OpenAI: ChatGPT, GPT-5 & API Review | hokai.io
OpenAI powers ChatGPT with 500M weekly users. Plans from free to $200/mo Pro. GPT-5 API at $1.25/1M tokens. Full pricing, features, and alternatives reviewed.
OpenAI, founded in 2015 and valued at $852 billion in April 2026, makes ChatGPT (500 million weekly users) and the GPT-5 and o3 model family. ChatGPT is free with limited access; Plus costs $20/month; Pro costs $200/month. The API starts at $1.25 per million input tokens for GPT-5. It is available on web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Pricing
Free tier with limited GPT-4o access. Plus $20/mo (GPT-5, image gen, advanced voice). Pro $200/mo (unlimited o3 reasoning). Team $25/user/mo (annual) or $30/user/mo (monthly). Enterprise: custom pricing. API: GPT-5 at $1.25/$10 per 1M tokens; o3 at $2/$8 per 1M tokens.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is OpenAI and what does it do?
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company founded in 2015 in San Francisco. It makes ChatGPT, the world's most widely used AI assistant with over 500 million weekly users, as well as the GPT-5 and o3 model families, the Codex coding assistant, DALL-E for image generation, and Sora for video generation. As of April 2026, the company is valued at $852 billion.
How much does OpenAI / ChatGPT cost?
ChatGPT has a free tier with limited GPT-4o access and no credit card required. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month and includes GPT-5 access, image generation, and advanced voice. ChatGPT Pro costs $200 per month and adds unlimited o3 reasoning access. Team plans start at $25 per user per month billed annually. Enterprise pricing is custom. The API starts at $1.25 per million input tokens for GPT-5 and $2.00 per million for o3.
What are the main features of OpenAI?
ChatGPT routes prompts to the best available model (GPT-5 for general tasks, o3 for complex reasoning) automatically. Codex supports agentic software development including automated PR review across entire repositories. Persistent memory retains conversation context across sessions on paid plans. Multimodal inputs include text, images, voice, and files. Sora generates short AI videos from text prompts on Plus and Pro plans.
Is OpenAI / ChatGPT free to use?
Yes. ChatGPT has a free tier that requires only an email to sign up. The free tier provides access to GPT-4o with daily message limits and no image generation or advanced voice. There is no trial period or credit card required. Free-tier API access is not available; API usage requires a paid account with prepaid credits.
What are the best alternatives to OpenAI?
Anthropic's Claude is the closest competitor for conversational AI and reasoning, with Claude Pro at $20/mo offering comparable capabilities to ChatGPT Plus at the same price. Google Gemini Advanced ($19.99/mo) integrates directly with Google Workspace and is better for users already in the Google ecosystem. xAI's Grok is available through X Premium and emphasizes real-time web access. For API-only use cases, Groq offers faster inference at lower cost for open-source models.
Who is OpenAI best for?
OpenAI is best for individual knowledge workers who want the most capable and widely supported AI assistant, software engineers who need agentic coding tools via Codex, and enterprise teams that require a battle-tested AI platform with Microsoft Azure integration. It is less suited for developers on tight budgets who need unlimited reasoning access, as the Pro plan's $200/mo price is significantly higher than competing offerings.
Does OpenAI have an API?
Yes. The OpenAI API provides access to GPT-5, o3, o4-mini, DALL-E, Whisper, and embedding models. It bills per million tokens with no monthly subscription for API-only use. Official SDKs exist for Python, Node.js, and TypeScript. The platform supports function calling, structured outputs, file uploads, and streaming. Rate limits apply per account tier, and fine-tuning is available for custom model training at additional cost.