OpenAI pauses $200 Pro signups as Astra demand strains compute

Ananth @Ananth7eOriginally posted 2026.09.28

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openai is really compute constrained right now. they had to pause new $200 pro signups because astra demand was too high. and now devday is about to add more on top. "o", an always on assistant is being launched that runs for you all the time. that's a lot of compute per user. they're also launching: >a new $500 plan >ultrafast mode >new models (likely gpt-6.1 astra) all while serving a billion chat users, and millions of codex/work users. i genuinely wonder how they're going to manage all of it.