OpenAI has hit a capacity wall with its most advanced model yet. The company announced it is temporarily halting new sign-ups for its $200-per-month Pro subscription tier, pointing to the heavy load that demand for the newly launched Astra model is placing on its infrastructure.

The news came via a post on X from Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux, OpenAI's product lead overseeing core offerings such as Codex and ChatGPT. According to Sottiaux, the Pro plan is the most resource-intensive tier, which is precisely why the company is now blocking new subscriptions to it. "We wanted to take the smallest step that allows us to continue giving the broadest access possible," he explained. He also noted that other service options — the API alongside the cheaper Go and Plus plans — are still open to users.

This development wasn't entirely unexpected. OpenAI had signaled on Wednesday that a move like this could be coming. In a prior post, Sottiaux described the situation bluntly: "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. Priority will always be to keep excellent service for existing users, but we might have to pause new Pro subscriptions for a bit if this continues."

What remains unclear is how long the Pro tier will stay closed to new subscribers, or what the daily sign-up numbers actually look like — details that would help illustrate just how massive the demand really is. As recently as last month, OpenAI had raised usage limits for Codex users, a sign that the pressure on its systems is a relatively recent development.

Astra debuted on September 3 and has been gradually making its way across OpenAI's various plans, including Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business accounts, as well as through its API. The model is being positioned as a significant breakthrough in AI reasoning, coding, and computer use — fields where competition is fierce. OpenAI has gone so far as to call Astra the dawn of the "AGI era" and a generational leap, a framing that has only amplified the surge in interest.