OpenAI has temporarily paused sign-ups for its $200-per-month Pro subscription plan due to overwhelming demand for its newest and most powerful model, Astra.
OpenAI’s product leader, Thibault Sottiaux, announced the suspension on X. Leading core products such as Codex and ChatGPT, Sottiaux explained that the Pro tier places the highest load on the company's systems, resulting in the current disabling of new sign-ups.
“We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible,” Sottiaux stated in his post. He clarified that other service tiers, including the API and lower-cost Go and Plus plans, remain fully operational.
The company had previously warned on Wednesday of this potential outcome. Sottiaux elaborated, “Demand for Astra is really unprecedented. We’re pulling all the levers possible to sustain the demand, but I’ve not seen anything like it until now and we went through very steep growth before. Priority will always be to keep excellent service for existing users, but we might have to pause new Pro subscriptions for a bit if this continues.”
OpenAI has not specified how long the pause on Pro tier sign-ups will last nor provided details on the daily volume of new users, though the scale of the demand is evident from the situation.
Usage limits for Codex users were raised as recently as last month, indicating that this infrastructure strain is a relatively recent development.
Launched on September 3, the Astra model has been rolled out across Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business accounts. Promising a significant advancement in AI reasoning, coding, and computer use, Astra has been positioned by OpenAI as the beginning of the “AGI era,” a generational leap that further fueled the surge in interest.
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