Your ChatGPT Plus plan can now pay for other apps’ AI

OpenAI on September 29 turned Sign in with ChatGPT into a way to pay. Plus and Pro subscribers can now let a participating app, such as Devin, Warp or Amp, run its AI requests on the ChatGPT Work and Codex usage their plan already includes, and nobody has to create or share an OpenAI API key. If you connect one, set its weekly cap in Settings > Usage first, and check your auto-purchase setting before you let apps spend credits: the cap only limits how much of your overall allowance the app can take, and with credits and auto-purchase both on, continued usage can lead to automatic charges with no separate notice when your included usage runs out.

The rules are on OpenAI’s help page on using a ChatGPT plan in other apps, published alongside the announcement at DevDay, the company’s fourth annual developer conference. Anyone can sign in to a participating app with ChatGPT and connect supported open-source tools. Only Plus and Pro can use their plan in commercial tools, and the app itself may offer that option only on some of its own plans.

How caps and credits work

Each connected app gets a weekly limit, set as a percentage of your overall weekly ChatGPT usage. It doesn’t reserve usage for that app or raise your plan limits, and an app can hit its own cap while your plan still has room. When the plan itself runs out, the app stops drawing on it.

Credits sit behind a separate switch on the same screen. It is off by default and applies across all participating apps. An app can spend credits only if its cap is set to 100%: any lower cap blocks it, and setting 100% doesn’t turn credit use on by itself. Allowing apps to use credits and buying more credits are also separate actions, which is why the auto-purchase setting is the one to check before you flip the switch.

If neither the plan nor credits can cover a request, the app won’t move you onto another paid option on its own. It may offer its own pricing, which you choose separately. How fast an app eats into your allowance depends on the app and the tasks it runs, OpenAI says, and usage rates may differ from ChatGPT’s own. The usage screen shows how much each app used but not what it did, so OpenAI suggests keeping task details in case you need to investigate a spike.

Pro subscribers have one more variable. Connected apps share the allowance OpenAI reworked on the $200 Pro plan, where the new way of counting usage “will net out at half the dollar in API spend” of the old version, OpenAI’s Thibault Sottiaux wrote on X. Whatever an app runs comes out of that same pool as your own Codex and ChatGPT Work sessions.

What the app gets, and what it still bills

Signing in shares your name, email address and profile picture. Turning on plan use lets eligible requests count against your allowance, but it doesn’t by itself give the app your conversations or memories, and no API key changes hands. Any other permission the app asks for is reviewed separately.

Dactyl shows how the app’s own billing splits off. Ryan Dahl, known for Node.js, unveiled the vibe-coding platform for native iOS and Android apps on X on August 24, and its $20-a-month Builder plan promises that the “Agent runs on your ChatGPT subscription — no token bills from us.” According to Dactyl’s documentation as The News Stack describes it, the ChatGPT connection covers the agent that interprets requests and writes the Swift code, while compiling, generating icons and images, creating 3D assets and publishing still consume Dactyl credits. At the time Dactyl offered plan sharing only to personal ChatGPT Pro subscribers. OpenAI’s launch now opens plan use to Plus as well.

Some capabilities of ChatGPT or the OpenAI API may not be available through a plan connection. When an app reports a feature as unsupported, OpenAI points you to the app’s provider.

Signing out of an app ends your session there but leaves the connection, and its use of your plan, in place. To cut it off, go to Settings > Security and login, open Sign in with ChatGPT under Login connections, pick the app and select Disconnect, then confirm. Disconnecting doesn’t reverse usage already recorded or delete data the app has already received. Deletion goes through the app’s own data controls.

Who’s in so far

OpenAI named 16 launch partners for plan usage, The News Stack reported: OpenCode, OpenClaw, Pi, T3, Hyperagent, Hermes Agent, Vorflux, Amp, Dactyl, Kilo Code, Warp, Conductor, Devin, Notion and Vercel are live, with Lovable “coming soon.” OpenAI’s partner directory separates apps that support plan usage from sign-in-only apps and open-source integrations. The Login connections list in ChatGPT only shows apps you have already signed in to.

The sign-in button itself dates from July, when it launched as a beta with Airtable, GitLab, HubSpot, Notion, Supabase and Vercel and handled identity only. Some tools ran on subscriptions before there was an official program. In May, OpenClaw let users power OpenAI agent turns through Codex’s ChatGPT login, the route Codex already offered as an alternative to an API key billed at standard API prices. OpenClaw’s documentation now lists that Codex login and the new Sign in with ChatGPT as separate methods next to an API key, the newer one with its own usage tracking and token limits, The News Stack notes.

Sam Altman pitched the change to developers from the DevDay stage: “This makes it easier for people to try your product. They’re already paying for an AI subscription, and now you don’t have to cover their token costs to get them going.”

How developers get in depends on what they ship. Open-source apps that run on a user’s own machine get a DevKit: a local Node.js SDK, @siwc/local, for OAuth, credential storage, model discovery and streaming Responses; React components in @siwc/react for sign-in, connection status and plan-usage controls; brand assets; and Paste Perfect, an example macOS app. OpenAI’s own code in the kit is under a noncommercial license. Commercial partners, with or without token sharing, apply through an interest form.

An OpenAI spokesperson told The News Stack the partner list will grow: “We’re starting with these 16 launch partners today, and we’ll expand quickly.”