OpenAI has launched a new "ChatGPT Business Premium" seat tier, offering higher usage limits for corporate customers willing to pay significantly more each month. The move comes as frontier AI labs face criticism for raising prices even as increasingly capable Chinese open-weight models offer a cheaper alternative for businesses with heavy AI usage needs.

Premium seats cost $125 a month (or $100 if billed annually), compared with $25 (or $20 annually) for standard Business seats, and can be combined with them. They offer five times the usage allowance and are exempt from the standard five-hour daily limit on advanced features, though usage still draws on OpenAI's separate credits system. To promote the launch, OpenAI is offering $100 in workspace credits per qualifying Premium seat, up to five seats, for the first 10,000 customers who join the waitlist. OpenAI told The Register the tier was introduced in response to customer demand for higher limits, and it expects strong take-up despite ongoing doubts about clear returns on AI investment.