Article · AI translation
On November 8, Beijing time, several users recently reported on Reddit and OpenAI’s official developer community that their ChatGPT accounts had suddenly been deactivated, including Pro users who pay $200 a month (IT Home note: approximately 1,338 yuan at the current exchange rate). Some users said they received no notice before their accounts were banned, leaving them unable to access years of accumulated chat histories and work materials.
On November 7, a user posted on OpenAI’s official developer community that their ChatGPT Pro account had suddenly been deactivated that day. The system displayed the error code “account_deactivated,” but they had received no advance warning or email notifying them of the ban.
The user said they were not only a ChatGPT Pro subscriber but had also joined an OpenAI access program related to cybersecurity, and had enabled advanced security settings requiring verification with a physical security key. They suspected the ban might be related to their recent access to ChatGPT and Codex through VPN nodes in different regions. However, this was only the user’s own speculation.
The OpenAI Support account subsequently replied to the post, saying that because the matter involved specific account information, appeals against account deactivation could not be handled in a public community forum. Users should appeal through the link in the ban notification email; if they did not receive an email, they could contact support through the official appeal form or help center. The reply did not explain the specific reason this user’s account was banned.
Similar complaints also appeared on Reddit. On November 7, a ChatGPT Pro user posted that their paid account had suddenly been deactivated because it was allegedly linked to another account that had previously been closed. The user denied ever owning or using another account and said they received a response upholding the ban about an hour after submitting an appeal.
Another user reported that, after their account was permanently deactivated, their appeal was unsuccessful and they could no longer access materials such as notes and diary entries previously saved in ChatGPT. Earlier, a Reddit user had posted a collection of recent account ban cases involving different types of disputes over usage policies.
Regarding account bans, OpenAI’s official help center lists a range of possible reasons, including violations of usage policies, circumventing security or access restrictions, improper sharing of accounts or API keys, unusual account security activity, and failure to complete required identity verification.
Regional access restrictions are also among the risks explicitly listed by OpenAI. According to its official guidance, accessing ChatGPT or the OpenAI API from unsupported countries or regions may result in an account being banned or suspended. However, using VPN nodes in different regions does not necessarily mean regional access restrictions have been violated, and it cannot currently be determined whether the users concerned were banned for this reason.
As of publication, OpenAI had not issued a unified explanation for the recent wave of user reports of account deactivations or disclosed how many people were affected. The cases reported so far do not establish that these accounts were part of a single coordinated ban, and whether any accounts were banned in error remains to be confirmed.