ChatGPT Plus vs Claude Pro: the $20 plans
ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro both cost $20 a month. Compare chat and coding access, billing and usage limits, then see weekly token estimates from our Codex and Claude Code runs.
How ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro differ
Both plans cost $20 a month. Plus is billed monthly only; Claude Pro can also be billed annually, at $17 a month with $200 billed up front. Each includes chat and a coding agent: Codex with ChatGPT Plus, Claude Code with Claude Pro. On Claude Pro, chats and Claude Code share the same five-hour and weekly limits. OpenAI says ChatGPT Work and Codex share usage, estimates Codex use on Plus in messages per five hours and says weekly limits may also apply; the pages cited here don't say whether ordinary ChatGPT chats count. Neither plan's rules cited here list a weekly token allowance, so after the rules table we give weekly token estimates from our own coding runs. What is ChatGPT Plus?, OpenAI pricing, Claude pricing, What is the Pro plan?, Claude Code with Pro or Max
ChatGPT Plus vs Claude Pro: prices, limits and what's included
| Rule | ChatGPT Plus | Claude Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price and billing | $20 per month, billed monthly. Annual billing and paying for multiple months in advance are not supported for Plus. What is ChatGPT Plus? | $20 per month if billed monthly, or $17 per month with annual billing ($200 billed up front). Prices exclude applicable tax; local pricing may differ. Claude pricing, What is the Pro plan? |
| Coding agent | Codex on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension and on iOS, with GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, plus cloud integrations such as automatic code review and Slack. OpenAI pricing | Claude Code in the terminal and in supported IDEs, including VS Code, Cursor and JetBrains IDEs, signed in with your Claude account. Claude Code with Pro or Max |
| Chat | ChatGPT on the web, iOS and Android, with expanded messages and uploads, deep research, image creation, memory, projects, scheduled tasks and custom GPTs. ChatGPT Work is also included on desktop, web and mobile. ChatGPT pricing | Claude on the web, desktop and mobile, with Research, projects, memory and voice mode. Pro includes Opus models; Free does not. Claude pricing |
| Five-hour limit | OpenAI's estimates for local Codex messages per five-hour period on Plus: GPT-6 Astra 5-45; GPT-6.1 Sol 15-160; GPT-6 Sol 15-150; GPT-6 Luna 350-3,000. These are estimates, not fixed message limits. OpenAI pricing | The session usage limit resets every five hours. The message count varies with message and attachment length, conversation length, and the model or feature used. What is the Pro plan? |
| Weekly limit | "Weekly limits may also apply." OpenAI pricing | Pro has a weekly usage limit across all models, resetting at a fixed time assigned to your account. See Settings > Usage for the next reset. What is the Pro plan? |
| Published weekly token allowance | None listed in these plan rules. OpenAI pricing, What is ChatGPT Plus? | None listed in these plan rules. What is the Pro plan?, Claude pricing |
| Shared usage | "ChatGPT Work and Codex share usage." The cited pages do not say whether ChatGPT Chat use counts against the Codex allowance. OpenAI pricing, OpenAI models | Claude chats and Claude Code share the five-hour and weekly limits, including IDE usage. Claude Code with Pro or Max |
| Model caveats | In ChatGPT, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna are available in Work and Codex, not Chat. ChatGPT's plan table lists GPT-6 Astra for Plus, and OpenAI's five-hour estimates for Plus include it, but the Codex plan card doesn't list it. OpenAI models, ChatGPT pricing, OpenAI pricing | Fable 5 and Fable 5.1 are not included in Pro's usage limits. On Pro they use pay-as-you-go usage credits from the start. Fable models on your plan |
| API access | "API usage is separate and billed independently." What is ChatGPT Plus? | "The Pro plan does not include API usage through the Claude Console." Pro is not eligible for the monthly API credits offered to Max and Team plans. What is the Pro plan?, Monthly API credits |
| Buying more usage | For Codex, Plus users who reach their usage limit can buy ChatGPT credits to keep working without upgrading. OpenAI pricing | With usage credits enabled, you can keep using Claude and Claude Code after reaching a five-hour or weekly limit, billed separately at standard API rates. Usage credits, Claude Code with Pro or Max |
Weekly token estimates from our coding runs
We ran simulated ten-turn coding sessions through Codex on our ChatGPT Plus account and through Claude Code on our Claude Pro account, one pinned model per run, at medium effort, with tools turned off. Both tools get their prompts from the same generator. Each estimate extrapolates a run's movement on the plan's overall weekly usage meter to a full weekly limit, with the same data and calculation as the $20 Coding cards on the home page.
| Plan | Model | Estimated weekly limit | At API prices, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus (Codex) | GPT-6.1 Sol | 52M tokens | $200 |
| ChatGPT Plus (Codex) | GPT-6 Astra | 18M tokens | $310 |
| ChatGPT Plus (Codex) | GPT-6 Luna | 770M tokens | $160 |
| Claude Pro | Opus 5.5 | 74M tokens | $990 |
| Claude Pro | Sonnet 5.5 | 110M tokens | $720 |
| Claude Pro | Haiku 5.5 | > 1.0B tokens | > $300 |
Token totals include each tool's system prompt and retained history. The vendors count tokens differently, so equal token totals do not represent equal amounts of work. Read how the numbers work.
A > prefix marks a lower bound, from a run that moved the weekly meter by fewer than five percentage points. Figures are rounded to two significant figures.
"At API prices" is what a full weekly limit, used every week, would cost a month at API list prices. It values the recorded token mix, not a promised saving.
Chat was not measured. These runs measure usage, not answer quality. Five-hour and model limits can stop you before the weekly estimate is reached.
More on each plan
For other kinds of work and the $100 and $200 plans, see the home page cards and how the numbers work. To try your own weekly usage, use the plan calculator.
For higher plans and their rules, read Codex pricing for ChatGPT Plus and Pro and Claude Pro vs Max for Claude Code.
To find reset times and check your usage, read Claude usage limits, and when they reset or how to check your Codex usage.
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