As a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, I’ve been eyeing OpenAI’s 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 you’re currently subscribed to ChatGPT Plus and don’t really push its limits, downgrading to Go could give you everything you need. There is, however, one notable drawback, which I’ll 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, it’s £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 it’s 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 don’t get is access to Codex or Sora.
Here’s the key point: if you’re a casual ChatGPT user currently paying for Plus, and you’re 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, there’s 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.
We’ve already seen a preview of how these ads will appear. While they’re not ideal, they seem relatively unobtrusive and are contextually relevant to the conversation you’re 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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