By Rajwa Quasim
OpenAI has temporarily halted new sign-ups and upgrades for its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan, citing heavy demand following the launch of its new AI model, GPT-6 Astra.
The halt affects new customers seeking the premium Pro subscription, while existing subscribers will be able to continue using the service. The decision was announced on X by Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, an OpenAI product leader who oversees core products including ChatGPT and Codex.
According to Sottiaux, the Pro tier places the greatest strain on OpenAI’s systems. The company chose to halt new sign-ups rather than broadly restrict access to Astra.
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OpenAI has not indicated how long the pause will last. The measure applies only to new Pro subscribers, while the company’s API and lower-cost Go and Plus plans remain available for sign-ups.
Sottiaux said, “We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible.”
In an earlier post, he had flagged unusually high demand for Astra and hinted that OpenAI might need to take capacity measures if growth continued.
He added, “Demand for Astra is really unprecedented. We’re pulling all the levers possible to sustain the demand, but I’ve not seen anything like it until now and we went through very steep growth before. Priority will always be to keep excellent service for existing users, but we might have to pause new Pro subscriptions for a bit if this continues.”
READ: OpenAI launches GPT-6 Astra, calls it a potential step toward AGI (September 4, 2026)
OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra, its latest and most capable artificial intelligence model, on Sept. 3. The company’s president, Greg Brockman, said the system could eventually be viewed as the beginning of the artificial general intelligence (AGI) era and described it as a “generational leap.”
Astra can operate directly inside software and use computers on behalf of users, allowing it to go beyond generating text or providing recommendations. OpenAI says the model is designed for computer use, coding, research, cybersecurity, science and professional work.
GPT-6 Astra is currently available to a limited set of organizations under OpenAI’s Daybreak Access program. OpenAI said it would roll out the model to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users, as well as through its API, Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock.
According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Astra was trained using more than 100,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell NVLink72 systems.