Do you pay for ChatGPT Plus? OpenAI has tightened the screws again

ChatGPT Plus users enjoyed a more relaxed regime for six weeks. In mid-July, OpenAI temporarily lifted the five-hour cap, leaving only the weekly quota in effect. That relief is now ending – and the company justifies it with a combination of server load and user care, which sounds at least interesting.

What exactly this concerns

The change was announced on network X by Thibault Sottiaux, Technical Lead for Codex and ChatGPT at OpenAI. From August 25, the five-hour limit returns to two specific tools – Codex, an agent that writes, modifies, and runs code itself, and ChatGPT Work, an environment designed for long projects with agentic tools.

Regular conversations with ChatGPT will not be affected by the restriction. However, these two tools are the most demanding in terms of computational capacity across the entire portfolio, so the brake affects precisely those users who utilize the service the most.

It is essential that the five-hour limit does not replace the weekly quota, but complements it. Both caps operate independently: if you hit either of them, the included usage will be paused until the next reset. You then have to wait until the window renews, or purchase additional credits.

A justification worth examining

Sottiaux stated two reasons. The first is understandable and straightforward: a short window smooths out the computational capacity load, which allows the company to keep the weekly quota generous.

The second is more interesting. According to OpenAI, the limit prevents less experienced users from burning through their entire weekly quota in a single session. The company reportedly found that without the five-hour brake, people unexpectedly hit the weekly cap at the beginning of the week and didn’t understand why. In other words: the restriction is presented as protecting the customer from themselves.

This argument has its logic, but it cannot be overlooked that it also addresses the company’s costs. Anyone paying twenty dollars a month for the service and suddenly hitting a cap that didn’t exist for six weeks perceives that second aspect considerably more sensitively.

Who will avoid the restriction

The breakdown by plans is clear. Pro plans for 100 and 200 dollars per month remain without the five-hour cap, according to the company, for at least several upcoming months. Business and school accounts operate on a separate credit system, and the change does not affect them at all.

However, the phrase “upcoming months” is not a guarantee. The developments of recent weeks quite clearly show that conditions for AI services change rather quickly and without much warning – the same problem is being addressed on both sides of the market: computational capacity costs enormous amounts of money, and a flat-rate subscription is incompatible with unlimited usage.

Do you pay for an AI service subscription, or is the free version enough for you?

Sources: 9to5Mac, Softonic, Mac Observer