ChatGPT was down again — live updates on latest outage
ChatGPT had issues for users all around the world
How many people are affected?
ChatGPT's current outage is undoubtedly affecting thousands of users worldwide, and it could spread further as more people start reporting an outage.
The chatbot is available to use for free, but OpenAI charges for access to its more advanced features. While free users will no doubt be upset, those paying for access to ChatGPT and its wealth of features will undoubtedly be angrier.
According to OpenAI boss Sam Altman, ChatGPT is used weekly by more than 300 million people worldwide.
The reports are coming in...
As you can see from the DownDetector graph pictured above, reports spiked early and reached nearly 1,200 reports before falling back down again to around 1,000. It's been up and down, but there's no doubt something is off with ChatGPT.
DownDetector relies on user-generated reports of outages and typically sees strong spikes right into an outage as devoted users of any service provide their reports.
Many reporters cite that ChatGPT isn't working, regardless of platform, though mobile seems to be the more significant issue, as that's where I could not connect.
ChatGPT alternatives
If ChatGPT isn't fully working for you yet, you may wonder what to use instead.
Luckily, we have a list here of the best ChatGPT alternatives. Give it a read and get the answers you seek from alternative chatbots (none of which are showing as down on Downdetector, so you should be good to go).
OpenAI status page acknowledges issues
OpenAI posted on its status page about the ChatGPT issues. It said "We are investigating the issue for the listed services." The company acknowledged that users might see "Degraded performance" using ChatGPT, which seems to be the most common reports we're seeing.
Again, I will note that ChatGPT is working fine for me, so your milage may vary.
Could the Ghibli hype be to blame?
Many people on the internet are talking about ChatGPT today with the rise of 4o's image generator turning everything into Studio Ghibli images (at least if left to its own devices.
Perhaps all the people wanting to turn their photos into Studio Ghibli drawings are causing a spike in users for whom OpenAI wasn't prepared? Or maybe it's just a coincidence.
Either way, we'll keep an eye on the outage and bring you all the latest live reports so you can get back to using your favorite AI chatbot ASAP.
OpenAI working on a fix
OpenAI updated its status page again, acknowledging that users are experiencing issues and saying it's working on a mitigation.
"We have identified that users are experiencing elevated errors for the impacted services.
We are working on implementing a mitigation," reads the company's latest update.
This could be another quick outage for ChatGPT, which would be great for those relying on it to complete their work.
Is ChatGPT back online?
Down Detector reports have dropped dramatically to around 278.
With them reaching as high as 1,200, that's a pretty sizable drop that suggests the outage might be over. If not over, it's at least slowing down substantially.
All impacted services have now fully recovered
According to OpenAI, everything is back in working order now. The status pages reads "All impacted services have now fully recovered."
The main status page still lists an issue with new users signing up for ChatGPT, so if you haven't used the chatbot before, you might have problems. However, everyone else should be good to go.
Down again
It's not an April Fool's joke — ChatGPT is having yet another outage. Users worldwide cannot use the chatbot for their burning queries and image creation requests.
Down Detector is showing more than 1,000 reports, which is usually a good sign that something is wrong. A few reports here and there could just be a small thing hitting a particular area, but when it gets that high, it clearly indicates something is wrong.
OpenAI isn't aware of any issues
If you look at OpenAI's status page, it says "We’re not aware of any issues affecting our systems." Of course, it could be that outage is in the early stages and the company hasn't seen the problem on its end yet. It's also possible that this a quick blip that will be resolved in a few moments.
OpenAI acknowledges the issue
After a delay, OpenAI jumped on its official status page to acknowledge that it's experiencing issues with ChatGPT. You'll probably see degraded performance on ChatGPT while the company works on the problem. "We are investigating the issue for the listed services," reads the status page.
It's working for me
For what it's worth, I've been using ChatGPT today with no issues. I just asked it to take a picture of me holding a rangefinder for golf and make it look like I'm holding the Masters trophy instead of the rangefinder (it's a great rangefinder, but who doesn't want the most prestigious trophy in golf?)
Could the image be better? Yes — it changed the angle and doesn't look quite like me anymore — it did work, which is what matters for our purposes.
The fix is in
According to OpenAI, the firm has "applied the mitigation and is monitoring the recovery."
This means things should return to normal shortly for dedicated ChatGPT users who need to finish their work and make funny images or whatever else they use ChatGPT for.
ChatGPT is recovered
According to OpenAI, everything should be working now.
ChatGPT's creator says, "All impacted services have now fully recovered."
This one was quick and relatively painless as outages go, as OpenAI first acknowledged the issue at 10:44 a.m. ET and posted that it had solved the problem at 11:12 a.m. ET.
Even when we first reported the outage, which was 10:21 a.m. ET. this outage still laster around an hour, which isn't too bad.
User reports slowing down
ChatGPT looks to be back online, with just a few straggling user reports coming in. It's currently sitting at around 300 reports on Down Detector, which is a sign that we're out of the woods for this ChatGPT outage.
We can officially call this outage over after just over an hour. While it was short, two days in a row with major outages for a service like ChatGPT isn't a good thing, especially if we're meant to rely on AI in the future.
