Perplexity Pro vs ChatGPT Plus: $17 a Month or €23

Short answer. Seen from Spain on October 17, 2026, Perplexity Pro cost $17 a month billed annually, and ChatGPT Plus €23 a month including VAT. Perplexity’s window printed no price for paying month to month. The two prices are in different currencies, and this site never converts one into the other.

In plain words. These two prices cannot be compared directly. One is in dollars, paid for a year at once. The other is in euros, paid month by month, with tax included. Check what your own card will be charged before you choose.

Perplexity Pro and ChatGPT Plus are often weighed against each other by people who mainly use an AI to look things up. On paper the comparison looks simple: one is about $17 a month, the other €23. Read carefully, the two prices differ in three ways at once. They are in different currencies, they are billed on different terms, and one includes tax while the other does not say. This post explains each of those gaps with the figures as the two windows printed them when they were read by hand from Spain on October 17, 2026, and then compares what can honestly be compared: what each plan includes, how it is billed, and the credits Perplexity attaches. Full quotes are on this site’s Perplexity and ChatGPT subscription pages.

The prices as printed

Perplexity’s plan window (“Selecciona tu plan”), Personal tab, as shown in Spain:

perplexity pro … 17 US$ /mes o equivalente, con facturación anual

OpenAI’s ChatGPT window, signed in, Personal tab:

Plus … €23 / mes (incluye 3,99 € de IVA)

Gap one: the currency

Both windows were opened from Spain on the same day. Perplexity showed US dollars; OpenAI showed euros. Neither is a conversion made by this site: each figure is the one the window printed. Comparing them would need an exchange rate, and the rate on any given day is not on either page. This site does not convert currencies, so it does not say that one plan costs more than the other.

Gap two: how each is billed

Perplexity’s figure is a monthly equivalent of a yearly charge: “/mes o equivalente, con facturación anual”. The window, as captured, prints no price for paying Perplexity Pro month to month and does not print the yearly total itself. This site does not work out a yearly total the page only implies.

ChatGPT Plus is the other way round. OpenAI’s Personal tab prints a monthly price and, as captured, no yearly option for Plus.

So even in a single currency the two figures would describe different commitments: a year paid at once against a month at a time.

Gap three: tax

OpenAI states the VAT inside its price. Subtracting what the page declares, €23.00 minus €3.99, leaves €19.01 before VAT. Perplexity’s window does not say whether its $17 includes tax, and this site does not add or remove a tax the page does not state.

What each plan includes

Quoted as the windows showed them, in Spanish, not translated. Perplexity Pro, under “Todo lo de Gratis y:”:

• “Acceso ampliado a Computer”
• “4000 créditos adicionales”
• “Investigación profunda”
• “Acceso a los mejores modelos de IA”
• “Elige entre modelos de IA”
• “Más límites de uso y memoria”

ChatGPT Plus:

• “Inteligencia avanzada para tareas complejas”
• “Creación de imágenes de mayor calidad”
• “Agente Work para realizar acciones en aplicaciones y archivos”
• “Codex para automatizar la programación”
• “Memoria ampliada y 20 GB de almacenamiento”
• “Sin anuncios”

The lists describe different products. Perplexity’s speaks of credits, research and a choice of models; OpenAI’s names an agent, a coding tool and a storage figure. Perplexity says the user can choose among AI models (“Elige entre modelos de IA”); OpenAI’s Plus list does not name a model choice. Neither list says how much use the plan allows in messages or hours, so this post cannot compare limits.

Credits and offers

Perplexity attaches numbers to its plans that OpenAI does not. Pro adds “4000 créditos adicionales”, and on October 17 the window showed “+40 US$ créditos de Computer gratis — TIEMPO LIMITADO” above it, a limited-time offer rather than part of the price. The window does not say what a credit is worth in money, so the 4,000 credits are reported as a count, not as a value.

The top plans

Perplexity Max, at $167 a month or equivalent with yearly billing, lists “35.000 créditos adicionales” and “10.000 créditos mensuales”, and the window showed “+450 US$ créditos de Computer gratis — TIEMPO LIMITADO” above it. ChatGPT Pro is €85.12 before VAT at its starting level, one of “3 niveles de uso” of which only the first is priced. Again, dollars against euros: no ranking.

For students and companies

Perplexity’s Education tab offers “education pro” at “9 US$ /mes o equivalente, con facturación anual”, marked “50 % de descuento”, after verifying as a student or educator. OpenAI’s Personal tab, as captured, shows no student price. For companies, Perplexity prints “34 US$ /puesto cada mes o equivalente” for Enterprise Pro, and OpenAI prints ChatGPT Business seats at 21 € and 105 € a month with the selector on “Anual”, without saying whether they include VAT.

The API

OpenAI sells its models per token on an API priced in US dollars, listed on GPT API pricing. Perplexity publishes no per-token price that this site tracks, so there is no API side to set against it. Every maker this site does track is on the API pricing table.

How this was read

Both windows refuse scripted clients, so both were read by hand in a browser on October 17, 2026, from Spain: Perplexity’s “Selecciona tu plan” window on perplexity.ai (Personal, Education and Business tabs) and OpenAI’s ChatGPT plan window, signed in. The quotes keep the language they were shown in. The AI subscriptions page lists every plan with the day it was last checked.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Perplexity Pro cost?

17 US dollars a month or equivalent, billed annually, as Perplexity's plan window showed it in Spain on October 17, 2026. The window printed no price for paying month to month and did not say whether tax is included.

Why is Perplexity priced in dollars and ChatGPT in euros?

Read from Spain on the same day, Perplexity's window showed US dollars and OpenAI's showed euros with Spanish VAT. This site publishes each in the currency shown and never converts one into the other.

What does Perplexity Max cost compared with ChatGPT Pro?

Perplexity Max is $167 a month or equivalent with annual billing, and ChatGPT Pro starts at €103 a month including €17.88 of VAT, both read from Spain on October 17, 2026. The two are in different currencies, so this site does not say which costs more.