OpenAI gives ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers up to $500 a month in free API credits

OpenAI's API changelog recorded on 28 October 2026 that [eligible ChatGPT Pro and Business subscribers can claim up to $500 per month in free API credits as a subscription benefit] . If you pay for one of those plans and also build against the API, part of your API bill can now be paid by the plan you already have.

What changed

[The benefit is activated from ChatGPT or API Platform by linking an API organization you own] . The amount depends on the plan. [The guide's table gives $100, $200 and $500 a month for the three Pro tiers, $20 per paid Standard seat for Business Standard and $100 per paid Premium seat for Business Premium] . A Business workspace cannot add seats without limit: [Business credits are pooled and capped at $500 per workspace per month] . [The first grant is prorated for the time left in the current billing cycle and expires at the end of that cycle] .

[No API payment method is required to use the API with active free credits] . And [an organization uses free API credits before purchased API credits] , so credits you bought earlier are not touched while the free ones last.

Two limits are worth knowing before you plan around it. [Codex usage through API keys is not supported by this benefit] , and [the credits do not increase ChatGPT or signed-in Codex usage limits] . They pay for API usage, not for more chat.

What it was before

Until this entry, a ChatGPT subscription and an API account were paid for separately: the plan covered ChatGPT, and the API was billed to the organization through its own payment method or purchased credits. This page does not change what either costs; it adds a monthly allowance on top of the subscription.

What it means for you

Who qualifies.[The subscription must be an active, paid ChatGPT Pro or Business subscription that is at least seven days old] . [You must own both the ChatGPT subscription or Business workspace and the API organization that receives the credits] , and [the ChatGPT account and the API account used to link the organization must use the same email address] . If you are on Plus, Go or Free you do not qualify, and [ChatGPT Enterprise is not eligible for the benefit] .

How to claim.Sign in to ChatGPT with the account that owns the subscription. [For Pro, the claim starts in Settings → Billing in ChatGPT] ; [for Business, the claim starts in the workspace's billing settings in ChatGPT or the Admin Console] . Pick the API organization that should receive the credits and confirm. Do this once: you choose the organization at the start, and [grants apply only to the linked API organization] , so call the API with a project key from that organization and not from another one.

What to watch.

• Expiry.[Unused credits expire at the end of the billing cycle and do not roll over] . If you plan to spend the allowance, plan to spend it inside the cycle.
• The 429.[When no credits remain, API requests fail with HTTP 429 and the error code credit_balance_exhausted] . If you have not bought any credits of your own, a job that runs late in the cycle can start failing with exactly that error. [The guide's remedy is to add paid API credits in the organization's billing settings, or to set up Auto Recharge] . If the application cannot afford to stop, do one of those, and make your error handling treat that code as a billing problem rather than a rate limit to retry.
• Plan changes.[Cancelling does not revoke credits already issued; they can be used until they expire] . But [downgrading to an ineligible plan such as Plus, Go or Free removes the API organization link at the end of the billing cycle] , and new grants stop.

If you already pay for the API with a card, this is a reason to look at the balance at the start of each cycle rather than at the end: the free credits are spent first, so your invoice shrinks without your doing anything.

The source

OpenAI's API changelog, the entry of 28 October 2026, and the guide it points to, API credits for ChatGPT subscribers, as it read that day.