OpenAI puts Pro subscriptions on hold due to Astra demand

OpenAI has temporarily stopped new subscriptions for its $200-a-month Pro plan after demand for its newest model, Astra, put too much strain on the company’s infrastructure. The pause was announced on X by Thibault “Tibo” Sottiaux, OpenAI’s product lead for core offerings like Codex and ChatGPT.

Sottiaux said the Pro tier creates the heaviest load on OpenAI’s systems, so sign-ups for that plan are being disabled for now. He described it as the “smallest step” that would let the company keep access as broad as possible. Existing customers are still covered, and the API plus the lower-priced Go and Plus plans remain available.

This warning didn’t come out of nowhere. OpenAI had already said on Wednesday that a move like this might be coming. Sottiaux also said Astra’s demand is “really unprecedented,” adding that the company had already been through “very steep growth” but still hadn’t seen anything like this.

OpenAI hasn’t said how long the pause will last, or how many people are signing up each day. That makes it hard to judge the scale, but the company did raise usage limits for Codex users as recently as last month, which suggests the pressure is new. Astra itself launched on September 3 and is rolling out across Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business accounts, with OpenAI pitching it as a major jump in reasoning, coding, and computer use. The company has even called it the start of the “AGI era,” which is exactly the kind of language that sends demand through the roof.