OpenAI Pauses New Sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus Amid Surge in Demand

The decision follows the company's first developer conference and has led to the creation of a black market for selling existing accounts.

OpenAI has temporarily paused new sign-ups for its ChatGPT Plus subscription service due to a surge in usage exceeding its capacity.
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, announced the decision on X, stating the company wants to ensure a great user experience for its existing subscribers.
The surge in demand followed the company's first-ever developer conference, where it announced new features and upgrades, including the ability for users to build custom versions of ChatGPT.
The pause in new sign-ups has led to the creation of a black market, with existing subscribers selling their accounts on platforms like eBay.
OpenAI has also experienced several outages in the past week, which have been attributed to both increased usage and a suspected DDoS attack.