How Much ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini Cost: Individual Plans, October 2026

On their own US pricing pages as of October 6, 2026, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are built the same way: a free tier, a paid tier near $20 a month, and a top tier that starts around $100. ChatGPT and Google add a cheaper step in between, and the pages disagree in small ways about what counts as “more usage,” so a plan name tells you less than the fine print. This guide puts the three side by side from the ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI pages, and flags what each one leaves out.

The quick answer

• Free: all three have one at $0
• The $20 tier: ChatGPT Plus is $20 a month, Claude Pro is $20 billed monthly or $17 a month on an annual plan, and Google AI Pro is $19.99 a month
• Cheaper middle steps: ChatGPT Go at $8 a month and Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month. Claude has no equivalent
• The top tier: ChatGPT Pro is “From $100” with three tiers that OpenAI’s help center prices at $100, $200, and $500 a month, Claude Max is “From $100” at 5x or 20x Pro usage, and Google AI Ultra is $99.99 or $199.99
• Watch for: ads on ChatGPT Go, a YouTube bundle that does not activate if you already pay for YouTube Premium, usage limits that reset every five hours with a weekly cap on top, and prices that exclude tax
• Your data: the ChatGPT and Claude pages both list training on your chats as an opt-out for every individual plan

Key facts at a glance

Tier	ChatGPT	Claude	Gemini (Google AI)
Free	$0	$0	$0
Entry paid	Go, $8 a month	None	AI Plus, $4.99 a month
Standard	Plus, $20 a month	Pro, $20 monthly or $17 a month annual	AI Pro, $19.99 a month
Top	Pro, from $100 a month	Max, from $100 a month	AI Ultra, from $99.99 a month
Heaviest listed	Pro 500 at $500 a month (help center; the pricing page shows only “From $100”)	Max at 5x or 20x Pro	Ultra at $199.99 for 20x Pro
Billing cycle shown	Monthly for Go and Plus	Pro monthly or annual, Max monthly	Monthly
Prices exclude tax	Not stated on the page	Yes, stated	Not stated on the page

ChatGPT: four tiers, one with ads

The ChatGPT page shows Free at $0, Go at $8, Plus at $20, and Pro “From $100 / month”. Go is described as “Best for longer conversations,” Plus as “Best for advanced work and productivity,” and Pro as “Best for research and coding.” Two details change what you are buying. First, the Go card says “This plan may include ads.” Second, Pro offers “Your choice of 3 usage tiers,” but the public page does not list the price of each tier, so $100 is a starting point, not a fixed price.

The help center article About ChatGPT Pro tiers, updated after a September 29, 2026 change, names the three: Pro 100 at $100, Pro 200 at $200, and Pro 500 at $500 a month, with the faster Ultrafast service tier “available only on Pro 500.” Pro 200 “is also available for new subscriptions again,” but new Pro 200 subscriptions “include a lower usage allowance” than before. Anyone who had an active Pro 200 subscription at any point from September 22 through 10 a.m. Pacific on September 29 keeps the previous allowance “through October 29, 2026” at the same $200; after that the lower allowance applies. Speed also costs allowance: compared with Standard mode, “Fast mode uses your included allowance at 2.5 times the rate, and GPT-6 Astra Ultrafast uses it at 8 times the rate.”

Text chats are “Unlimited text chats subject to abuse guardrails” on every plan, and the limits show up elsewhere: messages with tools, uploads, image creation, voice, deep research, and memory are all described as limited, more, or expanded by tier. The page also lists context window sizes, from 27K for Free to 128K for Pro on the instant models. The FAQ says “We offer monthly plans for Go, Plus and Business and annual plans for Business and Enterprise,” so there is no annual discount for individuals.

Claude: one standard tier, two ways to pay

The Claude page shows Free, Pro, and Max. Pro is “$17 Per month with annual subscription discount ($200 billed up front). $20 if billed monthly.” That is $240 a year on the monthly plan against $200 on the annual one, a $40 difference (our arithmetic). Max starts “From $100” and you “Choose 5x or 20x more usage than Pro,” and the FAQ says “Both options are billed monthly,” so Max has no annual option.

Usage is described by time window, not by message count: “Every plan has usage limits that reset on a rolling five-hour session window, and paid plans add weekly limits on top.” The FAQ says “Pro gives you at least 5x more usage per 5-hour session than Free,” and that “there’s no fixed message count.” Claude Code is “included in all paid plans” and shares the same limits. The footer says “Prices shown don’t include applicable tax.”

Gemini: the most steps and the most bundling

The Google AI page lists Free, Google AI Plus at $4.99, Google AI Pro at $19.99, and Google AI Ultra “Starting at” $99.99. Its multiples are against different bases: Plus gets 2x and Pro “4x higher usage access than Free,” while Ultra is $99.99 a month for “5x higher usage limits vs. AI Pro” and $199.99 a month for “20x higher usage limits vs. AI Pro.”

Update, October 7, 2026: Google’s help center now says that from October 9, 2026, Gemini users without a plan get the Flash-Lite model only, and AI Plus loses the Pro model on a date sent by email; AI Pro and AI Ultra keep all three. The before and after tables are in our Gemini October 9 model access guide.

What sets Google apart is the bundle. AI Pro lists “5 TB of cloud storage across Gmail, Drive, and Photos,” a YouTube Premium Lite plan, and Google Home Premium Standard, and Ultra adds the full YouTube Premium individual plan and storage “starting at 20 TB.” One footnote matters if you already pay for YouTube: “The YouTube Premium Lite plan included in this bundle won’t activate if you already have an equivalent or YouTube Premium subscription.” Usage limits work like Claude’s: “Your limit refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit,” and you can buy AI credits to extend them. The cancellation line is on the page too: “Cancel anytime. No refunds for partial billing periods, except as required by applicable law.”

Your data: what the pricing pages say

The ChatGPT feature table has a row “Content is used to train our models,” and every individual column reads “Opt-out available.” The Claude table has a “Model training” row that reads “Opt-out” under Free, Pro, Max 5x, and Max 20x. Google’s pricing page does not give a training answer: it points to “See how Google handles data.” If your chats contain work or personal material, find the setting before you rely on any plan. The same setting governs ChatGPT’s new Finances feature; our ChatGPT Finances guide covers what a bank or credit link shares and how to disconnect it.

Where the pages disagree or leave gaps

ChatGPT’s FAQ and cards do not match. The FAQ says “Paid plans (Go, Plus, Business, and Enterprise) are priced per user per month,” which leaves out Pro, and the card shows Pro “From $100.” The help center, not the pricing page, is where the three tiers are priced at $100, $200, and $500.

The “5x” numbers are not comparable. Claude’s Max is 5x or 20x of Pro, Google’s Ultra is 5x or 20x of Pro, and Google’s Pro is 4x of Free. ChatGPT’s page names no multiples. A bigger multiple on one company’s plan says nothing about how many tasks you can finish on another’s.

Google’s own page gives three country counts. Plus is “available in more than 160 countries and territories,” Pro and Ultra “in more than 150,” and footnote 1 says “more than 140” for all three. If you are outside the US, check availability and price in your own country, because these pages show US prices.

Only Claude says its prices exclude tax. Expect your checkout total to differ on any of them.

How to pick without overpaying

This is not a ranking. Each plan does different things, so decide on what you will actually use:

1. Find the limit you hit. If you hit a five-hour window, a higher tier is what changes it. If you never do, the $20 tier is the ceiling of what you need
2. Count the bundle. Google AI Pro includes storage and YouTube Premium Lite, which can replace a separate payment. If you already pay for either, that value shrinks
3. Use the annual option only where you are sure. Claude’s annual Pro saves $40 a year, but it is $200 charged up front
4. Set the data option on day one. Both pages call training an opt-out
5. Put the renewal date in a calendar. Our guide to finding all your subscriptions covers where these charges hide, and our price increase guide covers what to do when one rises

Switching or stopping

Add your plans to our free Subscription Tracker to see your total and set renewal reminders. Plans, tiers, and prices on these pages change often. To stop a plan, see our guides to canceling ChatGPT Plus and canceling a Google One plan, and check our guide on pausing instead of canceling before you decide. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play instead of the company’s own site, the charge is managed there, which our guides to canceling subscriptions on iPhone and on Google Play cover.

Quick answers to what people search

How much is ChatGPT Plus? $20 a month. Go is $8, and Pro is $100, $200, or $500 a month depending on the tier (Pro 100, 200, or 500).

How much is Claude Pro? $20 billed monthly, or $17 a month on the annual plan, which is $200 charged up front.

How much is Google AI Pro? $19.99 a month. Google AI Plus is $4.99 and Ultra starts at $99.99.

Does ChatGPT Go have ads? The Go card says “This plan may include ads.”

Which plan has the most usage? The pages do not allow a direct comparison. Each describes its multiples against a different plan.

Is there an annual plan? For individuals, only Claude Pro lists one. ChatGPT’s FAQ lists annual plans for Business and Enterprise.

Do these plans train on my chats? ChatGPT and Claude both list training as an opt-out for every individual plan. Google’s page does not say.

Bottom line

As of October 6, 2026, the three companies price almost the same at the $20 tier and the $100 tier, and the real differences are in the details: ads on ChatGPT Go, an annual discount only on Claude Pro, and storage and YouTube bundled into Google AI Pro. Compare plans by the limit you hit and the extras you would otherwise pay for, set your data option on day one, and calendar the renewal. Claude’s session and weekly limits, usage credits and Fable rules are in our Claude Pro vs Max guide. ChatGPT’s four tiers, with context windows and model access per plan, are in our ChatGPT plans guide. Google’s four tiers and what the bundled YouTube and storage are worth are in our Google AI plans guide. Perplexity’s Pro and Max plans, priced annually on its page, are covered in our Perplexity plans guide.

Prices, tiers, and wording quoted from the ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI pricing pages in their US versions, and from the OpenAI Help Center article on Pro tiers, all read on October 6, 2026. Plans change often and prices differ by country, tax, and app store, so the company’s own page is the authority.