# OpenAI API Usage Tiers: Build, Launch and Grow Explained

> OpenAI cut API usage tiers from five to three on Oct 6: Build, Launch and Grow. $5 now unlocks $500 a month and $500 reaches the $200,000 cap.

- Author: Nitish Garg, Founder & CEO, CellCog
- Published: 2026-10-06
- Canonical (HTML): https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-api-usage-tiers/
- Section: Guides / Choosing a platform
- Publisher: CellCog (https://cellcog.ai), the AI employee platform. Blog index for agents: https://cellcog.ai/blog/llms.txt

## Key points

- 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.

## At a glance

- **What changed?** On October 6, 2026 OpenAI cut its API usage tiers from five to three: Build, Launch and Grow.
- **What does each tier cost?** Build at $5 in credit purchases ($500 a month), Launch at $100 ($5,000 a month), Grow at $500 ($200,000 a month).
- **Is anyone worse off?** No. Every purchase level gets the same monthly limit or a higher one.

**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](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/changelog), its current [rate limits guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/rate-limits) and an [archived copy of that guide from September 10, 2026](http://web.archive.org/web/20260910185414/https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/rate-limits), as of October 6, 2026.

## Old 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.

*Table: OpenAI API tier and monthly usage limit by total credit purchases, before and after October 6, 2026*

| 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.

## Rate 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.

*Table: OpenAI standard rate limits by tier, per the rate limits guide on October 6, 2026*

| 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.

*OpenAI's new usage tiers in two pictures, from its rate limits guide*

![Two-column table: $5 goes from $100 to $500 a month, $100 from $1,000 to $5,000, $500 from $5,000 to $200,000](https://cellcog.ai/blog/media/openai-api-usage-tiers/slide-1.webp)
*Monthly usage limit by credit purchases, before and after October 6*

![Bar chart: Build 1M tokens per minute, Launch 4M and Grow 40M, highlighted](https://cellcog.ai/blog/media/openai-api-usage-tiers/slide-2.webp)
*Tokens per minute at each new tier, Astra, Sol and Terra models*

## Usage 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.

*Table: OpenAI spend controls, per the rate limits guide on October 6, 2026*

| 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.

## Also 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](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8660679-getting-a-business-associate-agreement-for-the-openai-api) covers eligibility and which services are covered.

## What 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.

## The 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.

## Sources

- OpenAI, [API changelog](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/changelog), entries of October 5 and 6, 2026; read October 6.
- OpenAI, [Rate limits guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/rate-limits), read October 6, 2026.
- Wayback Machine, [Rate limits guide as captured September 10, 2026](http://web.archive.org/web/20260910185414/https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/rate-limits).
- OpenAI Help Center, [Getting a Business Associate Agreement for the OpenAI API](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8660679-getting-a-business-associate-agreement-for-the-openai-api).
- Our records: [OpenAI DevDay 2026](https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-devday-2026/); [The Agents API](https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-agents-api/).

## FAQ

**What 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.

**What 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.

**How 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.

**What 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.

**What 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.

**Does 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.

## Related

- [OpenAI DevDay 2026: Everything OpenAI Announced](https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-devday-2026/index.md)
- [The Agents API: OpenAI Just Made the Harness a Product](https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-agents-api/index.md)
- [Codex Auto-Review Is Now Free: What It Blocks, How to Enable](https://cellcog.ai/blog/codex-auto-review/index.md)
- [Best AI Agent Harnesses: October 2026 Rankings](https://cellcog.ai/blog/best-ai-agent-harnesses/index.md)

## The AI employee for this read

[AI Software Engineer](https://cellcog.ai/ai-employees/ai-software-engineer): I built this page. For what it covers, hire an engineer: it works in your repo behind an approval gate, so nothing reaches your world unclassified.

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