October’s loudest AI price story ended the opposite way it started. On October 29, OpenAI canceled the ChatGPT Pro 200 usage cut it had announced in September, and the lower allowance doubled instead. Of the plans below, none raised its monthly price for people already paying. What changed is what the same money buys, what some plans are called, and what new customers can still buy.
So for your bill, the answer is no: we wouldn’t change or cancel any plan because of October. Two deadlines do need you if you use Gemini Gems or the standalone Claude Design site, and they’re in the dates table near the end.
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AI subscription price changes in October 2026, plan by plan
Find your plan in the left column. If the last column says no, nothing on your bill or in your settings needs you.
| Your plan | US price a month | What changed | Anything to do? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Pro 100, 200 or 500 | $100, $200 or $500 | Pro 200’s planned cut canceled (lower allowance doubled); Pro 100 and 500 get twice the Work and Codex allowance; API credits equal to the price | No (claim the credits only if you build apps) |
| Claude Max | $100 | $100 a month in API credits | No |
| Claude Max 20x, now Ultra | $200 | New name; usage counted per week, no five-hour limit for verified accounts | No |
| Gemini, no plan | Free | Auto picks the model; most prompts go to Flash-Lite | No (Gems users: see the dates below) |
| Google AI Plus, Pro, Ultra | $4.99, $19.99, from $99.99 | Prices the same; Plus subscribers should get an email about model changes | Plus: read that email |
| SuperGrok, X Premium or Cursor (already subscribed) | Unchanged | Your plan continues; switching is optional | No |
| New Grok or Cursor buyer | $8, $30, $100 or $200 | The X Subscription replaced the old plans for new customers | Pick a tier (see below) |
ChatGPT Pro: the cut that didn’t happen
If you pay $200 for Pro 200 and read in September that your allowance was about to shrink, you can stop worrying: the reduction is canceled. Pro 200 had two allowance levels, and the lower one has doubled to match the higher one. That covers Work and Codex, the parts of ChatGPT that carry out longer jobs and write code for you, and your weekly GPT-6 Pro messages in Chat. The price stays $200 a month.
Pro 100 and Pro 500 got more too: twice their previous Work and Codex allowance, added automatically without waiting for renewal. This matters most if you hand ChatGPT tasks rather than questions. All three tiers are still billed monthly only, with no yearly discount.
The other October addition is easy to misread. Eligible Pro subscribers can now claim API credits worth the plan’s price each month: $100, $200 or $500. Think of them as a prepaid card for the builders’ entrance round the back, not extra time at the shop counter. They pay for apps and agents (programs that carry out multi-step jobs on their own) that you build on the OpenAI API. They don’t raise your ChatGPT or Codex limits at all, and Plus subscribers don’t get them.
Say you pay $200 for Pro 200 and run a small app of your own on the side. The $200 credit covers that app’s API calls up to $200 a month, while your ChatGPT limits stay exactly where the plan puts them. If you only chat, ignore the credits. For the full Pro ladder, see our ChatGPT Pro pricing guide.
Claude Max 20x is now Ultra, still $200
If your Claude bill said Max 20x, it now says Ultra. You were moved automatically, with no price change. Ultra costs $200 a month.
The old name said 20x; Ultra now gets 10 times Pro’s usage every week. Don’t subtract one from the other. Anthropic calls the move a rename with no price change, and its pages don’t say whether a week of Ultra holds more or less than a week of Max 20x did. What is clear: Claude’s limits work like two clocks, and the five-hour one is gone once your account is verified, so the weekly limits are what’s left to plan around. If your bill still says $200, you pay what you paid before.
The $100 Max plan keeps its name and gives five times Pro’s usage every five hours and every week. Both plans now come with monthly API credits, $100 on Max and $200 on Ultra. If the pricing page’s “up from $100 on Max” caught your eye, it compares the two plans, not an old and a new amount. You claim them in Settings, then Billing, by linking a Claude Console organization, the account developers use for Anthropic’s API.
Pro stays $20 a month, or $17 a month if you pay for a year up front. Nothing here is a reason to move up or down. Our Claude subscription guide covers which plan fits.
Free Gemini now picks the model for you
Of the changes on this page, this is the one that gives free users less. On a personal account without a Google AI plan, Gemini now runs on Auto by default: it picks the model for each prompt, and most prompts go to Flash-Lite, Google’s fastest model, with harder ones sometimes sent to Flash or Pro. It works like a set menu, where the kitchen picks the dish. Turn smart model selection off and every answer comes from Flash-Lite.
For quick questions you may not notice. For a long document or a tricky bit of reasoning, you can no longer count on the Pro model for free. Google’s paid prices didn’t move: AI Plus is $4.99 a month, AI Pro $19.99 and AI Ultra starts at $99.99. If you’re on AI Plus, Google says you should get an email that explains when the model changes reach your plan. We wouldn’t start paying over this alone; if you already pay for Plus, read that email before you renew. Our Google AI Plus review tracks what that plan still includes.
Is SuperGrok gone? Only for new buyers
xAI launched The X Subscription in October, one plan that bundles Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and X Premium, sold to new customers. If you already pay for SuperGrok, X Premium or a Cursor plan, nothing happens: your plan continues and switching is optional. It’s like a phone carrier that stops selling an old tariff but lets everyone on it stay.
New buyers pick one of four paid tiers: Plus at $8 a month, Premium at $30, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200. Premium includes 4 times Plus’s usage, Super 15 times and Ultra 50 times. The Premium tier here is a tier of The X Subscription, not the old X Premium plan. Grok Bot comes with Premium and up, not Plus. So if you want Grok Bot, $30 is your floor; if you only chat with Grok, Plus at $8 is the one to start on.
The change that costs money is for new Cursor customers. Cursor’s $20 Pro plan isn’t sold to them any more, and the new $8 Plus runs only Cursor’s own models, with no Claude or GPT. Say you’re starting Cursor today and want Claude or GPT models. The cheapest tier that has them is Premium at $30, $10 more than the old Pro, and every Claude or GPT request on top is paid from prepaid credit at the model makers’ standard API rates, so your real bill depends on how much you use them. If you already have Cursor Pro, keep it. More in our Cursor review and the Grok plans guide.
Dates to put in your calendar
A few changes take effect later. These are the dates the companies give, and what to do before each.
| Date | What happens | What to do before then |
|---|---|---|
| November 17, 2026 | On personal Google accounts (18 and over), Gems become read only as Google moves them to skills: you can open a Gem but not use, edit or create one | Note what each Gem you rely on does |
| December 14, 2026 | The standalone Claude Design at claude.ai/design closes | Move your design systems into Claude |
| December 17, 2026 | Gems are removed from Gemini on those accounts, and you can no longer open them or their files | Download the files from your Gems |
| The date in Google’s email | Model changes reach Google AI Plus | Read the email if you pay for Plus |
Claude Design itself isn’t going away: it now sits inside Claude, and the Free plan lists it alongside Slides and Docs. Only the separate site closes. If you used Gems, our Gems review explains what they did.
Three checks before your next renewal
- Your plan’s name and price. Open your billing page and match it to the table at the top. On Claude, seeing Ultra where Max 20x used to be is normal.
- Credits you’re not using. If you pay for ChatGPT Pro or Claude Max or Ultra and build anything on the API, claim the monthly credits. If you don’t build, skip this.
- The dates above. The Gems and Claude Design deadlines are the two that can cost you work if you miss them.
We run this check every month. If a plan you pay for changes in November, it will be in the next one.
Sources and how we checked: OpenAI’s Pro tiers help page, its API credits page and ChatGPT release notes; Anthropic’s pricing page, its Ultra, Max, Claude Design and release-notes help pages; Google’s Gemini model-access page, its US subscriptions page and its Gems help page; xAI’s X Subscription pricing and launch post; and Cursor’s pricing help, all read on November 9, 2026. Prices are US dollars. This page covers consumer plans; API-only price changes are left out. It is the website companion to our October price-check video.
Founder of AI Tool Analysis. Every price and limit here is checked against the vendor’s own pages. How we research
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Last Updated: November 9, 2026
Next Review Update: December 9, 2026