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Yes, ChatGPT is free, with no card, no trial clock and no cap on everyday text chats. The limits sit on everything else: files, images, voice and deep research, and OpenAI prints a number for only one of them. The free plan may also show ads under its answers.
Stay on the free plan if you mostly type questions and read answers, because text chat no longer runs out.
Pay if you upload files or make images most days, since three uploads a day is the free cap and the $8 Go plan raises it.
Skip it if you want no ads and will not pay, because the no-ads free option drops image creation and cuts your daily messages.
prices checked 2026-10-13 · by dan scutaru
| plan | price | what matters |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited text chats on GPT-6 Luna. 3 file uploads a day. Limited images, voice and deep research. May show ads. |
| Go | $8/mo | Same model, more images and uploads, twice the context. May show ads. |
| Plus | $20/mo | The rest of the GPT-6 family (Sol, Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol), expanded deep research and Codex. No ads. |
| Pro | $100, $200 or $500/mo | Pro reasoning and the largest allowances. No ads. |
| ChatGPT for Teachers | $0 through June 2028 | Verified US K-12 educators only. |
The free tier gives you GPT-6 Luna and GPT-5 Thinking Mini, and nothing above them. OpenAI's comparison table ticks GPT-6 Luna for Free and the $8 Go plan, and marks GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol as Plus and Pro only.
You also get the shortest memory. The free context window is 27K tokens, about 12 pages of pasted text, against about 40 pages on Go. Response speed is listed as limited by bandwidth and availability.
Text has no limit, and tools do. OpenAI's help center says free users have unlimited everyday text chats. The 10 messages every five hours that most guides still quote is not on any OpenAI page today.
The one published figure is for files: 3 uploads a day, which OpenAI says it may lower at peak hours. Images, voice, data analysis and deep research each have their own limit with no number attached. ChatGPT tells you when you hit one, and you wait.
You can chat at chatgpt.com without signing up, and that is about all. Logged out, you get one conversation at a time and nothing is saved once the browser session ends. Creating images and uploading files both need an account.
Your chats are used for training by default here too. The opt-out is tied to your browser, so clearing cookies resets it. OpenAI says logged-out use is not yet available in Europe outside the UK.
Nothing on the free plan. Go is $8 a month, Plus is $20 and Pro is $100, $200 or $500, all billed monthly with no annual option. Whether the $20 is worth it is a separate question, answered on our ChatGPT Plus page.
Yes, for verified US K-12 educators, through June 2028 according to OpenAI's help center. It is a separate plan from the ordinary free one, and OpenAI describes it as having enhanced security and privacy controls.
The free plan is the same for everyone. Until October 31, 2026, verified US college and graduate students can also claim four free months of Plus. It needs a payment method and renews at $20 a month unless you cancel.
Yes. OpenAI lists the free plan as available on the web, iOS and Android, and there is no time limit on it.
Yes, within a limit OpenAI does not publish. Image creation is marked limited on the free plan and needs an account. Images with Thinking starts at Plus.