OpenAI now gives eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers free OpenAI API credits every billing cycle. OpenAI Developers announced it late on 28 October, and the API guide spells out the terms. If you pay for ChatGPT and have been meaning to try the API, this is the cheapest way in.
How much you get
| Subscription | Monthly API credits |
|---|---|
| Pro ($100 tier) | $100 |
| Pro ($200 tier) | $200 |
| Pro ($500 tier) | $500 |
| Business Standard | $20 per paid seat, pooled |
| Business Premium | $100 per paid seat, pooled |
Business credits are pooled across the workspace and capped at $500 a month. Workspaces that pay annually upfront get the whole year’s grant at once, capped at $6,000. Your first grant is prorated for the time left in the current billing cycle.
Who qualifies
The subscription must be paid, active and at least seven days old. Free trials and complimentary subscriptions do not count, and the Help Center article says Plus does not qualify, and does not list Enterprise, Edu or legacy Codex seats as eligible. You must own both the ChatGPT subscription (or Business workspace) and the API organization that receives the credits, with the same email address on both. You link the subscription to the API organization from ChatGPT billing settings (or the Admin Console for Business) or from the API Platform. After that, credits arrive automatically at each renewal while the benefit lasts.
What the credits cover, and what they don’t
They cover paid API Platform usage for the linked organization: the Responses, Agents, Decisions, Realtime and Images APIs, GPT-Live, and built-in tools such as web search, file search and Code Interpreter, including their storage charges.
The limits matter more:
- No Codex. OpenAI says Codex usage through API keys is not covered, and the credits do not raise your ChatGPT or signed-in Codex limits.
- No rollover. Monthly grants expire at the end of the billing cycle.
- Normal rate limits. The credits are subject to your organization’s usual API rate limits.
- Free credits go first. Your organization spends them before purchased credits. When they run out and you have no purchased balance, requests fail with HTTP 429 and the error code
credit_balance_exhausted.
Downgrading to Plus, Go or Free removes the link at the end of the cycle, and so does moving a Business workspace to Enterprise. OpenAI says the benefit “may change or be removed in the future”.
What to do
If you are on Pro or Business, link an API organization now; a partial first month is better than none. If you build scripts or agents that must not fail on a 429, either keep a small purchased balance behind the free credits or handle credit_balance_exhausted explicitly.
The Campfire
CommentsThanks. Your comment is waiting for the desk. Once it is approved it appears here within about a minute.
Add a comment