AI subscription ROI — value vs API
AI subscription ROI: price, guaranteed usage credits, and a conservative API-equivalent estimate. Temporary promotions are excluded unless explicitly noted. Prices and limits checked in October 2026.
53 plans17 providerschecked: 2026-10-05Updated:
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The table compares monthly price with an estimated API-equivalent value. It is a planning aid: real usage depends on model choice, prompt caching, dynamic message limits, and provider policy. Open a plan to see limits, charts, and the calculation.
Plans by provider
Updated 2026-09-30: ChatGPT Pro 200 — Sales paused Sep 10; reopened Sep 30 at 10x Plus instead of 20x and 100 instead of 200 GPT-6 Pro msgs/week. Existing subscribers keep old limits until Oct 29 plus 62,500 credits.
Updated 2026-09-29: ChatGPT Pro 500 — Launched Sep 29, 2026 at DevDay: $500/mo, 25x Plus, the only personal plan with Astra Ultrafast.
Updated 2026-09-22: Claude Max 20x — Claude Opus 5.5 launched Sep 22; Anthropic raised the 5-hour limits on Pro and Max and added a deferrable limit reset. Prices are unchanged; exact new limits were not published.
Updated 2026-09-02: Google AI Ultra 20x — Since Sep 2 the Gemini app uses compute-based limits: a 5-hour window plus a weekly cap. Versus Free: AI Plus 2×, AI Pro 4×, Ultra 5× or 20× Pro. Prices unchanged.
| № | Plan ↕ | Price ↕ | API equivalent ↕ | Savings $ ↕ | Savings % ↕ | Models | Method | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Claude Pro Anthropic · Direct |
$20 | $55 | +$35 | +175% | Sonnet 5.5Opus 5.5 | ? | |
| 2 | Claude Max 5x Anthropic · Direct |
$100 | $280 | +$180 | +180% | Sonnet 5.5Opus 5.5 | ? | |
| 3 | Claude Max 20x Anthropic · Direct |
$200 | $1,200 | +$1,000 | +500% | Sonnet 5.5Opus 5.5 | ? | |
| 4 |  ChatGPT Go OpenAI · Direct |
$8 | $8 | +$0 | 0% | GPT-5.6 LunaGPT-6 Luna (Codex) | ? | |
| 5 | ChatGPT Plus OpenAI · Direct |
$20 | $280 | +$260 | +1300% | GPT-5.6 Sol (Thinking)GPT-6 Astra (Work/Codex)GPT-6.1 SolGPT-6 Luna | ? | |
| 6 | ChatGPT Pro 100 OpenAI · Direct |
$100 | $1,056 | +$956 | +956% | GPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 Sol ProGPT-6 Pro (Astra)GPT-6.1 SolGPT-6 Luna | ? | |
| 7 | ChatGPT Pro 200 OpenAI · Direct |
$200 | $1,625 | +$1,425 | +713% | GPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 Sol ProGPT-6 Pro (Astra)GPT-6.1 SolGPT-6 Luna | ? | |
| 8 | ChatGPT Pro 500 OpenAI · Direct |
$500 | $2,195 | +$1,695 | +339% | GPT-6 Astra UltrafastGPT-6 Pro (Astra)GPT-5.6 Sol ProGPT-6.1 SolGPT-6 Luna | ? | |
| 9 | ChatGPT Business OpenAI · Direct |
$25 | $160 | +$135 | +540% | GPT-5.6 SolGPT-6 Astra (Codex) | ? | |
| 10 | ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI · Direct |
$50 | $400 | +$350 | +700% | GPT-5.6 SolGPT-6 ProGPT-6 Astra (Codex) | ? | |
| 11 | $4.99 | $18 | +$13.01 | +261% | Gemini 3.1 Pro | ? | ||
| 12 | $19.99 | $150 | +$130 | +650% | Gemini 3.1 Pro | ? | ||
| 13 |  AI Ultra 5x Google · Direct |
$99.99 | $400 | +$300 | +300% | Gemini UltraDeep Think | ? | |
| 14 | AI Ultra 20x Google · Direct |
$200 | $800 | +$600 | +300% | Gemini UltraDeep Think | ? | |
| 15 | $8 | $16 | +$8 | +100% | Grok 4 | ? | ||
| 16 |  SuperGrok Lite xAI · Direct |
$10 | $22 | +$12 | +120% | Grok 4.6 | ? | |
| 17 | $30 | $95 | +$65 | +217% | Grok 4.6 | ? | ||
| 18 | SuperGrok Plus xAI · Direct |
$100 | $320 | +$220 | +220% | Grok 4.6 | ? | |
| 19 | SuperGrok Heavy xAI · Direct |
$300 | $950 | +$650 | +217% | Grok 4.6 | ? | |
| 20 |  Pro GitHub Copilot · Proxy |
$10 | $40 | +$30 | +300% | GPT-5.5Sonnet 4.6Gemini 3.5 | ? | |
| 21 | Pro+ GitHub Copilot · Proxy |
$39 | $90 | +$51 | +131% | GPT-5.5Sonnet 4.6Gemini 3.5 | ? | |
| 22 | $20 | $20 | +$0 | 0% | GrokComposerfrontier models | ? | ||
| 23 | $60 | $70 | +$10 | +17% | GrokComposerfrontier models | ? | ||
| 24 | $200 | $400 | +$200 | +100% | GrokComposerfrontier models | ? | ||
| 25 | $20 | $85 | +$65 | +325% | SWE-1.5Sonnet 4.6GPT-5.4 | ? | ||
| 26 | $200 | $420 | +$220 | +110% | SWE-1.5Sonnet 4.6GPT-5.4 | ? | ||
| 27 | $19.99 | $45 | +$25.01 | +125% | GPT-5Opus 4.6Gemini 3 ProDeepSeek-R1 | ? | ||
| 28 | $3 | $25 | +$22 | +733% | GPT-5.4Sonnet 4Kimi K2 | ? | ||
| 29 | $10 | $85 | +$75 | +750% | GPT-5.4Sonnet 4 | ? | ||
| 30 | $100 | $920 | +$820 | +820% | GPT-5.4Sonnet 4 | ? | ||
| 31 |  Go Command Code · Proxy |
$1 | $10 | +$9 | +900% | GPT-5.6 LunaGLM-5.3Kimi K3MiniMax M3DeepSeek V4 Flash | ? | |
| 32 | GOAT Command Code · Proxy |
$10 | $70 | +$60 | +600% | GPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 LunaGLM-5.3Kimi K3MiniMax M3DeepSeek V4 Flash | ? | |
| 33 | Pro Command Code · Proxy |
$20 | $80 | +$60 | +300% | ClaudeGPT-5.6GeminiGLM-5.3Kimi K3MiniMax M3 | ? | |
| 34 | Max 10x Command Code · Proxy |
$100 | $150 | +$50 | +50% | ClaudeGPT-5.6GeminiGLM-5.3Kimi K3MiniMax M3 | ? | |
| 35 | Max 20x Command Code · Proxy |
$200 | $300 | +$100 | +50% | ClaudeGPT-5.6GeminiGLM-5.3Kimi K3MiniMax M3 | ? | |
| 36 |  GLM Coding Lite Z.ai · Direct |
$18 | $270 | +$252 | +1400% | GLM-5.3GLM-5.3 FlashGLM-5.2 | ? | |
| 37 | GLM Coding Pro Z.ai · Direct |
$72 | $1,080 | +$1,008 | +1400% | GLM-5.3GLM-5.3 FlashGLM-5.2 | ? | |
| 38 | GLM Coding Max Z.ai · Direct |
$160 | $2,400 | +$2,240 | +1400% | GLM-5.3GLM-5.3 FlashGLM-5.2 | ? | |
| 39 | $6.8 | $6.8 | +$0 | 0% | Kimi K3Kimi K2.7 CodeKimi K2.6 | ? | ||
| 40 | $13.8 | $13.8 | +$0 | 0% | Kimi K3Kimi K2.7 CodeKimi K2.6 | ? | ||
| 41 |  Allegretto Kimi · Direct |
$27.6 | $27.6 | +$0 | 0% | Kimi K3Kimi K2.7 Code HighSpeedKimi K2.6 | ? | |
| 42 | $97.1 | $97.1 | +$0 | 0% | Kimi K3 1MKimi K2.7 Code HighSpeedKimi K2.6 | ? | ||
| 43 |  Qwen Pro Alibaba Cloud · Direct |
$50 | $580 | +$530 | +1060% | Qwen3.5-PlusKimi K2.5GLM-5 | ? | |
| 44 |  Coding Lite BytePlus · Proxy |
$10 | $10 | +$0 | 0% | Seed-2.0DeepSeek-V4GLM-5.2 | ? | |
| 45 | Coding Pro BytePlus · Proxy |
$50 | $50 | +$0 | 0% | Seed-2.0DeepSeek-V4GLM-5.2 | ? | |
| 46 |  Pass Starter Kilo · Proxy |
$19 | $26.6 | +$7.6 | +40% | Auto Model500+ gateway models | ? | |
| 47 | $49 | $68.6 | +$19.6 | +40% | Auto Model500+ gateway models | ? | ||
| 48 | Pass Expert Kilo · Proxy |
$199 | $279 | +$79.6 | +40% | Auto Model500+ gateway models | ? | |
| 49 |  Token Plan Plus MiniMax · Direct |
$22 | $22 | +$0 | 0% | M3M2.7 | ? | |
| 50 | Token Plan Max MiniMax · Direct |
$55 | $55 | +$0 | 0% | M3M2.7 | ? | |
| 51 | Token Plan Ultra MiniMax · Direct |
$132 | $132 | +$0 | 0% | M3M2.7 | ? | |
| 52 | $10 | up to $60 | up to +$50 | up to +500% | GLMKimiMiniMaxQwenDeepSeekMiMoGrokGPT Luna | ? | ||
| 53 | $40 | up to $240 | up to +$200 | up to +500% | GLMKimiMiniMaxQwenDeepSeekMiMoGrokGPT Luna | ? |
Direct subscriptions (usage-based)
The provider creates the model or offers its own coding plan. The equivalent uses a published quota or a conservative official-method estimate; each row explains the method.
Proxy subscriptions (credit-based)
An IDE or aggregator plan. The equivalent is based on published usage credits spent at the underlying models' API rates.
Estimates are approximate and message limits are dynamic. Verify current pricing on the official websites.