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Which ChatGPT Plan Should I Pay For?

Pick what you use ChatGPT for, how heavy your use is, and which extras matter (images, Sites, deep research, no ads, GPT-6 Astra in chat). Get the plan to pay for — computed instantly from a rules table verified against OpenAI's pricing page — with the model each plan runs, the agents it unlocks, and an 'also consider' note on the matching Claude plan.

✓ Recommends Free, Go, Plus, Pro, or Business with the monthly price✓ Shows which GPT model, agents, and limits each plan gets✓ Instant and deterministic — no AI run required

Results in instant · Saves ~20 minutes of pricing-page research

What do you mostly use ChatGPT for?
How heavy is your use?
Which extras matter to you?

Tick any that matter. Leave them all off if none do.

Your recommendation

Recommended plan

ChatGPT Plus — $20/month. If ChatGPT is part of your workday, Plus is the default pick: GPT-5.6 Sol in chat, the Codex and Work agents, Sites, custom GPTs, and full deep research, with no ads. The $12 gap over Go buys the better model and the agents, not just more messages.

Model you get

GPT-5.6 Sol — the default model on every paid plan — in regular chat, with a slider for how hard it thinks. In ChatGPT Work and Codex you also get GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Luna, the GPT-5.6 family, and a limited allowance of GPT-6 Astra (Astra is not in the regular chat picker on Plus).

Agents and apps

The Codex coding agent and the Work agent on desktop, web, and mobile, ChatGPT Sites, Projects, scheduled tasks, and custom GPTs.

Limits and extras

Full deep research, expanded memory, no ads, and roughly 40–50 images per rolling three-hour window (an observed figure, not a published cap).

Also consider

At the same $20, Claude Pro is the stronger pick for long-form writing, careful instruction-following, long documents, and agentic file work through Claude Cowork; ChatGPT Plus wins on images, voice, custom GPTs, and the breadth of its ecosystem. If you write for a living, run the Claude picker before you decide.

Prices and plan features are a September 2026 snapshot checked against chatgpt.com/pricing and OpenAI's help center. Image counts are observed, not published caps. Confirm the live page before you buy.

Common questions

Does this tool work with ChatGPT?

The tool itself runs on Claude (Anthropic) right here on the page — you don't need any AI subscription to use it. Everything it generates is plain text, so you can paste the output into ChatGPT, a document, or an email and keep working there. If you mainly work in ChatGPT, you can also reuse your inputs there to refine further.

What AI model powers this tool and the example output?

Claude, Anthropic's AI. The example outputs shown on tool pages were generated with Claude.

Does the paid AI Operating System work with ChatGPT?

Yes — each AI Operating System is written and tested for Claude, and every one includes a portable prompts-only set that works in ChatGPT and Gemini (copy and paste, occasionally with a minor tweak). The Cowork plugin editions specifically require a paid Claude plan.

Claude is a product of Anthropic. The AI Career Lab is not affiliated with Anthropic or OpenAI.

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