Is ChatGPT Plus worth your $20? Here’s how it compares to Free and Pro plans

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Every ChatGPT plan presents completely different advantages for various customers.
• Paid tiers get early entry and fewer utilization limits.
• Chances are you’ll not must pay, relying on how usually you employ ChatGPT.

It has been a couple of years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, and over that point, the AI chatbot has repeatedly up to date with new fashions, options, merchandise, and limitations. Whereas there’s lots you are able to do with the free tier, which does present entry to the newest and strongest GPT-5 mannequin, some options and perks are reserved for paid plans like ChatGPT Plus.

OpenAI launched Plus to handle demand and assure entry throughout busy durations (no extra “at capability” errors!). Plus additionally unlocks early entry to new options and fashions, making the $20 plan a no brainer for energy customers. Nevertheless, as ChatGPT has advanced, the free tier has obtained many upgrades. It is, due to this fact, price re-evaluating whether or not Plus is price it in 2025.

Additionally: The way to use ChatGPT: A newbie’s information to the preferred AI chatbot

A few of chances are you’ll even be new to generative AI and questioning which ChatGPT tier to strive first. Let’s break it down, and I am going to assist you to lastly resolve whether or not the free plan, ChatGPT Plus, and even the $200-per-month ChatGPT Professional subscription is best for you.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s father or mother firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI techniques.)

You must use ChatGPT Plus if…

Since Plus prices $20 per 30 days, you have in all probability requested your self: Why pay when you need to use ChatGPT without spending a dime? I’ve pored over the small print and used the AI chatbot, and from what I can inform, there are 9 fundamental benefits. The TL;DR is that the free tier has heavy utilization limits, whereas Plus will get you the newest options and fashions first, with precedence entry even throughout peak instances.

Additionally: Need higher ChatGPT responses? Do that shocking trick, researchers say

When you solely use ChatGPT often for enjoyable, it isn’t price subscribing. However should you use it for work, writing, coding, or creating pictures — or you end up opening the app day-after-day, all day — then subscribing is a good suggestion. With Plus, you’ll be able to at all times entry the chatbot, even when demand is excessive, and it removes lots of the caps that free customers face.

1. You wish to use the legacy fashions nonetheless

When OpenAI launched GPT-5, it initially changed all its legacy fashions in ChatGPT with it. This unified mannequin was meant to simplify issues and mix the perfect of OpenAI’s choices, utilizing a quick “good” mannequin for many queries and a deeper reasoning mannequin for tougher ones. Nevertheless, some paying subscribers most popular the older fashions or trusted them for workflows.

CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that “abruptly deprecating outdated fashions that customers trusted of their workflows was a mistake.” In consequence, OpenAI introduced again the choice for ChatGPT Plus customers to entry legacy fashions. Subscribers can allow the older variations in settings, together with GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o3, and o4-mini, after which they will see them within the mannequin picker.

Additionally: Do not like GPT-5? You’ll be able to nonetheless use GPT-4 and different legacy fashions in ChatGPT – here is how

So, in case you have a most popular mannequin or workflow that labored with GPT-4-era fashions, the Plus tier enables you to follow what you realize.

2. You need entry to each new GPT-5 mannequin

Whereas GPT-5 combines the perfect of a deep reasoning mannequin (GPT-5 Considering) and a regular good mannequin for a stability of velocity and high quality, customers with a Plus subscription can manually toggle between all of the GPT-5 fashions: GPT-5 Auto, GPT-5 On the spot, GPT-5 Considering, and GPT-5 Considering Mini. The default Auto mannequin decides when to “assume tougher” or when to reply shortly.

The profit: Plus customers can select which mannequin to make use of and when, as a substitute of getting ChatGPT routinely guess based mostly on the dialog and immediate complexity. When you usually work on tougher issues that require a mannequin to assume extra to output the very best reply, then having the choice to toggle on GPT-5 Considering, for example, is a compelling purpose to subscribe.

Additionally: What’s OpenAI’s GPT-5? Here is every little thing you could know in regards to the firm’s newest mannequin

It mainly offers you extra management over GPT-5’s habits to fit your wants.

3. You wish to strive Sora 2 video era

OpenAI’s Sora 2 video-generating mannequin permits customers to create gorgeous, real looking movies from prompts or pictures. With ChatGPT Plus, you will get limitless generations, 10-second movies in 720p, and as much as two creations working directly. ChatGPT Professional expands on that provision, with sooner generations, 20-second movies in 1080p, as much as 5 concurrent generations, and downloads with out watermarks.

Additionally: I attempted the brand new Sora 2 to generate AI movies – and the outcomes have been pure sorcery

Sora 2 is just obtainable to paid plans. Free customers do not have entry but.

4. It’s good to generate numerous pictures

To create pictures, ChatGPT makes use of the GPT-4o picture generator, OpenAI’s most succesful picture generator so far.

With this instrument, you’ll be able to ask “create a picture of…,” describe a scene, and obtain an AI-generated image that may embody real looking human figures and even legible textual content. It’s also possible to add an present picture and describe edits for GPT-4o to use — like including textual content, refining particulars, or altering backgrounds. Simply bear in mind that advanced requests might take a few minutes.

Utilization is capped without spending a dime customers, however Plus and Professional subscribers can get pleasure from a lot greater day by day quotas. OpenAI mentioned free-tier customers can use GPT-4o solely a restricted variety of instances inside a couple of hours. It would notify you as soon as you have reached the restrict and invite you to improve.

Additionally: ChatGPT’s new picture generator shattered my expectations – and now it is free to strive

For instance, should you’re on the Free tier and rely closely on picture creation, you would possibly see a message like, “You’ve got reached your picture creation restrict. Improve to ChatGPT Plus or strive once more tomorrow…” Against this, Plus customers can generate many extra pictures per day, whereas Professional customers are primarily limitless. So, should you usually use the AI for pictures, Plus is a simple selection.

5. You wish to code with Codex’s assist

OpenAI lately built-in its highly effective Codex AI coding agent into ChatGPT Plus, so now anybody with the $20-a-month Plus plan can get AI-powered coding recommendations with out shelling out $200.

Codex is an AI agent that helps write and assessment code. You’ll be able to level it at your GitHub repo, and it will whip up code modifications, run checks to verify nothing’s damaged, and even deal with putting in dependencies should you let it. (This was a Professional-only functionality.) Take into account the agent would not “keep in mind” something between classes, so it’s a must to give it clear directions each time.

Additionally: 10 ChatGPT Codex secrets and techniques I solely realized after 60 hours of pair programming with it

Codex works throughout your IDE, terminal, and even the ChatGPT interface, and it is included at no further value for Plus customers. Because the coding agent is new to ChatGPT, you would possibly encounter some velocity bumps if many individuals are utilizing it directly. However having an AI “pair programmer” on demand is extremely helpful should you code repeatedly, and now you do not want the $200 Professional plan to make use of it.

6. You need Agent to deal with duties for you

The brand new Agent function in ChatGPT is extremely enjoyable to play with and check out. As a substitute of simply answering questions, it could possibly really get issues carried out. As an illustration, you’ll be able to inform it to do your grocery purchasing. I attempted it lately and had it add every little thing to my Walmart cart, however I nonetheless wanted to take a look at myself. It could actually browse the net, fill out kinds, and deal with multi-step duties.

Additionally: My 8 ChatGPT Agent assessments produced only one near-perfect outcome – and numerous various information

From my expertise, chances are you’ll hit partitions with duties that require delicate logins or funds, because the agent pauses and arms issues off to you for safety causes. It is not flawless; typically it will get caught or confused by web site layouts. Nonetheless, it is an enormous step towards an AI that may assume, plan, and act in your behalf, and it feels fairly wild seeing ChatGPT deal with real-world duties for me.

Simply consider it as ChatGPT with arms.

Agent is just obtainable to paid ChatGPT customers, so should you’re on the Free plan, you’ll be able to’t use it but. Plus customers reportedly get round 40 agent runs a month, whereas Professional and Crew customers can use as much as about 400 and get sooner execution.

7. You do numerous deep analysis

You are in all probability noticing a theme right here: A lot of ChatGPT’s most superior options launch first for paying subscribers, and whereas they finally attain free customers, they arrive with utilization limits.

A terrific instance of that is Deep Analysis. It is mainly ChatGPT’s “analysis analyst mode.” You ask it a posh query, and it goes off to browse the net, dig by way of PDFs, pictures, and articles, then synthesizes every little thing right into a structured report with citations and a abstract of its steps. Free customers can strive Deep Analysis, however beneath very tight quotas.

Additionally: I examined ChatGPT’s Deep Analysis in opposition to Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok AI to see which is finest

At present, Free customers get about 5 duties per 30 days utilizing a “light-weight” model of the instrument. Paid tiers (Plus, Crew, and Professional) get greater limits. For instance, Plus customers get round 25 duties per 30 days (a mixture of full and light-weight), whereas Professional customers stand up to 250. The “light-weight” model kicks in when you hit the restrict of the total analysis mannequin.

9. You need the perfect options with greater limits

Subscribing to ChatGPT Plus offers you early entry to OpenAI’s latest fashions and instruments, corresponding to Sora 2, Codex, and Agent, effectively earlier than they attain free customers. And even when superior options like Deep Analysis or GPT-4o picture era do change into obtainable on the Free plan, they’re often restricted or capped. You need to use them far more usually and with fewer restrictions on Plus.

With a Plus account, you get greater limits throughout a number of options, together with:

• Messaging
• File uploads
• Knowledge evaluation
• Deep Analysis
• Picture era
• Reminiscence and context retention
• Superior Voice Mode conversations

That final one is likely to be particularly attention-grabbing to Plus customers. Whereas Free ChatGPT customers can strive Superior Voice Mode, they get shorter day by day classes — often about quarter-hour of voice chat per day — and it runs on a lighter GPT-4o Mini mannequin as a substitute of the total one obtainable to paying customers. Plus subscribers, then again, get longer, practically unrestricted use.

OpenAI is slowly phasing out the older normal voice mode, however for now, each variations are nonetheless obtainable.

You must use ChatGPT Professional if…

OK, so now that we have mentioned why Plus is price it for a lot of, let’s take a look at the costlier Professional plan that prices $200 a month. Most individuals would by no means pay a automobile cost’s price of cash to make use of AI, however there are particular cases the place it might be price it. Let’s be clear, although: Professional is for essentially the most hardcore customers who want the utmost ChatGPT expertise.

1. You need ChatGPT Plus on a good higher scale

All of the perks and options included in ChatGPT Plus carry over to ChatGPT Professional, however with far fewer limits. Professional additionally provides a number of unique capabilities, corresponding to Pulse. Here is a breakdown of the largest advantages should you’re significantly contemplating the improve:

• Limitless and sooner picture era: Professional customers can generate GPT-4o pictures with nearly no day by day cap and get precedence in era queues, so picture creation feels immediate in comparison with different tiers.
• Most Deep Analysis, Agent, Reminiscence, and Context: Professional considerably expands ChatGPT’s “considering” capability. You’ll be able to run extra Deep Analysis duties and use Agent with out the tight restrictions discovered within the Free or Plus plans. The context window is bigger too, permitting ChatGPT to recollect and course of way more info in a single session.
• Increased entry to Codex, tasks, duties, and customized GPTs: The Codex coding agent in Professional can deal with bigger, multi-step tasks with extra duties. It’s also possible to create and deploy extra customized GPTs (your personal tailor-made chatbots) in your workspace. Basically, Professional treats ChatGPT as a full improvement platform, and it’s totally tough to hit its ceiling.
• Precedence entry to Sora 2 video era: Professional customers get VIP therapy with Sora 2, together with video rendering at as much as 1080p decision and 20-second size, the flexibility to generate 5 movies directly, and watermark-free downloads. When you plan to experiment with AI video, Professional eliminates practically all friction.

Briefly, Professional presents greater limits, sooner speeds, and entry to every little thing OpenAI has to supply. In order for you essentially the most highly effective, no-compromise model of ChatGPT, Professional is the plan for you. That is assuming you are wonderful with the upper price ticket, in fact.

2. You need GPT-5 Professional and essentially the most highly effective fashions

With Professional, you get the total lineup of fashions and modes, together with GPT-5 Professional with its “research-grade” reasoning. Consider it because the high-performance model of OpenAI’s newest mannequin for many who want critical reasoning energy and prolonged context processing. It runs on the identical base as GPT-5 however provides further compute, deeper reasoning, and a bigger context window.

Additionally: What’s ChatGPT Professional? Here is what $200 per 30 days will get you

GPT-5 Professional can reportedly deal with tons of of hundreds of tokens, producing longer and extra detailed outputs. It is best suited to ultra-heavy workloads, corresponding to analysis, coding, and knowledge evaluation — duties the place depth and accuracy matter most. GPT-5 Professional is at the moment unique to ChatGPT Professional subscribers, who additionally get entry to different GPT-5 variants and legacy fashions.

Nothing is off-limits. You’ll be able to swap between older and newer fashions as wanted with out worrying about hitting a quota.

3. You want early entry to the latest options

Professional customers are sometimes the primary to check main upgrades. For instance, when OpenAI launched the GPT-4.5 mannequin, it went to Professional subscribers first, and so they bought early entry to the Codex agent for months. Each of those are actually obtainable to Plus subscribers, however OpenAI has confirmed that ChatGPT’s most compute-intensive instruments will launch on the Professional tier earlier than different plans.

Additionally: The perfect free AI for coding in 2025 now – solely 3 make the reduce (and 5 fall flat)

For instance, ChatGPT Pulse is a brand new function that lets ChatGPT work proactively in your behalf. Every evening, it could possibly analysis and summarize info out of your chat historical past, pursuits, and directions, then generate a customized morning briefing with 5 to 10 “playing cards.” It is like waking as much as your personal TL;DR feed. However, for now, Pulse is just obtainable to Professional customers.

OpenAI does plan to deliver Pulse to Plus customers sooner or later, following the identical rollout sample it makes use of for many of its latest options.

You must use free ChatGPT if…

Lastly, let’s discuss in regards to the free model of ChatGPT. I’ve already coated most of its options, so here is the brief model: all of it is dependent upon how usually you employ ChatGPT and whether or not early entry to new instruments issues to you. When you solely use it often and do not care about testing the newest options first, the Free plan is completely the best way to go.

1. You do not wish to pay a month-to-month price

When you solely want occasional AI help and do not thoughts utilization caps, the free tier ought to serve you effectively. It is surprisingly strong and now contains some options that have been as soon as behind a paywall, corresponding to Deep Analysis. You actually do get numerous performance for $0.

Free ChatGPT customers can entry:

• GPT-5 (the unified flagship mannequin; obtainable to Free customers however with limits)
• Net search (built-in looking for up-to-date data with supply citations)
• Picture era through GPT-4o (with limits – round two to a few pictures at a time)
• Deep Analysis (as much as 5 “light-weight” duties per 30 days)
• Superior Voice Mode (with limits – as much as quarter-hour per day)
• File and picture uploads (with limits – three file and two picture uploads per day)
• Reminiscence for referencing current conversations (light-weight model)
• Third-party apps (like Canva and different integrations; additionally obtainable to Plus and Professional customers)

2. You are an informal ChatGPT consumer

When you hardly ever hit the day by day utilization limits for textual content, voice, or picture era, upgrading to Plus or Professional won’t be crucial.

The free model presents loads of room for gentle use — asking a couple of questions per day, producing a handful of pictures, attempting out superior knowledge evaluation, importing information or images, and extra. Nevertheless, should you usually see messages about hitting your limits for textual content, voice, or pictures, it is likely to be time to contemplate a paid plan corresponding to Plus and even Professional.

For energy customers who want top-tier capability and prolonged entry to superior options, there’s Professional, whereas Plus presents a extra inexpensive center floor. 

Additionally: The way to get ChatGPT Go free for a 12 months in India (and what it unlocks)

Finally, in case your wants are minimal and the constraints do not trouble you, sticking with the free tier is completely wonderful. You will not get new options straight away, and you may must tempo your self with utilization, however you will save.