link at the bottom, and the Pro card says "Pro reasoning powered by GPT-6 Astra." OpenAI's Help Center spells out where you get Astra on each: Plus gets it in ChatGPT Work and Codex, while Pro gets it in the chat too, as the Pro reasoning option. For Business and Enterprise the table says "Flexible," with credits you can buy for more access.

OpenAI also suggests the ChatGPT desktop app "to experience Astra at its best," and part of Astra's pitch is ChatGPT Work, the mode that, with your permission, can use your desktop apps and browser for you. OpenAI's two videos further down the page present Astra and ChatGPT Work.

Go, Plus or Pro: which one is worth paying for

My take on each:

Go ($8) is for people who are happy with the free model and keep running into the limits on tools: more messages with tools, more uploads, more images, more voice chats, longer memory. It also takes more at once: the pricing table puts GPT Instant's input at about 40 pages of text, compared with about 12 on Free. But it's the same GPT-6 Luna as Free, and the card says "This plan may include ads." Paying to maybe see ads is a choice I'd make only if the free plan's tool limits really bother you.

Plus ($20) is the one most people should look at if they pay at all. You move up to GPT-6 Sol in the chat, with more thinking, and get GPT-6 Astra in ChatGPT Work and Codex. You also get expanded deep research, Projects, scheduled tasks and custom GPTs, and ChatGPT Work on desktop, web and mobile. It's about the same price as Claude's and Google's main paid plans, so the choice there is about which assistant you like, not the money.

Pro (from $100) is for people who use ChatGPT all day for research or code and keep hitting Plus's limits: 3 usage tiers, Pro reasoning with Astra, longer Codex and Work sessions, unlimited and faster images, maximum deep research and memory, plus "Dot, your always-on agent." GPT Instant's input goes up to about 250 pages of text. If you aren't sure you need Pro, you don't yet.

ChatGPT for teams: Business and Enterprise

Business is $20 per user a month billed yearly, or $25 billed monthly, with a minimum of 2 users. It gives everyone ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex on the web and in the apps, connects to tools like Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, Linear and Figma, and adds central billing, SAML SSO and MFA. Most importantly for a lot of companies, the card says "No training on your business data by default."

Enterprise has custom pricing through sales, with a longer context window, controls like SCIM and role-based access, custom data retention, data residency in 10 regions and 24/7 priority support for eligible customers. Two notes from the FAQ: ChatGPT for Teachers is free for verified US K–12 educators through June 2027, and nonprofits can get up to 75% off Business or Enterprise.

ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini?

Claude · Anthropic

Free with limits · from $20/mo

Claude review →

If you're choosing a $20 assistant, my honest advice is the same as in my Claude review: use the free plans for a week on your real work and pay for the one you keep opening. ChatGPT is the all-rounder: chat, search, images, voice, and GPT-6 on every plan, free included. Claude suits long documents, careful writing and code, and its $20 plan includes Claude Code. If you live in Gmail and Google Docs, Gemini's paid plans plug into your Google account, and its cheapest paid plan costs less than Go. And if what you mostly do is search, Perplexity is built to answer with its sources. And if your questions are about your own PDFs and notes, NotebookLM answers only from the sources you give it and cites each claim.