OpenAI has temporarily paused subscriptions for its £150-per-month Pro plan, citing strain on its infrastructure caused by demand for its newest and most powerful model, Astra.
The decision was announced on X by OpenAI’s product leader, Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, who oversees core products including Codex and ChatGPT at the AI lab. He explained that the Pro plan places the greatest strain on the company’s systems, which is why sign-ups for this service tier have now been disabled.
“We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible,” Sottiaux wrote. He added that OpenAI’s other plans, including the API and the lower-cost Go and Plus tiers, remain available.
A move the company had signalled in advance
OpenAI warned on Wednesday that such a change might be necessary. At the time, Sottiaux wrote: “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.”
The company has not said how long sign-ups to the Pro tier may remain disabled, nor how many people are subscribing daily, which would give an indication of the scale of the demand. OpenAI raised usage limits for Codex users as recently as last month, suggesting the current strain is a recent development.
What Astra promises
Launched on 3 September, Astra has been rolling out across OpenAI’s plans, including Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business accounts. The model promises a significant advance in areas such as AI reasoning, coding, and computer use, all of which are the subject of intense competition among AI developers.
OpenAI has described Astra as the beginning of the “AGI era” and a generational leap, framing that has fuelled demand still further. The company said it would prioritise maintaining service quality for existing users while managing the pressure on its systems.
The pause applies only to new Pro sign-ups. Existing Pro subscribers, along with users on the API, Go, and Plus plans, continue to have access to OpenAI’s services during the period in which sign-ups for the top tier are disabled.
