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- OpenAI Sora's video generation is still unavailable for new accounts
- The restrictions follow a week of regular outages affecting all ChatGPT users
- OpenAI says it's currently "experiencing heavy traffic"
ChatGPT is having both a great and terrible start to the month, depending on who you ask. While OpenAI is excited about the popularity of new features like its new native image generation, ChatGPT Plus subscribers are growing increasingly frustrated with the restrictions and patchy performance caused by the chatbot's new wave of popularity – and I'm among them.
Last week, ChatGPT had one its worst periods for outages. While they were mostly short-lived issues, the consistent problems (usually starting at 9am ET / 2pm BST) led to some understandable grumbling from subscribers who saw the gates to ChatGPT's new native image generation flung open to hordes of free users.
As I type, OpenAI's status page again says the company is "experiencing issues" and Downdetector is showing small spikes in reports – though nothing on the scale of last week, fortunately.
The sheer scale of last week's surge was revealed by OpenAI's COO Brad Lightcap on X (formerly Twitter), who said that "over 130m users have generated 700m+ (!) images since last Tuesday".
He added that "we appreciate your patience as we try to serve everyone", which was a slightly more sympathetic take compared to CEO Sam Altman's more matter-of-fact statement that "you should expect new releases from OpenAI to be delayed, stuff to break, and for service to sometimes be slow as we deal with capacity challenges". In other words, deal with it because we're putting our foot on the gas.
very crazy first week for images in chatgpt - over 130M users have generated 700M+ (!) images since last tuesdayIndia is now our fastest growing chatgpt market 💪🇮🇳the range of visual creativity has been extremely inspiringwe appreciate your patience as we try to serve…April 3, 2025
But while minor outages are understandable, the less obvious impacts of OpenAI's rapid scaling this month are causing more frustration. Something that hasn't been made very clear, other than in help articles, is that OpenAI Sora video generation still isn't available for new accounts over a week from when it was "temporarily disabled".
A number of people have signed up for ChatGPT Plus, some even for its $200 a month Pro tier, unaware that the feature isn't available. It doesn't just affect new subscribers either – if (like me) you're an existing subscriber who hasn't yet used Sora, you can't use it for videos right now either (only images, like the one above).
OpenAI's explanation on its help pages is that it's currently "experiencing heavy traffic" and that Sora video generation is only "temporarily" unavailable. But it's unfortunate that key Sora pages, like its one for pricing, don't mention these limitations. I've asked OpenAI for an update on when this restriction might be lifted and will update this story if I hear back.
The ChatGPT balancing act
just went through the list of what we are planning to launch in the next few months.so much incredible stuff!April 5, 2025
While these ChatGPT issues are still relatively minor in the grand scheme of what it can still do, the frustration of paying users isn't soothed by the noises coming from OpenAI's top brass – who are consistently crowing about how many users are melting its GPUs, and the new features that'll presumably worsen its capacity issues soon.
Over the weekend, Sam Altman excitedly posted about "the list of what we are planning to launch in the next few months". Well, ChatGPT subscribers will be hoping that list is topped by new GPU and server capacity that can more reliably handle its influx of new users – and also deliver its full set of advertised features.
At the risk of sounding like a spoiled airline passenger complaining about the lack of free peanuts during the miracle of transatlantic flight, OpenAI does need to keep one eye on its paying subscribers, even as it keeps the other on growing its global user base.
After all, the AI competition is hot, and Google Gemini is pulling ahead in some areas while DeepSeek and Manus AI are offering increasingly tempting alternatives for some tasks. That explains why OpenAI has thrown off the shackles and recently tweaked its rulebook to broaden its appeal. But ChatGPT subscribers will be hoping this expansion doesn't come at the expense of the quality of the experience that made them sign up in the first place.