OpenAI reportedly preparing $500 per month ChatGPT Pro Max plan

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Sep 26, 2026, 19:17 UTC

On September 24 and 25, 2026, multiple outlets reported that OpenAI is preparing a new ChatGPT subscription tier called Pro Max, priced at $500 per month. The evidence came from references discovered inside Codex code rather than any official announcement. Reports also indicate the plan may run on Cerebras infrastructure, which would allow faster compute performance for demanding workloads. The existing ChatGPT Pro plan sits at $200 per month, meaning Pro Max would represent a $300 increase over the current top consumer tier.

The significance of the leak lies in what it suggests about OpenAI's commercial strategy. A $500 monthly price point aimed at power users signals that OpenAI sees a ceiling on what enterprise-adjacent individuals will pay for access to faster, longer-running AI tasks. The Cerebras angle adds another layer, as that infrastructure partnership, if confirmed, would mark a notable shift in how OpenAI sources compute for its premium products. What remains genuinely disputed is the full feature set, the timeline for any launch, and whether the price will hold once an official announcement arrives.

The Pro-AI camp has not yet reacted to this specific story. Typically, supporters would frame a premium tier as a reasonable way to fund the compute costs required for genuinely powerful AI tools, and would argue that tiered pricing expands access at lower levels by subsidizing development costs. The Anti-AI camp's quoted reactions do not address the Pro Max pricing directly, focusing instead on separate OpenAI controversies involving unauthorized access attempts and a user data leak, with Carter Neal sarcastically reframing the leak story as corporate negligence. The Middle Ground camp has also not yet weighed in, though a story like this would ordinarily prompt that camp to ask whether the value delivered justifies the cost and to note concerns about AI capability being gated behind high price points.

The clearest thing to watch is whether OpenAI makes an official announcement confirming the tier, its price, its feature set, and the Cerebras partnership. Any such release would either validate or revise what the Codex code references suggested.