Which subscription tier gets you each AI company's flagship model
We read the consumer plan pages of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google on 26 October 2026. Google's page lists Gemini 4 Argon in AI Pro at $19.99 a month. Anthropic's page lists Claude Fable, one of the models its API page prices highest, as usage credits on the $20 Pro plan and as up to half your weekly limit on Max. Below: what each tier gets, what a unit of usage costs inside each provider, and what we could not read.
In this article
Which tier gets you the flagship
Each row is a statement from the provider's own plan page, read on 26 October 2026 for a United States visitor. Where a page did not say, the cell says so rather than guessing.
| Plan | Per month | Top model, as the page states it | Usage, as the page states it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini: Free | $0 | Flash-Lite | baseline |
| Gemini: AI Plus | $4.99 | Flash | 2x higher usage than Free |
| Gemini: AI Pro | $19.99 | Yes Gemini 4 Argon, plus Pro and Flash models | 4x higher usage than Free |
| Gemini: AI Ultra | $99.99 or $199.99 | Yes Highest access to Gemini 4 Argon | 5x or 20x vs AI Pro |
| Claude: Free | $0 | Sonnet and Haiku. Opus: No. Fable: No | baseline |
| Claude: Pro | $17 billed annually, $20 monthly | Opus: Yes. Fable: usage credits only | at least 5x more usage per 5-hour session than Free |
| Claude: Max | from $100 | Opus: Yes. Fable: up to 50% of weekly limits | 5x or 20x the usage of Pro per 5-hour session |
| ChatGPT: Free, Go, Plus | $0, $8, $20 | Which model sits in which plan was not readable from the page text, so it is not recorded here | The page states no usage multiples |
| ChatGPT: Pro | from $100 | The page says Pro reasoning is powered by GPT-6 Astra and offers a choice of 3 usage tiers | "Unlimited" for text chats, subject to abuse guardrails |
What a unit of usage costs, inside each provider
Providers describe bigger plans as multiples of a smaller one. Dividing the monthly price by the stated multiple, relative to the Free plan, gives a price per multiple. It can only be compared inside one provider, because each uses a different baseline.
Google, price per multiple of the Free plan's usage
Anthropic, price per multiple of the Free plan's usage (upper bounds)
Derived by us. Google: Ultra multiples are composed from "4x vs Free" and "5x or 20x vs Pro". Anthropic: Pro is "at least 5x" Free and Max is 5x of Pro, so these are upper bounds on price per multiple. The Max 20x plan price was not stated in the text read, so it is omitted.
What else comes with the tier
Beyond the model and the usage, the plans bundle other things. These are the ones the pages state.
Free includes 15 GB of Google storage; AI Plus 400 GB; AI Pro 5 TB; AI Ultra from 20 TB.
Max lists monthly API credits of $100 (Max 5x) or $200 (Max 20x) to build on the Claude Platform.
Anthropic says Claude Code is included in all paid plans and shares the same usage limits as chat.
AI Pro lists YouTube Premium Lite; AI Ultra lists the YouTube Premium individual plan, with availability limits by country.
The page lists a GPT Instant context window of 27K on Free, 54K on Go and Plus, and 128K on Pro. Reasoning: 256K on Go and Plus, 400K on Pro.
ChatGPT's page states the Go plan may include ads. It does not say so for Plus or Pro.
How the limits work
Claude. Anthropic says every plan has limits that reset on a rolling five-hour window, that paid plans add weekly limits, and that chat and Claude Code draw from the same pool. It says there is no fixed message count and that when you hit a limit you can wait, move up a plan, or turn on usage credits at standard API rates.
Gemini. Google says usage limits in the Gemini app depend on the complexity of your prompt, the features you use and the length of your chat, that the limit refreshes every five hours until you reach a weekly limit, and that you can extend limits by buying AI credits.
ChatGPT. OpenAI's page states unlimited text chats subject to abuse guardrails and "limits apply" on Plus, and states no multiples or reset window.
How we know, and what we did not verify
These plan pages build their tables with JavaScript, so we read them in a browser on 26 October 2026 and saved the rendered text with a SHA-256 hash. ChatGPT's page text omitted the dollar figures; those were read from a screenshot of the same page.
| Page | Read as | Date | SHA-256 (first 16) |
|---|---|---|---|
| claude.com/pricing | Chrome rendered text | 26 October 2026 | 3e2b6072071ed341 |
| gemini.google/subscriptions/ | Chrome rendered text | 26 October 2026 | 24d8baff3cebb3e7 |
| chatgpt.com/pricing/ | Chrome rendered text | 26 October 2026 | 89d3b2ba43fb3999 |
Limits
- United States storefront only. Plans, prices and limits differ by country and change without notice.
- Perplexity, SuperGrok and Microsoft Copilot plans were not read.
- ChatGPT's model-by-plan mapping could not be read from the extracted text, so it is not recorded.
- We have not asked OpenAI, Anthropic or Google to comment before publication. A provider or reader who finds a wrong figure can tell us; we correct it and date the correction.
Pairs with the AI price changes calendar and the AI price tracker.
FAQ
Do I need Claude Max to use Claude's top model?
Anthropic's plan page lists Fable as "usage credits" on Pro and as up to 50% of weekly limits on Max, and as not available on Free. Opus is listed as included on Pro and Max. So on Pro Fable is reachable by buying usage credits, and Max includes it within the stated share of your weekly limit.
Which Gemini plan includes Gemini 4 Argon?
Google's subscriptions page marks AI Pro ($19.99 a month) and AI Ultra as including Gemini 4 Argon. AI Plus is listed with the Flash model and Free with Flash-Lite. Argon's API price is scheduled to double on 1 December; see our price calendar for that.
Is ChatGPT Go free of ads?
ChatGPT's pricing page states that the Go plan may include ads. We did not find the same statement on Plus or Pro.
Can I compare usage multiples across providers?
No. Google states multiples against its Free plan and Ultra against Pro; Anthropic states Pro against Free and Max against Pro; OpenAI states none. Each baseline is different, so a multiple means something only inside one provider.
How much is Claude Max 20x?
Anthropic's page lists Max "from $100" and lists $200 a month in API credits for the 20x level, but the text we read did not state the 20x plan price. Check the page before you buy; we have not assumed one.