OpenAI has temporarily disabled new subscriptions to its $200-per-month Pro plan, citing severe strain on its infrastructure caused by demand for its newest and most powerful model, Astra. The announcement was posted on X by Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, OpenAI’s product lead responsible for core offerings such as Codex and ChatGPT.
Sottiaux said the Pro tier places the greatest load on the company’s systems, which is why sign-ups for that plan have been turned off. "We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible," he wrote.
Other plans remain available; prior warning
According to the company, other subscription options remain available: the API and lower-cost Go and Plus plans were not affected by the pause. OpenAI had warned on Wednesday that such a change might be necessary. Sottiaux wrote that "demand for Astra is really unprecedented," and said the company was "pulling all the levers possible to sustain the demand."
He added that priority will be maintaining excellent service for existing users and that if the surge continues, the company might have to pause new Pro subscriptions "for a bit."
What OpenAI has not disclosed
OpenAI did not say how long new Pro sign-ups will remain disabled, nor did it provide numbers on how many people are signing up daily, leaving the true scale of demand unclear.
Astra rollout and context
Astra launched on September 3, 2024, and has been rolled out across multiple OpenAI offerings, including Pro, Plus, Enterprise and Business accounts, and via the API. The model is positioned as a significant advance in areas such as AI reasoning, coding, and computer use — fields with intense competition.
OpenAI described Astra as the start of an "AGI era" and a generational leap, language that appears to have further driven interest in the model.
Notably, OpenAI raised usage limits for Codex users as recently as last month, which suggests the infrastructure strain is a relatively recent development.
Why this matters
Pausing new Pro subscriptions highlights how the launch and uptake of large, resource-intensive AI models can quickly stress provider infrastructure and affect access. The decision has implications for enterprise customers and developers who rely on consistent availability for compute-heavy models.
