News
General
9 views
OpenAI halts new $200 ChatGPT Pro sign-ups amid GPT-6 Astra demand
Sep 15, 2026
📍 Phliadelphia,PA, USA
OpenAI has temporarily suspended new sign-ups and upgrades for its $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro subscription as unprecedented demand for its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-6 Astra, puts additional pressure on the company’s computing capacity.
The pause applies to customers attempting to purchase the premium Pro plan for the first time, while existing subscribers will continue to have access to the service.
The decision was announced on X by Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, an OpenAI product leader responsible for core products including ChatGPT and Codex.
Sottiaux said the Pro tier places the highest demand on OpenAI’s infrastructure, prompting the company to restrict new subscriptions rather than impose broader limitations on access to Astra.
OpenAI has not provided a specific timeline for when new Pro subscriptions will reopen. The temporary restriction is limited to the Pro plan, with the company’s API and lower-priced Go and Plus subscriptions continuing to accept new users.
Sottiaux said the company wanted to take the smallest possible measure while maintaining access to the new model for as many users as possible.
Before the suspension was announced, he had warned that demand for Astra was reaching unusual levels and suggested that OpenAI could be forced to introduce capacity controls if the rapid growth continued.
The surge follows OpenAI’s launch of GPT-6 Astra on September 3, which the company has positioned as its most capable AI model to date.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman described Astra as a potential beginning of the artificial general intelligence era and characterized the model’s capabilities as a major generational advancement.
Unlike conventional chatbots that primarily generate text or provide recommendations, Astra is designed to interact directly with computer software and perform tasks on behalf of users.
The model is intended for a wide range of applications, including computer operation, software development, research, cybersecurity, scientific work and other professional tasks.
OpenAI initially made GPT-6 Astra available to a limited group of organizations through its Daybreak Access program as it expanded access and evaluated demand.
The company has said it plans to make Astra available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise customers, while also offering access through its API and cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock.
The latest subscription pause highlights the infrastructure demands associated with deploying increasingly powerful AI models at scale.
OpenAI’s decision to restrict new Pro subscriptions instead of limiting existing users also underscores the company’s priority of maintaining service reliability for customers already using its products.
The development comes as competition among leading AI companies intensifies, with providers racing to deliver models capable of performing increasingly complex tasks autonomously.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also highlighted the enormous computing resources behind Astra, saying the model was trained using more than 100,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell NVLink72 systems.
With demand continuing to grow, OpenAI’s ability to expand computing capacity could determine how quickly it can make Astra broadly available without compromising performance or reliability.
The pause applies to customers attempting to purchase the premium Pro plan for the first time, while existing subscribers will continue to have access to the service.
The decision was announced on X by Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, an OpenAI product leader responsible for core products including ChatGPT and Codex.
Sottiaux said the Pro tier places the highest demand on OpenAI’s infrastructure, prompting the company to restrict new subscriptions rather than impose broader limitations on access to Astra.
OpenAI has not provided a specific timeline for when new Pro subscriptions will reopen. The temporary restriction is limited to the Pro plan, with the company’s API and lower-priced Go and Plus subscriptions continuing to accept new users.
Sottiaux said the company wanted to take the smallest possible measure while maintaining access to the new model for as many users as possible.
Before the suspension was announced, he had warned that demand for Astra was reaching unusual levels and suggested that OpenAI could be forced to introduce capacity controls if the rapid growth continued.
The surge follows OpenAI’s launch of GPT-6 Astra on September 3, which the company has positioned as its most capable AI model to date.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman described Astra as a potential beginning of the artificial general intelligence era and characterized the model’s capabilities as a major generational advancement.
Unlike conventional chatbots that primarily generate text or provide recommendations, Astra is designed to interact directly with computer software and perform tasks on behalf of users.
The model is intended for a wide range of applications, including computer operation, software development, research, cybersecurity, scientific work and other professional tasks.
OpenAI initially made GPT-6 Astra available to a limited group of organizations through its Daybreak Access program as it expanded access and evaluated demand.
The company has said it plans to make Astra available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise customers, while also offering access through its API and cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock.
The latest subscription pause highlights the infrastructure demands associated with deploying increasingly powerful AI models at scale.
OpenAI’s decision to restrict new Pro subscriptions instead of limiting existing users also underscores the company’s priority of maintaining service reliability for customers already using its products.
The development comes as competition among leading AI companies intensifies, with providers racing to deliver models capable of performing increasingly complex tasks autonomously.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also highlighted the enormous computing resources behind Astra, saying the model was trained using more than 100,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell NVLink72 systems.
With demand continuing to grow, OpenAI’s ability to expand computing capacity could determine how quickly it can make Astra broadly available without compromising performance or reliability.
Tags
news
Comments (0)
Login to post comments
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts about this post.