My $200 Claude plan is worth $11,726 a month in API tokens. The $200 ChatGPT plan is worth $2,084. Those numbers come from a SemiAnalysis report published on October 5, 2026, and the gap holds at every price tier.
Back in June I covered an earlier SemiAnalysis study on the same question (Claude Is Giving You 20x Your Money's Worth). This new report uses the current models (Opus 5.5, Fable 5.1, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra), and the result is different: Claude now comes out far ahead of OpenAI.
How SemiAnalysis measured it
SemiAnalysis maxed out the subscriptions and watched how far each provider's usage meter moved for each token type. They converted that into tokens per 5-hour and 7-day window, then priced the full monthly limit at first-party list API rates. The workload is agentic, based on their own September usage: 0.4% input, 96.6% cached input, 2.6% cache writes and 0.3% output.
So "value" here means one thing: if you use your entire limit every month, this is what the same tokens would cost on the API. Most people never hit the limit, so read these numbers as a ceiling.
The numbers at every tier
| Price | Claude (Opus 5.5) | ChatGPT (GPT-6.1 Sol) |
|---|---|---|
| $200/mo | Max 20x: $11,726 | Pro 200: $2,084 |
| $100/mo | Max 5x: $5,725 | Pro 100: $1,055 |
| $20/mo | Pro: $1,178 | Plus: $211 |
It is not only that Claude tokens cost more on the API. Max 20x gives you 28.6 billion tokens a month on Opus 5.5. ChatGPT Pro gives you 10.2 billion on GPT-6.1 Sol.
One detail I like: when Opus 5.5 replaced Opus 5, Max 20x got 25% more tokens (22.9B to 28.6B). The dollar value still fell from $17,275 to $11,726, because the API price per token dropped 46%. More tokens, lower sticker value. Keep that in mind when you compare these reports over time.
OpenAI just cut its $200 plan
On September 29, OpenAI halved the token limits on ChatGPT Pro 200. On GPT-6 Astra, the monthly value went from $5,734 to $2,897 (minus 49%), and tokens went from 3.8B to 1.9B. OpenAI also added a $500 tier with about 21% more Astra than the old $200 plan had. If you bought the $200 plan before the cut, you keep the old limits until October 29.
The model matters more than the plan
This is the part that changes how I use my plan. On the same $200 Max 20x plan:
- Sonnet 5.5: $12,529
- Opus 5.5: $11,726
- Fable 5.1: $2,485, and Fable can use only up to half of the plan's limit
Flagship against flagship, the gap is small: Fable 5.1 at $2,485 against GPT-6 Astra at $2,897. The big Claude advantage is in the Opus and Sonnet tier. So Opus is my daily driver, and I save Fable for the problems that need it.
Why it will not last
SemiAnalysis estimates that subscriptions are about 10% of Anthropic's revenue but take about 41.7% of its compute. They call these rough numbers. Assuming a 92% API gross margin, a fully maxed out Opus 5.5 subscription runs at about minus 369% gross margin. At a more realistic 20% average utilization it is about plus 6%. Heavy users are subsidized, and subsidies get repriced. OpenAI just showed what that looks like.
My take
If you write code with AI every day, the $200 Claude plan is the best value on this chart by a wide margin, as long as you run Opus or Sonnet for most of the work. Do not burn your limit on Fable for routine tasks. And use the plan hard now, because a 5x gap on a subsidized product is not a stable state. One limit: the report's section on third party plans (Cursor, Devin) is paywalled, so I did not use it.
Sources: SemiAnalysis: Anthropic Subscriptions Offer 5x+ More Value Than OpenAI and Claude pricing