OpenAI cut its API usage tiers from five to three on October 6, 2026: Build, Launch and Grow. Reaching each monthly limit now takes less money: $5 in credit purchases unlocks $500 a month of usage instead of $100, $100 unlocks $5,000 instead of $1,000, and the top $200,000 monthly limit now arrives at $500 in purchases instead of $1,000. OpenAI’s changelog entry reads: “Simplified API usage tiers from five to three: Build, Launch, and Grow.” Upgrades stay automatic: “Organizations automatically upgrade as total credit purchases reach tier minimums.” This page reads OpenAI’s API changelog, its current rate limits guide and an archived copy of that guide from September 10, 2026, as of October 6, 2026.
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OpenAI simplified its API usage tiers from five to three on October 6, 2026: Build, Launch and Grow replace Tier 1 to Tier 5, and upgrades stay automatic as credit purchases grow.
Limits rise for less money: $5 in credit purchases now unlocks $500 a month instead of $100, and $100 unlocks $5,000 instead of $1,000.
The top $200,000 monthly usage limit, the Grow tier, now arrives at $500 in total credit purchases instead of $1,000. No purchase level gets a lower limit than before.
The guide now lists standard rate limits per tier: Astra, Sol and Terra go from 1M tokens per minute on Build to 4M on Launch and 40M on Grow; Luna runs higher.
Usage limits are OpenAI’s monthly ceiling; spend alerts and hard spend limits are separate controls you set yourself, and a hard limit returns a 429 error when reached.
A day earlier, on October 5, OpenAI added a console flow for eligible organizations to accept its Business Associate Agreement and turn on HIPAA support.
§ 01Old tiers vs new tiers
The clearest way to read the change is by how much an organization has bought in credits. The left column is OpenAI’s own table as archived on September 10; the right column is the table in the guide on October 6.
| Total credit purchases | Before (Sep 10 guide) | After (Oct 6 guide) |
|---|---|---|
| None, allowed geography | Free, $100 a month | Free, $100 a month |
| $5 | Tier 1, $100 a month | Build, $500 a month |
| $50 | Tier 2, $500 a month | Build, $500 a month |
| $100 | Tier 3, $1,000 a month | Launch, $5,000 a month |
| $250 | Tier 4, $5,000 a month | Launch, $5,000 a month |
| $500 | Tier 4, $5,000 a month | Grow, $200,000 a month |
| $1,000 | Tier 5, $200,000 a month | Grow, $200,000 a month |
No organization is worse off. Every purchase level gets the same limit or a higher one, and three levels jump: $5 goes from $100 to $500 a month, $100 from $1,000 to $5,000, and $500 from $5,000 to $200,000. The new table lists only total credit purchases; it names no waiting period between tiers. The usage limit is a monthly ceiling OpenAI sets per organization, not a bill: it caps how much an organization can spend in a month before OpenAI stops serving it.
§ 02Rate limits at each new tier
The guide now publishes the standard rate limits for each tier by model group, in requests per minute (RPM) and tokens per minute (TPM). The September 10 copy pointed readers to the limits page instead of listing them, so there is no like-for-like table to compare these against.
| Tier | Models | Requests per minute | Tokens per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | Astra, Sol, Terra | 5,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Build | Luna | 5,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Launch | Astra, Sol, Terra | 10,000 | 4,000,000 |
| Launch | Luna | 10,000 | 10,000,000 |
| Grow | Astra, Sol, Terra | 15,000 | 40,000,000 |
| Grow | Luna | 30,000 | 180,000,000 |
These are the standard limits. GPT-6 Astra’s Ultrafast mode has its own limits, and long-context requests on some models count against a separate limit. An organization’s exact numbers are under Settings, Organization, Limits in the OpenAI console.
§ 03Usage limits vs spend limits
The tier sets the most OpenAI will let an organization use in a month. Spend limits are a separate control the organization sets for itself, per organization or per project.
| Control | What happens at the amount you set | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Spend alert | A notification goes out; API traffic continues | Track spend without stopping anything |
| Hard spend limit | Affected API requests return a 429 error | Cap monthly spend for an organization or project |
A team that moves from $1,000 to $5,000 or $200,000 of headroom overnight may want a hard limit on any project that runs unattended agents, since a loop that used to stop at the tier ceiling now has much more room before it does.
§ 04Also on the changelog: HIPAA support in the console
A day earlier, on October 5, OpenAI added an in-product flow for HIPAA compliance support: admins of eligible organizations can accept the standard Business Associate Agreement and turn on HIPAA support under Organization settings, General. OpenAI’s Help Center article covers eligibility and which services are covered.
§ 05What this means if you build on the API
The change is aimed at small teams. A developer who buys $5 of credit now has five times the monthly headroom, and a startup that has bought $500 is at the top tier, where it used to need $1,000. The practical effect is fewer projects hitting a monthly wall in their first weeks. The trade is that a runaway job has more room too, which is what the spend controls above are for.
§ 06The record
As of October 6, 2026, 18:23 UTC: OpenAI’s API changelog carries the tier entry under October 6 and the HIPAA entry under October 5. The current rate limits guide lists Free, Build, Launch and Grow with the purchase minimums, monthly limits and per-tier rate limits above. The Wayback Machine copy of the same guide captured September 10, 2026 at 18:54 UTC lists Free and Tier 1 to Tier 5 with the old thresholds.
§ 07Sources
- OpenAI, API changelog, entries of October 5 and 6, 2026; read October 6.
- OpenAI, Rate limits guide, read October 6, 2026.
- Wayback Machine, Rate limits guide as captured September 10, 2026.
- OpenAI Help Center, Getting a Business Associate Agreement for the OpenAI API.
- Our records: OpenAI DevDay 2026; The Agents API.
Q1What are OpenAI's new API usage tiers?
Since October 6, 2026 the paid tiers are Build, Launch and Grow. Build needs $5 in total credit purchases and allows $500 of usage a month; Launch needs $100 and allows $5,000; Grow needs $500 and allows $200,000. The Free tier stays at $100 a month.
Q2What happened to Tier 1 to Tier 5?
They were replaced. Under the old table, $5 bought Tier 1 at $100 a month and $1,000 was needed for Tier 5 at $200,000 a month. Every purchase level now gets the same limit or a higher one.
Q3How much do I need to spend to reach the Grow tier?
$500 in total credit purchases, down from the $1,000 that Tier 5 needed. Organizations upgrade automatically when they reach a tier minimum.
Q4What are the rate limits on each tier?
Per OpenAI’s guide on October 6: Astra, Sol and Terra get 5,000 requests and 1 million tokens per minute on Build, 10,000 and 4 million on Launch, and 15,000 and 40 million on Grow. Luna has higher token limits at every tier.
Q5What is the difference between a usage limit and a spend limit?
The usage limit is the monthly ceiling OpenAI sets for your organization by tier. Spend limits are controls you set: an alert only notifies you, and a hard limit makes affected requests return a 429 error.
Q6Does CellCog use OpenAI's API?
No. CellCog’s AI employees run on Claude Opus 5.5 at every tier, each on its own secure computer, so there is no API tier for a CellCog customer to manage.