GPT 5, high reasoning taking forever on the API

Hi,

I am on OpenAI API, using:

GPT-5

Reasoning: high

Verbosity: high

Summary: detailed

I sent a request, and it takes forever to get back an output.
The same request sometimes works after 18 minutes (an acceptable time for me). However, after 4h, it is still thinking…

I have this issue BOTH at US peak time and outside of that timeframe.

What solutions do you give me? Can I pay extra to skip the queue and get preferential access to the API?

Thanks