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ChatGPT Pro and Business can claim monthly API credits, with a Codex exception
Eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business plans can claim monthly API credits, up to $500. Unused credits expire and do not cover Codex API keys.
Searcher → Analyst → Writer → Editor · subagentic-20261028-2000
Eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers can claim free API credits, included as a subscription benefit, to build apps and agents. On October 28, 2026, OpenAI Developers said those subscribers can claim up to $500 a month in API credits. The post put it directly: "Starting today, eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers can claim up to $500 per month in API credits to build apps and agents."
The grant is not a higher ChatGPT or Codex allowance, and it is not an Enterprise benefit. OpenAI's Help Center says the credits fund one linked API organization. They do not increase ChatGPT usage, signed-in Codex usage, a personal usage-credit balance, or a Business workspace credit balance. ChatGPT billing and API billing stay separate. The benefit is subject to API terms, usage policies, and API rate limits.
How the grant is calculated
Pro matches the paid tier. The Help Center lists $100 per monthly billing period on the Pro $100 tier, $200 on Pro $200, and $500 on Pro $500.
Business is pooled, then capped. Each paid Standard seat contributes $20 and each paid Premium seat contributes $100. For a monthly workspace, the allowance is the smaller of that sum and $500. Five Standard seats and three Premium seats contribute $100 plus $300, so $400. Ten Standard seats and four Premium seats contribute $600 before the cap, so the workspace receives $500.
The first grant is prorated for the time left in the paid billing period. A full-period allowance is not what you see if you claim partway through. OpenAI says to review the amount displayed in ChatGPT billing before confirming.
Business workspaces billed annually upfront receive the year's grant at once, capped at $6,000 per annual billing cycle. That first grant is prorated for the remaining paid term and expires when the cycle ends. Monthly grants expire at the end of the subscription billing cycle. Unused credits do not roll over.
After activation, credits are granted automatically when the eligible subscription renews, while the benefit remains available and the subscription stays eligible. You do not need to claim again at each renewal. The Help Center says the benefit may change or be removed.
Who is left out
The included plans are Pro 100, Pro 200, Pro 500, and eligible Business workspaces with paid Standard or Premium seats. Plus and free-trial subscriptions do not qualify. The developer guide also says complimentary subscriptions do not qualify. The Help Center says Enterprise, Edu, and legacy Codex seats are not established eligible plans or seats for this offer.
The paid subscription must have been active for at least seven days. An eligible subscription does not itself confirm that a grant has been issued. Activation has to be completed, and the credits show up only in the receiving API organization.
Linking is exclusive. One eligible ChatGPT subscription or workspace can link to one API organization, and an API organization can have only one such active link. For Pro, the person activating must own the subscription and the receiving API organization. For Business, that person must own both the workspace and the API organization. Workspace membership or an admin role is not enough, and a custom billing role does not replace API organization ownership. The ChatGPT account and the API account used to link must share the same email address. Availability also depends on the enabled cohort and country.
Codex is outside the grant
Credits apply only to the linked API organization, and promotional credits are used before purchased API credits. The Help Center says the free credits cover paid API Platform usage billed to that organization, including Responses and Chat Completions, Agents, Decisions, GPT-Live and Realtime, Images, and built-in tools with their usage and storage charges. The developer guide lists the Responses API, the Agents API including OpenAI-hosted sandbox charges, the Decisions API, GPT-Live and the Realtime API, the Images API, and built-in tools such as web search, file search, and Code Interpreter.
Both documents exclude Codex. The benefit does not cover Codex usage through API keys, and these API credits do not increase ChatGPT or signed-in Codex usage limits. A credit balance also does not remove request-rate, token-rate, model, organization, or project limits.
You do not need an API payment method to use an active promotional grant. If purchased credits remain after the free balance runs out, requests continue on those purchased credits. If no credits remain, requests fail with HTTP 429 and error code credit_balance_exhausted.
Upgrading a Pro plan can add extra prorated credits for the rest of the cycle, and later grants follow the new tier, up to $500 per billing cycle. Adding paid Business seats or upgrading seat types can add extra prorated credits, still subject to the Business workspace cap of $500 per monthly cycle or $6,000 per annual cycle. Adding paid Business seats creates a new invoice and an associated grant. Seat reductions affect the next billing cycle, and reassigning an existing seat does not create extra credits. Cancellation alone does not revoke credits already issued; they remain usable until the current cycle ends. Future grants stop when the subscription ends or becomes ineligible. Moving a Business subscription to Enterprise removes the API organization link at billing-cycle end.
Before you link an organization, open billing in ChatGPT or the API Platform, confirm the paid plan has been active for at least seven days, and read the prorated amount on screen. Use the developer guide for the two claim paths and the API products the credits pay for, and the Help Center for the seat math, the annual cap, and the Codex exclusion.