ChatGPT Monthly Fee Hits $500... Soaring Prices Squeeze Companies

OpenAI Unveils New Pricing Plans and Agents

Corporate Users Face Rising 'Usage Fee Inflation' as They Seek Productivity Gains

AI Becomes Essential for Maintaining Competitiveness

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is giving a presentation at the annual developer event "DevDay 2026" held on the 29th in San Francisco, USA. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News

"$500 a month?"

As companies work to increase productivity with artificial intelligence (AI), they are likely to face a new burden: 'AI usage fee inflation.' While the price of AI for basic document generation or search tasks is decreasing, the cost of using high-performance AI for critical corporate work such as software (SW) development and research and development (R&D) is rising.

On the 29th (local time), a domestic company CEO who attended OpenAI’s annual developer event, 'DevDay 2026,' in San Francisco, said he was shocked at the price of the new ChatGPT subscription plan. OpenAI’s newly unveiled top-tier 'Pro 500' plan costs $500 per month, which is about 680,000 won.

This time, OpenAI’s pricing strategy is a classic case of “the strong get stronger while the weak get weaker.” The existing Pro subscription, which cost $200 per month and was used for work requiring top performance, will only allow half its previous usage starting next month on the 30th. This means that if a company wants to entrust core work to AI, it must either pay additional fees or upgrade to a higher plan.

The newly announced GPT-6.1 Sol model offers performance close to that of the premium GPT-6 Astra model, but at just one-fifth the standard input/output token price. While everyday tasks like document writing, summaries, or searches can be handled by relatively inexpensive AI, there is still a catch: AI agents.

The 'Dots' persistent agent, which OpenAI released on this day, continuously performs research, analysis, and project monitoring using its own computer and browser. The more AI replaces human work, the greater the usage and the higher the cost.

In software (SW) development, research and development (R&D), design, and complex data analysis, even minor differences in performance affect product competitiveness and business outcomes. This makes demand for AI with higher accuracy and reasoning power inevitable. The more advanced the field, the more likely companies are to choose high-performance AI over cheaper models.

Major domestic companies are also rapidly expanding their use of AI. In June, Samsung announced an 'AI Transformation,' introducing AI across all work at its affiliates, and officially adopted external generative AI services such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. In his New Year’s address, Lee Jae-Yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, emphasized that “AI must be integrated across the entire work value chain, from R&D to production, marketing, and support.”

Yoo Byungjoon, Professor of Business Administration at Seoul National University, explained, "While AI companies are raising their subscription fees under continued losses, companies that use AI have no other choice but to pay high prices to maintain their competitiveness."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.