OpenAI said it will temporarily stop accepting new subscriptions for some of its plans, citing strong demand for Astra, its new ChatGPT model.
Thibault Sottiaux, engineering lead for OpenAI's Codex, said on X, formerly Twitter, on the 10th that the company would pause new sign-ups for the $200 Pro plan. These plans put the heaviest strain on the company's systems, he said, adding that OpenAI wanted to take the minimum steps necessary to keep access as broad as possible. The application programming interface (API) and other plans including Go and Plus remain available, and existing accounts will not be affected, he said. A day earlier, Sottiaux said on X that demand for Astra was at an unprecedented level and that the company might have to suspend Pro subscriptions.
OpenAI took a similar step in 2023, when it temporarily halted new ChatGPT Plus subscriptions after usage surged following the release of GPT-4 Turbo and custom GPTs. Chief Executive Sam Altman said at the time that usage had grown beyond the company's capacity since DevDay, its developer conference, and that OpenAI wanted to ensure a strong experience for all users. In July, China's Moonshot AI also suspended new sign-ups, saying its open-weight model Kimi K3 had drawn heavy interest.
The repeat of a sign-up suspension three years later has prompted questions over whether OpenAI's shortage of computing power has been resolved. The company plans to invest $750 billion in computing infrastructure through 2035, but deteriorating cash flow ahead of an initial public offering expected as early as the first quarter of next year is adding to concerns.
Industry watchers say the episode suggests the bottleneck in the AI race is shifting from model development itself to securing the computing infrastructure needed to deliver those models as commercial services.
