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OpenAI pauses new Pro plan sign-ups as Astra demand surges

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OpenAI pauses new Pro plan sign-ups as Astra demand surges

OpenAI has temporarily paused new sign-ups to its $200-per-month Pro subscription plan, saying demand for its newest and most powerful model, Astra, is straining its infrastructure. The pause was announced on X by Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, OpenAI's product leader, who leads core products including Codex and ChatGPT. Sottiaux said the Pro plan puts the most strain on OpenAI's systems, which is why sign-ups for that tier are now disabled, while the API and the lower-cost Go and Plus plans remain open. "We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible," he wrote.

The move follows a warning Sottiaux had posted on Wednesday. "Demand for Astra is really unprecedented," he wrote at the time. "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 said how long the Pro sign-up pause will last, nor has it given a figure for how many people are signing up each day, so there is no independent way to gauge the size of the surge. The company did raise usage limits for Codex users as recently as last month, a detail the report frames as evidence that the current strain is a recent development rather than a long-running one.

Astra launched on September 3 and has been rolling out across OpenAI's Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business plans. OpenAI has framed the model as a major leap forward in AI reasoning, coding, and computer use, areas where competition among AI labs is intense, and has gone as far as calling Astra the start of the "AGI era" and a generational leap, a characterization that itself appears to be fueling demand.

Key facts

  • OpenAI has paused new sign-ups to its $200-per-month Pro plan, citing infrastructure strain from demand for its newest model, Astra.
  • OpenAI product leader Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux announced the pause on X, saying the company "wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible."
  • The API and the lower-cost Go and Plus plans remain open to new sign-ups; only the Pro tier is affected.
  • Sottiaux had warned days earlier that "demand for Astra is really unprecedented," unlike anything he had seen even through past periods of steep growth.
  • OpenAI has not disclosed how long the Pro pause will last or how many people are signing up per day; it did raise Codex usage limits as recently as last month.

Why it matters

A leading AI lab publicly throttling sign-ups to its own premium subscription is unusual, and OpenAI is framing it as a direct consequence of demand for Astra, which it calls a "generational leap" toward the "AGI era." Whether read as a genuine surge in interest or as a sign that even OpenAI's infrastructure has limits, the episode is a rare public admission that a top AI lab cannot serve every paying customer who wants its newest model, in a market where reasoning, coding, and computer-use capability are the main battlegrounds.

Who it affects

New customers trying to sign up for the $200-per-month Pro plan are locked out until OpenAI lifts the pause, with no date given. People already on the Plus and Go plans, and users of the API, are not affected and can keep signing up and using those tiers as normal. Sottiaux said existing users remain OpenAI's priority for service quality. Enterprise and Business customers are also receiving the Astra rollout.

How to use it

The Pro plan costs $200 a month and is currently closed to new subscribers, with no reopening date announced. Anyone who wants access to Astra right now can still get it through the lower-cost Plus plan; Enterprise and Business accounts are also covered by the rollout. Astra itself launched on September 3.

How solid is it

The account rests entirely on OpenAI's own posts on X: Sottiaux's two messages are the only source for the word "unprecedented," and OpenAI has not released a sign-up count, a growth rate, or a reopening date to back it up. The article's own account of where Astra has rolled out is also slightly inconsistent, naming Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business plans "in addition to its AI" in one line while listing the API separately as still open in another; the piece does not resolve that inconsistency itself.

Risks and caveats

Because OpenAI has not disclosed a reopening date or any figure for the scale of demand, outsiders have no way to tell whether the pause reflects genuinely unprecedented interest, an infrastructure or capacity shortfall, or both. OpenAI's own description of Astra as a "generational leap" and the start of the "AGI era" is the company's marketing framing of its own product, not an independent assessment of what Astra can actually do.

“We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible”

— Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, OpenAI product leader