Tibo, head of OpenAI's Codex division, stated that demand for Astra far exceeded expectations, and if the pressure persists, they may suspend new Pro subscriptions. Combined with OpenAI's continuous reissue of usage quotas, delayed access for some paid users, and Codex's user base reaching 25 million, this congestion is not merely an initial traffic spike but also reflects the rapid emergence of real-world demand for complex agent tasks. OpenAI's enterprise revenue grew by 32% from June to July, faster than the overall annualized revenue growth of 20%.
Third-party evaluation agency Artificial Analysis found that Astra requires approximately 70% fewer tokens to perform programmable agent tasks than its predecessor, and costs less than half that of Claude Fable 5 for the same performance; however, in comprehensive intelligent tasks, its increased API price offset the efficiency gains, and the cost per task is still approximately 75% higher than its predecessor.
