OpenAI has temporarily paused new subscriptions to its $200-a-month Pro plan after heavy demand for its Astra model strained the company’s infrastructure.. Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI’s product leader, said in a post on X that the Pro tier puts the greatest load on the company’s systems, prompting OpenAI to disable new sign-ups for that plan..
“We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible,” Sottiaux wrote. Sottiaux said OpenAI’s other offerings, including its API and the lower-priced Go and Plus plans, remain available.. On Wednesday, Sottiaux had warned that a pause could happen if demand continued at its current pace.
“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,” he wrote.. He added that OpenAI’s priority would be to maintain service quality for existing users, even if that meant pausing new Pro subscriptions “for a bit.”.
OpenAI has not said how long the suspension of new Pro sign-ups will last, and it has not disclosed how many users were subscribing each day.. The company raised usage limits for Codex users as recently as last month, indicating the current strain emerged recently.. Astra launched on Sept.
3 and has been rolling out across OpenAI’s plans, including Pro, Plus, Enterprise and Business accounts. OpenAI has described Astra as a major advance in AI reasoning, coding and computer use, and called it the start of the “AGI era” and a generational leap.. Featured image credit.
Tags: astraopenAI
