User reports
According to a report by IT之家, in recent weeks some users have reported on Reddit and OpenAI's official developer community forums the sudden deactivation of their ChatGPT accounts. The cases cited also include subscribers to the Pro plan, which carries a monthly fee of $200. Some say they received no notice before the block, resulting in loss of access to conversations and materials accumulated over time.
One user recounted on November 7 that their Pro account had been deactivated the same day, with the error code account_deactivated displayed and without any prior communication. The same user specified that they participate in an OpenAI access program dedicated to cybersecurity and had enabled advanced protection settings based on physical security keys. They hypothesized a connection with the recent use of VPN nodes from different regions to access ChatGPT and Codex, while specifying that this is a personal supposition.
OpenAI's response and the open questions
OpenAI's support account intervened in the discussion, explaining that matters relating to individual accounts cannot be handled in a public forum. Users are instructed to file an appeal via the link contained in the block notification email or, in the absence of this, through the official form or the support center. However, the response does not clarify the specific reasons for the contested deactivation.
Other similar testimonies have emerged on Reddit. A Pro subscriber reported receiving as the reason for the block an alleged connection with another account already closed previously, denying that they owned or used other profiles. According to their account, the appeal was reportedly rejected about an hour after submission. Other users have reported permanent deactivations, unsuccessful appeals, and loss of access to notes and documents stored in the service. Reports of blocks linked to various disputes over usage policies had already been collected on Reddit previously.
The listed causes and the limitations of the information
OpenAI's help center lists several possible reasons for deactivating an account: violation of usage policies, circumvention of security or access limits, improper sharing of credentials and API keys, security anomalies, and failure to complete required identity verifications. The risks indicated also include geographic restrictions: accessing ChatGPT or the APIs from unsupported countries or regions may lead to suspension or closure of the profile. The article notes, however, that using VPN nodes from different regions does not automatically imply a violation and that at present it is not possible to determine whether the reported cases depend on this factor.
At the time of publication, OpenAI had not released a comprehensive explanation of the reported deactivations or disclosed the number of accounts involved. The available cases do not make it possible to determine whether this is a single large-scale blocking action, and the possible existence of erroneous deactivations remains to be verified. The information gathered comes largely from statements by the affected users and not from official confirmation of individual episodes.
The matter is significant because it also concerns paying subscribers and users with advanced security settings, and because it highlights the weight of the data stored within the service: a block can make conversations and work materials inaccessible without any known possibility of recovering them. The actual causes of individual cases, the criteria followed in the deactivations, the total number of affected users, and the appeal procedures available to those who did not receive notification by email remain to be clarified.
