How to Get ChatGPT Plus Free: 4 New Methods (2026)

ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month and gives you access to GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, o3, o4-mini, DALL-E image generation, advanced voice mode, and priority access. That is $240/year -- a meaningful expense for students, hobbyists, and developers exploring AI tools.

The good news: there are legitimate ways to access ChatGPT Plus-level features without paying full price. This guide covers four methods that work as of February 2026, plus a comparison table of free alternatives that match or exceed ChatGPT Plus capabilities.

What ChatGPT Plus Includes in 2026

Before diving into the free methods, here is what you get with ChatGPT Plus versus the free tier:

Feature	ChatGPT Free	ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo)
GPT-4o access	Limited (low rate)	Full access
GPT-4o mini	Unlimited	Unlimited
GPT-4.5	No	Yes
o3, o4-mini reasoning	No	Yes
DALL-E image generation	Very limited	Higher daily limits
Sora video generation	No	Yes
Advanced voice mode	Limited	Full
Custom GPTs	Browse only	Create and use
File uploads & analysis	Limited	Full
Priority access	No	Yes

If you mainly need GPT-4o for text tasks, the free tier already gives you some access. But if you want reasoning models, higher limits, and advanced features, here are your options.

Method 1: OpenAI Free Trial Offers

OpenAI runs periodic free trial promotions for ChatGPT Plus. These are not always available, but they cycle frequently, especially after major model launches.

How to Find and Activate a Trial

Create a fresh OpenAI account at chatgpt.com with a new email address.
Log in and go to Settings > Subscription.
Look for a "Try Plus Free" or "Start Free Trial" banner. OpenAI has offered 7-day and 14-day trials throughout 2025-2026.
If no trial is visible, wait a week and check again. Trials often appear after new model releases.
Check your email. OpenAI sends re-engagement offers to inactive accounts that include free Plus access for a limited period.

Tips

Trial availability varies by region. Use your real location -- VPNs can cause issues with payment verification later.
Set a calendar reminder to cancel before the trial converts to a paid subscription.
Do not create multiple accounts to abuse trials. OpenAI detects this through device fingerprinting and will ban your accounts.

Method 2: Free API Credits + Open-Source Frontends

You do not need ChatGPT Plus to use GPT-4o or o3. The OpenAI API gives you direct access to all models, and new accounts receive free credits.

Step 1: Get Free API Credits

New OpenAI API accounts typically receive $5 in free credits (sometimes $18 during promotions). Sign up at platform.openai.com.

pip install openai
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

Step 2: Use an Open-Source ChatGPT Frontend

Instead of using chat.openai.com, connect your API key to a free, open-source frontend that gives you a ChatGPT Plus-like experience:

Frontend	GitHub Stars	Features
Open WebUI	70k+	Full ChatGPT clone, supports OpenAI + local models
LibreChat	22k+	Multi-provider, plugins, artifacts
LobeChat	60k+	Beautiful UI, plugin marketplace
Chatbox	25k+	Desktop app, multi-model support

Step 3: Connect and Use

Here is how to set up Open WebUI with your free API credits:

# Run Open WebUI with Docker
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here" \
  --name open-webui \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Open http://localhost:3000 and you have a full ChatGPT Plus-like interface using your free API credits.

Cost Comparison

With $5 in free credits, here is how much usage you get:

Model	Cost per 1M Input Tokens	Cost per 1M Output Tokens	~Messages per $5
GPT-4o	$2.50	$10.00	~300
GPT-4o mini	$0.15	$0.60	~5,000
o3-mini	$1.10	$4.40	~500
GPT-4.5	$75.00	$150.00	~20

For most users, $5 in credits provides weeks of moderate usage with GPT-4o.

Method 3: Microsoft Copilot Pro Free Trial

Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) is powered by GPT-4o and offers many of the same capabilities as ChatGPT Plus.

Free Access Through Copilot

Go to copilot.microsoft.com.
Sign in with a Microsoft account (free to create).
You get access to GPT-4o-powered conversations, image generation with DALL-E, and web-connected responses.

Copilot Pro Free Trial

Copilot Pro ($20/month) gives you priority GPT-4o access, enhanced image generation, and Copilot in Office 365 apps. Microsoft regularly offers 1-month free trials:

Go to microsoft.com/store/productId/9NHT9RB2F4HD.
Click "Free trial" if available.
You get 30 days of Copilot Pro, which is functionally equivalent to ChatGPT Plus.

The free tier of Copilot already gives you GPT-4o access with no subscription, though with lower rate limits than Plus.

Method 4: Free Alternatives That Match ChatGPT Plus

Several AI platforms now offer GPT-4o-class models completely free. Here are the best options in 2026:

Platform	Model	Cost	Advantage Over ChatGPT Free
Google AI Studio	Gemini 2.5 Pro	Free (generous limits)	Reasoning, 1M context window
Claude.ai	Claude Sonnet 4	Free tier available	Superior coding, artifacts
DeepSeek	DeepSeek-R1	Free web access	Open-source reasoning model
Groq	Llama 3.3 70B, DeepSeek-R1	Free (rate-limited)	Extremely fast inference
HuggingChat	Multiple open models	Free	No rate limits, open-source

Google AI Studio (Best Free Alternative)

Google AI Studio gives you free access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, which benchmarks above GPT-4o on most tasks:

Go to aistudio.google.com.
Sign in with your Google account.
You get 25 free requests per day with Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Gemini 2.5 Flash is available with significantly higher free limits.

Claude.ai Free Tier

Anthropic's Claude offers a free tier at claude.ai with access to Claude Sonnet 4. The rate limits are lower than the paid plan, but you get a capable model for text analysis, coding, and creative work.

DeepSeek Free Access

DeepSeek offers free web access to DeepSeek-R1 at chat.deepseek.com. The reasoning model competes with o3 on math, coding, and logic tasks.

Quick Comparison: Free Options vs. ChatGPT Plus

Feature	ChatGPT Plus	AI Studio (Free)	Claude Free	Copilot Free
Monthly Cost	$20	$0	$0	$0
Best Model	GPT-4o, o3	Gemini 2.5 Pro	Claude Sonnet 4	GPT-4o
Image Gen	DALL-E	Imagen 3	No	DALL-E
File Upload	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Code Execution	Yes	Yes	Yes (artifacts)	Yes
Web Search	Yes	Yes (Grounding)	Yes	Yes (native)
Rate Limits	Relaxed	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate

Wrapping Up

You do not need to pay $20/month for ChatGPT Plus to access GPT-4o-class AI in 2026. Free trials, API credits with open-source frontends, Microsoft Copilot, and competing platforms like Google AI Studio and Claude all provide comparable capabilities at no cost. Start with Method 4 (free alternatives) since it requires no trials or credit cards, then explore API credits if you want more control.

If you are a developer building AI-powered applications and need API access to image generation, video creation, voice synthesis, or lip sync models, try Hypereal AI free with 35 credits, no credit card required. Hypereal gives you a single API for dozens of AI media models at competitive per-call pricing.