User ties OpenAI's lower limits, plan lock and Astra delay to a compute shortage
The post links reduced model limits, overload pop-ups, the $200 plan being locked for new subscribers and the Astra delay into one line, concluding OpenAI simply lacks compute and joking that a $500 tier may be pushed anyway.
If you put all the pieces together, it becomes pretty easy to understand: → It started with OpenAI changing the models’ “juice,” lowering it across ChatGPT / Work / Codex while keeping it high in the API. → Then OpenAI started showing pop-ups saying “models are overloaded right now, please select another one.” → Then they locked the $200 plans for new subscribers. → Then they delayed GPT-6.1 Astra “for safety reasons.” THEY JUST DON’T HAVE ENOUGH COMPUTE. IT’S THAT SIMPLE. JUST SAY IT: "WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH COMPUTE." Doesn’t that basically solve the whole mystery? (Now I want to see how they’re going to drop a $500 plan out of nowhere without a strong enough model to justify it.)