OpenAI ChatGPT Plus
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 4 AI subscriptions by recommenders
People recommend the $20 OpenAI plan for generous limits and strong coding performance versus rival $20 plans, though its usage quotas have been cut recently.
People recommend the $20 OpenAI plan for generous limits and strong coding performance versus rival $20 plans, though its usage quotas have been cut recently.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Generous usage limits versus rivals
“I am, oddly, able to get really quite a lot of mileage out of $20/mo of OpenAI plan”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Google to invest up to $40B in Anthropic in cash and compute” “the quota is a lot more generous than the Anthropic $20 plan”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “GLM 5.2 vs. Opus” “OpenAI's $20 plan feels like 100x more generous”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Claude Opus 5” - Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “The Kimi K3 Moment”
- Comment from 13 Sep 2026 in “We must pace the frontier”
- Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Claude Cowork and chat are now one Claude”
Better value than rival $20 plans
“OpenAIs $20 plan has been more useful than ClaudeCode 20x max both in terms of price and performance.”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “Claude Opus 5” “Never spent more than 40 euros per month on the base plans for Claude and OpenAI.”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “Corporate America Has Suddenly Decided to Stop Blowing Money on AI” “The OpenAI one in particular is a great deal”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “A guide to local coding models” Usable for programming at $20
“OpenAIs $20 plan has been more useful than ClaudeCode 20x max both in terms of price and performance.”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “Claude Opus 5” “It's the only provider of the three where the $20 plan is at all usable for programming.”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Claude Opus 5” “the GPT 5.6 series is both thrifty with token use but as smart as Claude 5 series”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “DeepSeek planning to significantly raise prices” Token-efficient, capable GPT models
“Subsidy got cut by half. But in the meantime 6.1 came out which uses 25% fewer tokens than 5.6”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “GPT-6.1 Terra” “the GPT 5.6 series is both thrifty with token use but as smart as Claude 5 series”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “DeepSeek planning to significantly raise prices”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Usage quotas cut recently
“Subsidy got cut by half. But in the meantime 6.1 came out which uses 25% fewer tokens than 5.6”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “GPT-6.1 Terra” “The $200 OpenAI plan just got cut and most say general quotas got cut before that”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Gemini 4 Argon (High): Intelligence, Performance and Price Analysis”
Other AI subscriptions people recommend
The three most recommended other AI subscriptions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI | 202 | 524 | 28% | 13 | 3 mo17 owners | — |
| Anthropic Max plan | 22 | 54 | 29% | 9 | 1 mo3 owners | — |
| OpenAI ChatGPT PlusThis page | 11 | 1 | 92% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Charm Hyper | 8 | 12 | 40% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Subsidy got cut by half. But in the meantime 6.1 came out which uses 25% fewer tokens than 5.6”
“The $200 OpenAI plan just got cut and most say general quotas got cut before that”
“OpenAI 20x lasts all day on Astra”
“the OAI limits are FAR more generous”
“There's no Gemini pro model currently, so you gotta pair that with a 20 openai plan for access to more advanced stuff”
“the GPT 5.6 series is both thrifty with token use but as smart as Claude 5 series”
“Never spent more than 40 euros per month on the base plans for Claude and OpenAI.”
“OpenAIs $20 plan has been more useful than ClaudeCode 20x max both in terms of price and performance.”
“It's the only provider of the three where the $20 plan is at all usable for programming.”
“OpenAI's $20 plan feels like 100x more generous”
“consumed almost none of the 5 hour limit”
“the quota is a lot more generous than the Anthropic $20 plan”
“I am, oddly, able to get really quite a lot of mileage out of $20/mo of OpenAI plan”
“The OpenAI one in particular is a great deal”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.