Here's why you can't subscribe to ChatGPT Plus anytime soon

Recently, many users started reporting on social media about their inability to subscribe to the ChatGPT Plus plan.

Following this, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company has decided to put a temporary pause on new sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus after their DevDay event caused an unexpected and overwhelming surge in demand.

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.

According to Sam, The sudden increase in usage led to capacity challenges, so they stopped new subscriptions to ensure that existing users could still have a good experience.

"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.

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.

OpenAI is also focusing on developing GPT-5 and introducing new features and capabilities such as the GPT Store, function calling, and vision capabilities with GPT-4 Turbo and DALL·E 3 integration​.

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.