OpenAI Pauses $200 Pro Plan as GPT-6 Astra Demand Overwhelms Compute Capacity

OpenAI is taking a drastic step to deal with the unprecedented demand for its new GPT-6 Astra model. Thibault Sottiaux (aka Tibo), OpenAI’s Head of Core Products, today confirmed that the company is pausing new subscriptions to its Pro plan as the tier is putting the most strain on its systems.

OpenAI pulls brakes on its most expensive plan

The confirmation comes just a day after Sottiaux warned that Astra’s demand was unlike anything he had seen before. He said OpenAI was “pulling all the levers possible” to keep up with demand, while prioritizing service quality for existing users. At the time, he suggested that new Pro subscriptions could be paused if the situation continued. Well, that warning has now become reality.

In the latest update on X, Sottiaux said OpenAI is pausing subscriptions to the $200 Pro plan to make sure existing users continue to have “an incredible experience” and uninterrupted access to Astra. He explained that the $200 tier puts the greatest strain on OpenAI’s systems, so pausing new sign-ups is intended to be the smallest step that can reduce the load while keeping Astra broadly available.

Do note that this is not a cancellation of the $200 Pro plan, nor does it affect people who already have an account. Existing subscribers can continue using their accounts, while OpenAI works on adding more capacity as quickly as possible. All other subscription plans and the API remain available.

GPT-6 Astra boasts 99.9% ARC-AGI-3 and 100% ExploitBench scores

Last week, OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, which the company says can operate computers, build apps, tackle scientific work, and handle complex professional tasks. OpenAI also claims major jumps across reasoning, coding, and cybersecurity benchmarks. You can read more about GPT-6 Astra in our separate article here.