ChatGPT and Sora had an untimely outage during the '12 days of OpenAI' announcements, but it seems the issues have been fixed – for now.
On December 11, trying to access ChatGPT on the web presented you with a basic text saying that the service was unavailable. OpenAI’s status page also showed that there was an issue affecting ChatGPT and Sora, among others, but it's now showing a healthy 'all systems operational' message.
The outage came just days after OpenAI finally rolled out Sora, its text-to-video generator, and on the same day that Apple rolled out its next set of Apple Intelligence features, including ChatGPT integration for Siri.
It was the latest outage since a major one in June of 2024, which occurred on the 4th and 17th of that month when ChatGPT went down for hours. If you're still having issues, read on to find out how the outage played out and the latest news on OpenAI's most recent wobble...
When did the ChatGPT problems start?
According to Downdetector, the first reports of a ChatGPT outage started around two hours ago at 2.30am ET / 7.30am BDT / 4.30pm AEST.
At their peak, there were around 2,300 reports of issues in the US and around 1,000 in the UK, a not insignificant number which suggests that a significant proportion of users are unable to use the service.
We're currently unable to use ChatGPT in either the web browser or iOS mobile app, with the latter returning an "internal server error".
OpenAI has "identified the issue"
While there's been no word from OpenAI on social media about the ChatGPT issues, its status page now says that it's "identified the issue and mitigating" (as of 1.32PDT).
In theory, then, a fix shouldn't be too far away, although the reports on Downdetector have continued to spike in the UK (but appear to be stabilizing in the US).
What's causing the issues?
OpenAI hasn't yet committed on what's causing today's ChatGPT's problems, though it currently looks like a simple server outage.
Most users are either unable to access the website in a browser – we're getting a "bad gateway" response – or are simply unable to send messages in the web or app versions.
The ChatGPT status page says the issue is still unresolved, so it's time for rival chatbot users like Copilot to start gloating.
No quick fix, it seems
OpenAI's latest update suggests that the ChatGPT issues aren't proving to be an easy fix – its status page has gone from orange to red, and it says "we are continuing to work on a fix for this issue".
There's still no direct word from OpenAI on what the cause is, but we should find out soon hopefully. Otherwise everyone will have to start using, shock, pre-ChatGPT tools for brainstorming and coding.
In the meantime...
The ChatGPT outage appears to be worldwide, with reports on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting it's down for many in the US, UK, France, New Zealand and many more countries.
While we wait for OpenAI's engineers get under ChatGPT's hood and fix the issues, maybe it's time to browse through the best ChatGPT alternatives. Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot must be enjoying the outage – and we wonder how many people today have signed up to Claude 3 to give it a spin...
Millions hit by the ChatGPT outage
ChatGPT may not be used regularly by the average person, according to a fascinating new study from the Reuters Institute and Oxford University, but millions still rely on it for coding, brainstorming, writing reports and more.
The service has around 180 million active users worldwide, and rocketed to 100 million users during its breakout first year from late 2022. Those who do use ChatGPT regularly have made the tool a key part of their workflow, which is why this increasingly lengthy outage is proving particularly painful.
There are still no further updates from OpenAI's status page, over an hour since it said it was "continuing to work on a fix" for the issue.
Signs of life!
Today's ChatGPT issues appear to mostly be affecting logged-in users – that's still most people, though, as OpenAI is still rolling out the option of using the service instantly without logging in (which it announced in April).
But it looks like the problems are slowly getting resolved. We're now seeing full access to the latest GPT-4o model on our Plus account (via web browser) and in the mobile app.
Downdetector is also again seeing a drop in reports following a second spike earlier. All we need now is for OpenAI to give us the good news with a more promising status update...
How does this ChatGPT outage compare?
ChatGPT isn't exactly immune to outages, but this is looking like the biggest and longest one of the year. The last really serious one was just over a year ago in May 2023, when the service was down for around eight hours.
While there are some signs of ChatGPT returning its old self, we're approaching five hours since issues were first reported – and OpenAI's status page continues to show a major incident that's leaving the service "unavailable for some users".
More recently, we also saw ChatGPT go briefly off the rails, with users reporting an array of confusing and even threatening responses from the bot. Even chatbots have bad days, it seems...
The official outage time...
While ChatGPT seems to have now recovered for us in the UK, OpenAI is still reporting a "major outage" that it's "continuing to work on a fix".
The first reports of problems hit Downdetector at around 2.30am ET / 7.30am BST / 4.30pm AEST. But according to OpenAI the outage has officially lasted just over two hours now. Hopefully some official news isn't too far away now...
Good news! There's a fix...
OpenAI has just updated its ChatGPT status page to say that "a fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results".
So if you haven't, like us, already seen the chatbot return to its old self, you should be able to quiz its AI brain very soon. There's still no official word on the cause of the problems, but the main thing is that ChatGPT has seemingly returned from sick leave...
Phew, ChatGPT is back
Right, that should be it now – OpenAI's status page is now reporting that "all systems are operational" and it's now fully working for us on the web and in the mobile app.
That was quite an outage, but one thing we still don't know is exactly what caused it. We've contacted OpenAI to find out and will update you if we hear back. But with ChatGPT now back from its sick leave, it's time to start firing questions at the much-loved chatbot again...
Uh-oh...
Just when it looked like ChatGPT was starting to feel better, the dreaded red "major outage" alert has returned to OpenAI's status page.
All that OpenAI is saying right now is that it's "currently investigating this issue". Let's hope it doesn't last the five or so hours that it took to fix last time. We've asked OpenAI for comment and will update you when we hear back, but we imagine it's a little sidetracked right now...
That's quite the aftershock...
This second major ChatGPT outage might be bigger than the one earlier today, according to Downdetector – or perhaps just worse timed.
There's been a huge spike in reports in the US and UK, with thousands complaining that they can't access the service on the web or mobile app. A large number seem to be have been left in a homework or coding quandary as a result, so let's hope we see another fix appear soon.
Same issue, new error messages?
OpenAI still hasn't commented on what's causing the new outage, other than to say that it's "investigating" it on ChatGPT's status page. But the service is certainly down for us in the web browser and the app is also giving us new error messages.
Earlier, it was "internal server error", now we're getting "we're experiencing exceptionally high demand". This doesn't tell us anything on its own, but we're looking forward to hearing OpenAI's explanation for what is now a lengthy outage.
In a previous outage in November 2023, OpenAI was a little clearer about what was behind the problems, stating "we are dealing with periodic outages due to an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack". There's no suggestion that's the case again here, but we're continuing to chase spokesperson comment to help clear up the mystery.
A bad day for AI?
Strangely, it seems that some of ChatGPT's rivals have also been having issues today, though nowhere near on the scale of OpenAI. As some have flagged on X (formerly Twitter), Perplexity AI and Claude AI users have reported problems with those services – and Downdetector does show a spike for Perplexity from 10.20am ET / 3.20pm BST.
While those Perplexity reports are a minor tremor compared to the spikes seen for OpenAI (perhaps reflecting the size of its user base), they did happen at exactly the same time as ChatGPT's second wave of issues. All of which has left us a little, well, perplexed...
OpenAI remains quiet
We've asked OpenAI to explain what's behind ChatGPT's problems are and when they might be fixed, but so far the only clues are on its status page. And that still has a big, red warning that the service is "still down for some users" across the web service and mobile apps.
The major tech giants don't always comment on outages like this, but last November OpenAI did say that the outage was related to a DDoS attack. Those comments came a day after the AI chatbot's issues, though, so we may yet hear the ChatGPT maker reveal more at a later date. Until then, there's always Google Gemini or the best ChatGPT alternatives to keep you busy...
A return to normal
Even though OpenAI's status page still shows a red bar for ChatGPT, the AI appears to be returning to normal operation. We queried the new GPT-4o about its operation status, though the chatbot doesn't actually know what's going on.
Is it over?
Good news, ChatGPT fans, the generative AI platform appears to be back online. In fact, OpenAI is now reporting the situation as "Resolved" as of 5:01PM GMT (that's around 1PM New York time). From OpenAI's status page:
"We experienced a major outage impacting all users on all plans of ChatGPT. The impact included all ChatGPT related services. The impact did not include platform.openai.com or the API. This incident started June 4th at 2:15p GMT and was resolved June 4th at 5:01p GMT."
This was the second major outage of the day. The first, which started in the overnight hours and continued through the morning, was resolved early on Tuesday. However, the system crashed a couple of hours later.
That's a lot of instability for one system but, as of this post, OpenAI has yet to explain what happened. What it does offer is some extra advice for those who are trying to reconnect to ChatGPT. Most platforms could need a hard reset to start chatting again. So, if you're still unable to converse with ChatGPT, you may want to do the hard refresh on your browser.
Still having ChatGPT problems?
It's now the day after ChatGPT's major outage and fortunately all the problems seem to be resolved. But if you're still having problems with the web version of the service, on either desktop or mobile, OpenAI recommends doing a hard refresh.
Below are its instructions for doing that on Mac or PC. That should fix any lingering issues – if not, then something else might be going on. For problems unrelated to yesterday's outage, check out our guide on what to do when ChatGPT is down.
How to do a 'hard refresh' on Mac:
Chrome and/or Firefox = Press Cmd + Shift + R
Safari = Press Cmd + Option + R
How to do a 'hard refresh' on PC:
Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge = Press Ctrl + F5
As of 2 PM ET on June 17, 2024, DownDetector – an online tool for monitoring service outages – began reporting issues with ChatGPT.
OpenAI began investigating "error rates impacting ChatGPT" as of 2:39 PM ET.
I've been encountering issues, as well as my colleagues, with getting a response from ChatGPT via the mobile app and on the web. Other folks have been reporting issues on social media and DownDetector via the comment section.
In line with reported outages on DownDetector, Lance Ulanoff – Editor At Large, TechRadar – had some luck with ChatGPT, but it was short-lived.
Via the mobile app, ChatGPT-4o was able to create an image but then encountered an issue with updating or adding to it, stating: "Your most recent request failed. Please retry!"
This latest ChatGPT disruption comes a week after Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership that would allow the latest ChatGPT-4o LLM to integrate with Apple Intelligence.
Considering the errors we're seeing when asking ChatGPT for something – ranging from "upstream connect errors" to more general ones – it appears that OpenAI is investigating the right part of the service and working to get it back online.
Considering posts on X (formerly Twitter), users of ChatGPT are seeing a wide range of errors, and all are just concerned with when the service will return to fully operational. Some are trying out competing services AI chatbots, though.
OpenAI's status page, which notes the current issues with "elevated error rates," shows the last major ChatGPT outage occurring on June 4, 2024.
While ChatGPT is intermittently responding to queries, it still appears to be failing for some of them in our testing. Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large for TechRadar, was able to generate an image, but then the AI failed to answer two quieres.
For me, ChatGPT answered one mathematical equation and then timed out when asked for facts about a celebrity.
Considering ChatGPT is erroring out or just leaving you waiting for a response, it might be worth checking out alternatives like Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, or Claude. Some users on X (formerly Twitter) and Threads are even posting that they're giving other services a try.
I'm still receiving an extended pause before receiving an answer, and at times, an error code in red is displayed.
As of 5:05 PM ET on June 17, 2024, OpenAI has updated its status page to reflect "All Systems Operational." We've also been able to get responses from ChatGPT 3.5 and 4o, with the latter producing the image below.
Three hours and counting...
The number of ChatGPT users reporting the outage on Downdetector appears to be dropping in the US and UK, though there still isn't any sign of an official fix over three hours since the issues started. We're still unable to use the service on the web or mobile app.
OpenAI hasn't yet commented on the issue, but it'll be interesting to hear about the cause when it does. Last year in November 2023, following a similar ChatGPT outage, OpenAI said it was down to “an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack".
There's no suggestion that this is the case today, but that previous outage occurred during an unstable period for ChatGPT that saw it go down twice over two days –ChatGPT fans will be hoping that isn't the case again.
No, it's not just you. If you're trying to access ChatGPT, Sora, or Dall-E and it's not loading, OpenAI is currently having an outage, and the company's own status page shows that issues began at 6:17 PM ET on December 11, 2024.
DownDetector, a site that tracks outages for services and sites, also shows a spike in reports.
OpenAI has had an exciting few days, from a new model to the launch of Sora, but it seemingly is having an impact on keeping it's services afloat. Right now, trying to access ChatGPT.com on a computer results in this simple message noting it's unavailable and that OpenAI is working on a fix.
Similarly, my colleague Lance Ulanoff – TechRadar's Editor-at-Large – is unable to sign-in on the iOS app for ChatGPT, and also noted that both Dall-E and Sora are down if you try to access them.
DownDetector has been working overtime today as Meta's various services – Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp included – all had outages today. Over on the OpenAI section there is a spike in reported outages that has been declining currently showing 4,970 reports as of 8:06PM ET, but it was over 26,000 as 6:36PM ET.
OpenAI's status page as of now reads, "We are continuing to work on a fix for this issue." in its most recent update that was published at 8:03PM ET.
It is launch day for OpenAI with Apple, at least with the ChatGPT extension for Siri as a part of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, all of which rolled out today for eligible devices.
Right now, when I ask Siri to write me a sonnet on my iPhone 16 Pro, it asks if it's alright to use ChatGPT and then just displays "Working with ChatGPT..." but it never finishes. That tracks as the service is currently experiencing an outage, but it doesn't display that or tell me that.
However, my colleague Lance Ulanoff did get ChatGPT to respond when using Visual Intelligence – a long press on Camera Control on an iPhone 16 – to describe a Christmas tree.
As of a new status update published at 8:50 PM ET, it appears that some users might be able to access both ChatGPT and the APIs again, though Sora remains down.
The post reads in full, "Update - We are continuing to work towards remediation. API and ChatGPT traffic is partially recovered. Sora remains down." While no exact time frame is given, it's a positive update in the right direction. Currently, I still can't load ChatGPT on the web or via the app on iOS.
OpenAI also acknowledged the outage on X (formerly Twitter) in a post at 7:15PM ET on December 11, 2024, and the brand wrote "Sorry and we'll keep you updated!"
We're experiencing an outage right now. We have identified the issue and are working to roll out a fix.Sorry and we'll keep you updated!December 12, 2024
Well, we can finally load ChatGPT again – while OpenAI has not updated its status page since 8:50 PM ET, to note that some services are coming back, the main service is loading again for us here on the East Coast of the United States.
I can access ChatGPT.com and have a conversation with the assistant, as can TechRadar's Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff, who had a friendly conversation. ChatGPT itself wasn't aware of the outage; at least ChatGPT within 4o mini, that is in this instance.
If you're eager to get back to OpenAI's text-to-video generator Sora, which officially launched earlier this week, it's now beginning to come back online, according to the company.
In the most recent update, posted at 9:54 PM ET on OpenAI's Status page, the company wrote, "We are continuing to work towards remediation. API traffic recovery is ongoing, and we are bringing ChatGPT traffic back up by region. Sora is partially beginning to recover."
Reported outages have also begun to decrease on DownDetector, with only 837 recorded at 9:45 PM ET.
ChatGPT has returned to full health
Good news, the ChatGPT website now appears to be functioning normally and OpenAI's status page has lots of healthy green, headed by an 'all systems operational' message.
The outage lasted around four hours, stretching from around 6pm ET / 11pm GMT to 10pm ET / 3am GMT on December 12. There was another small bump in reports in the UK on Downdetector at 11am GMT, but everything seems to be working now – we'll be keeping a close eye
