OpenAI on October 28, 2026 opened a subscription benefit that lets eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business customers claim free API credits—up to $500 per month—by linking a ChatGPT subscription or workspace to an API organization they own. The company documented the offer in its Help Center and developer guide; the API changelog lists the feature under October 28.
Key Facts
| Plan / seat | Full-period API allowance |
|---|---|
| Pro ($100 tier) | $100 per monthly billing period |
| Pro ($200 tier) | $200 per monthly billing period |
| Pro ($500 tier) | $500 per monthly billing period |
| Business Standard (paid seat) | $20 per seat, pooled in the workspace |
| Business Premium (paid seat) | $100 per seat, pooled in the workspace |
| Business workspace cap | $500 per monthly period (or $6,000 per annual cycle if billed annually upfront) |
- Eligibility: Paid Pro 100 / 200 / 500 or paid Business Standard/Premium seats; subscription must have been active at least 7 days. Plus, free trials, Enterprise, Edu, and legacy Codex seats are not eligible.
- Linking: Same email on ChatGPT and API accounts; claimant must be owner of both the ChatGPT subscription/workspace and the receiving API organization. One eligible subscription links to one API organization.
- Where credits land: The linked API organization only. They do not raise ChatGPT or signed-in Codex usage limits, personal usage-credit balances, or Business workspace credit balances.
- Coverage: Paid API Platform usage (Responses, Chat Completions, Agents, Decisions, GPT-Live/Realtime, Images, built-in tools, and related charges). Does not cover Codex usage through API keys.
- Expiration: Monthly grants expire at the end of the billing cycle; unused credits do not roll over. First grant is prorated for time left in the period. After activation, renewal grants are automatic while the benefit and subscription remain eligible.
- Claim paths: ChatGPT Settings → Billing (or Business workspace billing / Admin Console), or API Platform Billing.
Background
ChatGPT billing and API Platform billing stay separate. OpenAI says promotional credits are consumed before purchased API credits; if both free and purchased balances are exhausted, requests can fail with HTTP 429 and credit_balance_exhausted. A credit balance does not remove rate, token, model, organization, or project limits. OpenAI also notes the benefit may change or be removed later.
Sysnote, summarizing the official docs and an OpenAI Developers post, highlighted the Codex exclusion and the Business seat math (for example, ten Standard plus four Premium seats would total $600 before the $500 cap).
What We Don't Know Yet
- How long the benefit remains available, and in which countries or cohorts it is enabled at any given time (Help Center says availability can depend on cohort and country)
- Whether OpenAI will later extend similar credits to Plus, Enterprise, or Edu
- Aggregate take-up among Pro and Business subscribers