Krux
April 7, 2026
OpenAI Kills Fixed Codex Pricing, Adds Pay-Per-Token Seats
Published: April 7, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Updated: April 7, 2026 at 12:34 AM
100-word summary
OpenAI just ditched per-seat licenses for Codex. Teams can now buy Codex-only seats with zero fixed fee, paying only for the tokens they actually burn. Standard ChatGPT Business seats also dropped from $25 to $20 per month. The new model charges on usage, not headcount. Output tokens cost 375 credits per million; cached input tokens run just 6.25. Fast mode doubles the bill. A $500 credit promotion sweetens the shift for early adopters. Translation: your developer who reviews code twice a week no longer costs the same as someone running Codex all day. Companies that've been rationing AI seats because of blanket pricing can finally match costs to actual work.
What happened
OpenAI just ditched per-seat licenses for Codex. Teams can now buy Codex-only seats with zero fixed fee, paying only for the tokens they actually burn. Standard ChatGPT Business seats also dropped from $25 to $20 per month. The new model charges on usage, not headcount. Output tokens cost 375 credits per million; cached input tokens run just 6.25. Fast mode doubles the bill. A $500 credit promotion sweetens the shift for early adopters.
Why it matters
Translation: your developer who reviews code twice a week no longer costs the same as someone running Codex all day. Companies that've been rationing AI seats because of blanket pricing can finally match costs to actual work.