OpenAI has temporarily paused new sign-ups and upgrades to its $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan as demand for its newly launched GPT-6 Astra model strains capacity, the company said.
As of Sept. 10, 2026, OpenAI’s help documentation states it is pausing new purchases of and upgrades to ChatGPT Pro $200 (Pro 20X), including moves from Free, Go, Plus or Pro $100. Existing ChatGPT Pro $200 subscriptions and new or existing Pro $100 plans are not affected. Customers who cancel or schedule a downgrade keep Pro $200 through the end of the billing cycle and can reverse the change before it ends; once the $200 plan ends during the pause, they cannot repurchase it until the freeze lifts, OpenAI said.
Product lead Tibo Sottiaux confirmed the pause, saying Pro accounts put the most strain on OpenAI’s systems and that freezing new ones is “the smallest step” the company can take to protect service for people already on the plan while Astra demand climbs, according to contemporaneous reporting including Fortune. OpenAI rolled Astra out last week after initially limiting access while it scaled compute. Company executives have framed Astra’s abilities in sweeping terms; treat those characterizations as OpenAI’s claims, not independent findings.