OpenAI pauses new sign-ups for its $200 ChatGPT Pro plan, citing unprecedented demand for Astra

OpenAI has paused new sign-ups and upgrades to ChatGPT Pro, its top-tier $200-a-month plan, citing strain on its systems from demand for Astra, the model it launched September 3. Existing Pro subscribers keep their access; every other plan -- Plus, Go, the API, Enterprise and Business -- remains open to new customers.

OpenAI product lead Thibault Sottiaux announced the pause on X, framing it as a narrow fix rather than a capacity ceiling: "We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible." He said Astra demand has been "really unprecedented" -- "I've not seen anything like it until now," despite OpenAI having been through steep growth periods before. Fortune reports Astra's marquee "computer use" feature, which lets the model operate a desktop at what OpenAI describes as superhuman speed, burns through a Pro account's usage allowance faster than GPT 5.6 Sol, the model Astra replaced as OpenAI's flagship.

Fortune notes the closest precedent is OpenAI's November 2023 pause of Plus sign-ups after its first developer conference -- Sottiaux's comparison to that period, and his description of the current surge as worse, is the clearest signal of scale OpenAI has given so far, since the company has not published sign-up or usage numbers for Astra. OpenAI president Greg Brockman has separately called Astra "the start of the AGI era" -- a superlative that, per house practice, is the company's own framing and not an independent assessment. Astra rolled out across Pro, Plus, Enterprise and Business accounts over the week of September 3; a capacity pause eight days later, on the plan that grants the heaviest usage allowance, reads less as a sign the rollout went wrong and more as a sign OpenAI under-forecast how many people would actually use computer-use once it shipped.