AI giant OpenAI pauses ChatGPT Plus sign ups; Know the reasons

Microsoft-backed AI giant OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said the company has paused ChatGPT Plus signups for new users as it witnessed overwhelming surge in demand following the DevDay conference.

According to Sam, The rise in unexpected demand led to capacity challenges, prompting the company to temporarily halt new sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus to maintain the quality of user experience for existing subscribers

Why is demand so high?

The recent DevDay event unveiled innovative GPTs, including the GPT-4 Turbo and the ability for users to create custom models without coding and any technical knowledge.

Sam, in a tweet, revealed that the announcements led to an exponential rise in usage, as developers and companies looked to harness these new capabilities for various applications.

"we are pausing new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups for a bit :( the surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience. you can still sign-up to be notified within the app when subs reopen," he wrote.

we are pausing new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups for a bit :(

the surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience.

you can still sign-up to be notified within the app when subs reopen.

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 15, 2023

Technical troubles amidst growth

Beyond capacity issues, OpenAI also experienced periodic outages, hinting at potential DDoS attacks. These challenges come as the AI giant works on GPT-5, which requires a significant increase in data volume and financial support from investors like Microsoft.

What does ChatGPT Plus offer?

ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per month, offers features like access to the GPT-4 large multimodal model, faster response times, and the ability to use the chatbot even during peak hours. It represents OpenAI's push to support free access by leveraging subscription revenues.

However, the recent surge in demand has led to an awful experience for many ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Earlier today, several users began reporting on social media about outages in ChatGPT, such as being unable to access plugins, previous chats, and more.

What OpenAI is doing?

With over 5,000 GPTs available and usage by a majority of Fortune 500 companies, OpenAI is planning to further its AI capabilities with GPT-5 and the GPT Store, which will enable users to share and monetize their custom GPTs.

It's worth noting that Google rival is not just developing GPT-5 but also improving upon GPT-4 with features like function calling, enhanced instruction following, and JSON mode for developers.

Additionally, The AI giant said that its upcoming GPT Store will allow the sharing and monetization of custom GPTs. OpenAI's roadmap includes new tools like Code Interpreter and Retrieval for the Assistants API, aiming to ease development and enhance AI applications.

Interestingly, It has also introduced vision capabilities to GPT-4 Turbo and integrating DALL·E 3 into its API suite, expanding the AI's utility in image processing and generation.