OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT Pro 20X is no longer available for subscription.

Astra is so powerful that even OpenAI cannot withstand the overwhelming demand.

Early this Friday, OpenAI announced that it would suspend new subscriptions and upgrades for the ChatGPT Pro $200 (Pro 20X) plan, while existing users will not be affected.

As Tibo (Head of Core Products and Platform at OpenAI, former head of Codex Thibault Sottiaux) said, the Astra model has excellent performance, triggering unprecedented demand, and there is not enough computing power available now to guarantee a good user experience.

The new supply-demand relationship is unpredictable. OpenAI has not given a specific time to resume sales, and only stated that it is ramping up capacity as soon as possible.

This incident has been confirmed by the OpenAI Help Center. It has to be said that large model companies have been releasing temporary announcements one after another recently, which is a bit overwhelming.

Peter Steinberger, founder of Lobster, also said that everyone should subscribe as soon as possible.

Astra does consume more quota than GPT‑5.6 Sol. OpenAI has previously reminded users that Astra will exhaust the Work/Codex quota faster, and its pay-as-you-go billing standard is about 2.5 times that of Sol. In addition, the most powerful Pro version model of GPT-6 Astra is exclusive to Pro, Business and Enterprise users: the Pro 5X quota is 50 messages per week, and the Pro 20X quota is 200 messages.

On September 3, OpenAI released GPT‑6 Astra, positioned as "the most powerful artificial intelligence". The official directly adopted the concept of the AGI era, which also sparked heated discussions among the public.

Users who have switched their choices are the best proof of the new model's capabilities. Previously, many people in the community said that OpenAI instantly took away users from Anthropic. OpenAI also seems to be happy to see such remarks: on September 9, Tibo posted a warning that "the demand for Astra is unprecedented, we are pulling every lever we can... If this continues, we may have to suspend new Pro subscriptions."

No one expected that the top-tier AI company would also implement traffic restrictions on its core products, which has caused dissatisfaction among developers.

We know that ChatGPT also has subscription tiers such as Go, Plus, and Pro 5X. Why is the most expensive tier sold out first for OpenAI?

It seems that in OpenAI's current paid system, although Pro 20X has the highest total price and the smallest number of users, it is the plan with the cheapest unit computing power and the highest utilization rate. For OpenAI, it may instead be the tier that puts the most operational pressure. Upgrading from Pro 5X to 20X, users pay twice as much but get four times the quota, and Pro 20X also includes benefits such as unlimited desktop voice. Therefore, the most expensive plan does offer the biggest discount.

SemiAnalysis has done relevant calculations: after running all OpenAI and Anthropic subscription tiers until the weekly limit is exhausted, and converting the cost according to the standard API price, OpenAI will start losing money when the utilization rate exceeds 11.4% on Plus and Pro 5x, while for Pro 20X, it will enter negative gross margin as long as the utilization rate reaches 5.7% (the corresponding figure for Anthropic is about 10%). This does not even take into account the occasional quota reset cards issued by Tibo.

Furthermore, people who actually buy Pro 20X are the group that will really use up all the quota. Generally speaking, they are developers who run long-chain Agent tasks, keep Codex running all night, and send hundreds of tasks per day.

No wonder people complain that subscribing to the Coding Plan is like winding yourself up, making you just want to keep working nonstop.

On the other hand, the "sold out" status of Pro 20X also shows that companies like OpenAI originally assumed when launching the Coding Plan that "most people will not use up the full quota". After Astra was launched, the actual usage behavior of heavy users has broken through this assumption.

Considering that top-tier AI is becoming more and more useful, will their prices keep rising in the future?

References:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9793128-about-chatgpt-pro-tiers

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "almosthuman" (ID: almosthuman2014), author: almosthuman2014 focusing on large models, edited by the editorial department of almosthuman2014, republished with authorization from 36Kr.