ChatGPT Go might be worth the downgrade OpenAI's new money-saving tier costs 60% less than Plus

Date:
Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:16:24 +0000

Description:
For some ChatGPT Plus subscribers, downgrading to a ChatGPT Go subscription could be worth it.

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As a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, Ive been eyeing OpenAIs new ChatGPT Go subscription plan with interest. In fact, I think it might even be worth the downgrade. Let me explain

ChatGPT Go is a lightweight version of ChatGPT that sits somewhere between
the Free tier and the Plus tier in terms of what it offers. While it was already available in some territories, last week ChatGPT Go went global, arriving in the US for the first time.

So, if youre currently subscribed to ChatGPT Plus and dont really push its limits, downgrading to Go could give you everything you need. There is, however, one notable drawback, which Ill come to shortly.

Here are the current ChatGPT US subscription prices: ChatGPT Go: $8/month ChatGPT Plus: $20/month ChatGPT Pro: $200/month

(In the UK, its 8 for Go and 20 for Plus.)

That means ChatGPT Go is 60% cheaper than Plus. A $12 saving each month adds up to $144 a year, so its worth taking a closer look to see whether switching could save you some serious money. ChatGPT Go vs ChatGPT Plus

A free ChatGPT account is usable, but very restricted. You get limited access to ChatGPT-5.2 before it drops down to a less powerful language model,
tightly capped image generation, limited Deep Research access, fewer file uploads, and restricted memory.

With a Plus account, those limits are dramatically higher. You can generate far more images than most people will manage in a day, benefit from much stronger memory, choose between more language models (including the popular ChatGPT-4o), and get increased access to Deep Research. On top of that, Plus subscribers get access to Codex for coding and Sora for video generation.

ChatGPT Go sits neatly between these two tiers. You get increased access to ChatGPT-5.2, improved memory, more image generation, more messages and uploads, and longer memory retention. What you dont get is access to Codex or Sora.

Heres the key point: if youre a casual ChatGPT user currently paying for
Plus, and youre not generating large numbers of images or creating videos in Sora, then downgrading to ChatGPT Go could make a lot of sense. The Plus limits are so generous that many users are probably nowhere near hitting them anyway, and a Go account could be all you need. The sting in the tail

While downgrading to Go may be tempting, theres one final thing to consider. OpenAI has announced that it will start showing ads in ChatGPT , but only on the Free and Go tiers.

For now, ads are rolling out in the US only, but OpenAI has confirmed they will eventually expand to other territories.

Weve already seen a preview of how these ads will appear. While theyre not ideal, they seem relatively unobtrusive and are contextually relevant to the conversation youre having.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether the $12-a-month saving is worth having ads appear in your chat conversations. For some users, that trade-off will be an easy win. For others, staying ad-free with Plus may still be worth the extra cost.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/chatgpt/chatgpt-go-might-be- worth-the-downgrade-openais-new-money-saving-tier-costs-60-percent-less-than-p lus


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