OpenAI Pauses Pro Sign-Ups Amid Astra Demand — SkimNews
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- OpenAI paused sign-ups for its $200-per-month Pro plan, citing unprecedented demand for its new Astra model straining company infrastructure.
- Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, who leads Codex and ChatGPT products at OpenAI, announced the pause on X, saying the Pro tier puts the most strain on systems and the company wanted 'the smallest step' to preserve broad access.
- OpenAI warned on Wednesday that Pro sign-ups might be paused, with Sottiaux calling Astra demand 'really unprecedented' and noting the lab 'went through very steep growth before' but had 'not seen anything like it until now.'
- Astra launched on September 3 and is rolling out across Pro, Plus, Enterprise, Business, and API plans, with OpenAI heralding it as the beginning of the 'AGI era' and a generational leap.
- Astra promises major advances in AI reasoning, coding, and computer use — areas OpenAI flagged as zones of steep competition.
- OpenAI raised Codex usage limits as recently as last month, suggesting the infrastructure strain is a recent phenomenon, and has not said how long the Pro sign-up pause will last.
Why it matters: OpenAI's most expensive consumer tier is now closed to new buyers — a rare supply-side move for a software subscription — and the company hasn't put a timeline on reopening it, so anyone priced out of Pro must settle for the $20 Plus tier or Go plan until Astra demand cools. The pause reveals how aggressively OpenAI is scaling compute to meet demand for a model it positioned as an AGI milestone.
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