News Analysis
The Gist
- Subscription pause. OpenAI temporarily stops new ChatGPT Plus subscriptions due to high demand following DevDay announcements.
- Custom GPTs. Users can now create their own versions of ChatGPT, tailored for specific tasks like customer support and content creation.
Did you procrastinate in signing up for a ChatGPT Plus subscription? If so, you may be out of luck — at least for now. OpenAI has halted sign-ups for new users amidst overwhelming demand.
This news follows the company’s first-ever DevDay conference held earlier this month in San Francisco. At the event, the company announced the arrival of GPT-4 Turbo — a more powerful, updated iteration of GPT-4 — and the ability for users to build custom versions of ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Sees Surge in Usage
ChatGPT has around 100 million weekly active users, and more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies are building on OpenAI’s products, Altman said at the conference. “And what’s incredible on that,” he added, “is we got there entirely through word-of-mouth.”
Those numbers, however, were captured prior to the company’s latest announcements. Now, with new features available, the company has had to pause subscriptions to deter issues within the platform.
“The surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience,” Altman posted on X. He added that users can “still sign-up to be notified within the app when subs reopen.”
In another post, he added, “Usage of our new features from devday is far outpacing our expectations.” Due to this surge in demand, some users might experience some service instability.
Related Article: What Is ChatGPT? Everything You Need to Know
The Debut of Custom GPTs
With ChatGPT’s new features, users will be able to create their own custom versions of ChatGPT, simply referred to as GPTs.
For example, GPTs can be trained on specific company data to assist customer support teams, create educational content and learning experiences or act as a travel agent to help book flights. And, according to OpenAI, no coding is required.
The AI company also announced plans for a store in late November, where users can find custom GPTs created by other users or even sell their own. Compensation, according to OpenAI, will be based on the number of users the GPTs attract.
The Arrival of GPT-4 Turbo
Another big DevDay announcement is the arrival of GPT-4 Turbo, less than a year after the debut of GPT-4 in March.
GPT-4 Turbo will have knowledge of current events up to April 2023, compared to the September 2021 cutoff of GPT-4. The Turbo model will also feature a larger 128K context window that can fit over 300 pages of text in a single prompt and offer a much lower price tag for developers.
“GPT-4 Turbo, a better model, is considerably cheaper than GPT-4, by a factor of 3x less for prompt tokens and 2x less for completion tokens,” Altman said at the conference.
This latest model, he added, is also capable of accepting images as inputs via the API and can generate captions, classifications and analysis.
Related Article: OpenAI Launches GPT-4 Turbo, Pioneering New Era of Personalized AI
How to Join the ChatGPT Plus Waitlist
If you’re not a ChatGPT Plus subscriber but want to get in on the action, you’ll need to join the waitlist. To do so, log into your ChatGPT account and click on the “Upgrade” button in the bottom left corner.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
In the pop-up box that appears, click on the green button under the Plus option that says “Sign up for waitlist.”
If you follow this step, you’ll receive a notification (presumably via email) once subscriptions are re-opened.
