Signs have emerged that OpenAI is preparing a new ChatGPT subscription plan called “Pro Max” costing $500 a month, or about 700,000 won. The price would be more than double the current top-tier $200-a-month “Pro” plan, or about 270,000 won. If launched, it would significantly raise the upper end of ChatGPT subscription pricing.

Decryption reported on Aug. 25, local time, that a new subscription tier called “ChatGPT Pro Max” and a $500 monthly price were found in recent ChatGPT website code and leaked screens. OpenAI has not officially confirmed the plan’s existence or any launch schedule.

$500 a month is 25 times more expensive than the existing $20-a-month ChatGPT Plus plan, or about 30,000 won. It is also 2.5 times the $200-a-month Pro plan launched in December 2024.

What is being cited as a differentiator is not a simple increase in usage but the processing speed of AI agents. Based on leaked information seen so far, Pro Max appears to offer faster access to OpenAI’s agent tools, Work and Codex.

Work is a tool that performs tasks such as research and document writing that involve multiple steps. Codex is specialized for writing and debugging software code over long periods. If Pro Max is launched, it could be aimed at developers or users of advanced productivity tools rather than general chatbot users.

The new plan first became known when independent researcher Tibor Blaho (티보르 블라호) found related changes in hidden ChatGPT logs. A leak-tracking account, TestingCatalog, later confirmed it, and another user posted price information shown as “500usd” on a log screen.

A screen was also shared showing the phrase, “A new ChatGPT Pro Max plan is under development,” in the ChatGPT interface. It has not been confirmed whether the screen is an actual internal display or a test mock-up. Interest is growing because the “chatgptpromax” identifier found in code matches multiple leaks.

On Reddit’s r/ChatGPT, a separate $500 price tag was shared. Additional benefits mentioned include a larger memory allocation and 100GB of file storage. This is also not something OpenAI has officially announced.

A particular point of interest is why users would have to pay $300 more per month than the existing Pro plan. Some leak accounts mentioned the possibility that Pro Max could use Cerebras as an inference infrastructure provider. Inference is the process in which an AI model handles a user’s request and generates an actual answer.

This is also unverified information. One leak account raised doubts about the Cerebras claim. Cerebras promotes its hardware as offering faster performance and lower costs than Nvidia’s B200. If such infrastructure is applied, it will also need explanation later as to why the price would be set far higher than Pro.

Compared with rivals, $500 a month is a very high price. Anthropic’s top-tier Claude plan costs about $100 to $200 a month, or about 130,000 to 270,000 won. Google has also previously lowered its AI Ultra plan from $250 a month, or about 330,000 won, to $100, or about 130,000 won. If OpenAI launches a $500 plan, it would be targeting an AI subscription market priced far above competitors.

At this stage, neither the launch nor the price has been confirmed. OpenAI has not officially announced Pro Max, and it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the final product’s package and price based only on leaked code and screens.

Attention is turning to OpenAI’s developer event, “DevDay,” on Sept. 29. If the Pro Max plan is unveiled, key points will be whether the $500 monthly price is confirmed, how much Work and Codex processing speeds improve, and what features will be offered beyond extra memory and storage.