OpenAI has temporarily stopped accepting new sign-ups for its $200-per-month Pro plan as demand for its newest AI model, Astra, puts heavy pressure on the company’s infrastructure.
OpenAI product leader Thibault Sottiaux announced the decision, saying the Pro plan is currently placing the greatest strain on the company’s systems. Rather than limiting access more broadly, OpenAI has chosen to pause new Pro subscriptions while it works to increase capacity.
OpenAI is not removing existing Pro subscribers from the plan. OpenAI’s other offerings, including its lower-cost plans and API, remain available.
The move comes just days after OpenAI launched Astra, which the company describes as its most powerful AI model yet. The model is designed to handle demanding tasks involving reasoning, coding and computer use, making it one of the company’s biggest releases so far.
Demand for Astra appears to have grown much faster than OpenAI expected. Sottiaux had already warned that the response to the model was unusually strong and that the company might need to stop taking new Pro customers if the pressure on its systems continued.
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