OpenAI pauses $200/mo Pro plan after Astra breaks traffic records

Too many people want OpenAI's newest AI model, so the company is turning away customers with $200 in hand.

OpenAI has temporarily paused new signups for its $200-per-month Pro tier, TechCrunch reports. The culprit is massive compute demand for Astra, its flagship model launched on September 3 for coding, reasoning, and computer control. Product leader Thibault Sottiaux wrote on X that the Pro plan strains infrastructure the most, forcing the company to halt new signups to protect performance for existing members.

Why it matters: Even top AI labs hit physical hardware walls when demand spikes. OpenAI heavily marketed Astra as the start of the "AGI era," and users flooded in. If you were looking to upgrade to a Pro tier today, you are out of luck until OpenAI spins up more compute power.

Know this: You can still get access through lower tiers. New signups for OpenAI's API, Plus, and Go plans remain open.

Selling expensive subscriptions is easy; finding enough GPUs to power them is the hard part.