OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, temporarily halted new sign-ups for its $200-a-month Pro plan because of surging demand for its new artificial intelligence (AI) model, GPT-6 Astra.
On the 10th (local time), Thibaut Sotio, OpenAI's head of product and platform, said on social media X (formerly Twitter), "We are temporarily pausing new sign-ups for the $200-a-month Pro plan so existing users can continue to use Astra in the best possible environment."
Sotio said, "This plan places the heaviest load on the system," and explained, "We took the minimum necessary step to provide a stable service to as many users as possible." He added that existing subscribers will not be affected.
OpenAI runs its paid ChatGPT plans in tiers: the low-cost "GO" ($8 a month), the standard "PLUS" ($20 a month), and the premium "PRO." The Pro plan comes in $100 and $200 monthly options, and the plan now closed to new sign-ups is the $200 tier with the highest usage cap.
Sotio said, "We are working to expand compute capacity as quickly as possible." All other plans and the application programming interface (API), which is billed based on usage, remain available, except for the $200-a-month Pro plan.
OpenAI recently declared it had reached "artificial general intelligence (AGI)" and unveiled GPT-6 Astra. Astra passed all stages of a 48-step CAPTCHA test distinguishing people from robots and solved several math challenges, showing improved performance over previous models in reasoning, academic tasks, coding, and computer use.
However, since releasing Astra, OpenAI has not disclosed specific metrics such as the number of new sign-ups and users or daily token usage. It also did not say how long the suspension of new sign-ups for the $200 plan will continue.