There is a screamingly obvious answer here and I don't understand why they aren't taking it -- raise prices, make the free tier less generous. Either slow down the growth or up the revenue pipe so you can throw more compute at it.
What if the load isn't fully the cause, and they end up with a significantly smaller userbase still getting downtime?
I thought the same thing at first. But that only works if there were no sharks in the water who would love them to do that.
I got a notice about some incoming rate-limits.
Trying to slow down the growth would be an admission that everyone having their AI agents pushing 500 commits per hour autonomously may not be an objectively good thing for everyone involved. They won't do that.
As it stands, customers aren't leaving because of the degraded performance. Free is generating paying customers.
Raising prices risks churn, reducing free tier risks lowering customer acquisition rate.