On October 6, 2026, OpenAI's changelog said API usage tiers were simplified from five to three: Build, Launch and Grow. A Free tier is also listed. Your organization moves up automatically when its total credit purchases reach each tier's minimum.
Free: must be in an allowed geography. Monthly usage limit $100.
Build: $5 in total credit purchases. Monthly usage limit $500.
Launch: $100 in total credit purchases. Monthly usage limit $5,000.
Grow: $500 in total credit purchases. Monthly usage limit $200,000.
Standard rate limits, as requests per minute and tokens per minute:
Build: Astra, Sol and Terra models 5,000 and 1,000,000. Luna 5,000 and 2,000,000.
Launch: Astra, Sol and Terra 10,000 and 4,000,000. Luna 10,000 and 10,000,000.
Grow: Astra, Sol and Terra 15,000 and 40,000,000. Luna 30,000 and 180,000,000.
Prerequisites
An OpenAI API key in OPENAI_API_KEY
Access to your OpenAI organization settings
Steps
Open Settings > Organization > Limits to see your tier and the per-model limits.
Compare the monthly usage limit of your tier with what you expect to spend.
If you need more, use "Upgrade tier" in the Usage Tiers section, or buy credits up to the next tier's minimum.
Make sure your app handles a 429 error. The guide says requests return 429 when a hard spend limit is reached.
There is no code sample because the announcement has none.
Test it
Open the Limits page and confirm it shows Build, Launch or Grow. Check that the limits match the table above.
Not confirmed
How each of the five old tiers maps to the three new ones is not stated.
Whether any organization's limits went down is not stated.
The rate limits page gives no date for the change. The date comes from the changelog.
Ultrafast rate limits differ from these standard limits and are not listed here.
Wirestack