ChatGPT Outage: Thousands Report Access Issues, OpenAI Working on Fix
ChatGPT experienced significant service disruptions, with thousands of users reporting inability to access OpenAI’s popular AI chatbot. The outage tracker Downdetector recorded over 3,000 complaints from US users alone, peaking around 7:47 PM IST (10:47 AM ET).
Key Takeaways
- ChatGPT users reported widespread access issues and slow performance
- OpenAI acknowledged “increased error rates” and implemented mitigation measures
- Over 3,000 outage reports recorded on Downdetector during peak hours
OpenAI’s Official Response
OpenAI confirmed technical issues on its status page, stating: “Increased error rates on ChatGPT.” The company identified that “users are experiencing elevated errors for the impacted services” and was “working on implementing a mitigation.”
While avoiding the term “downtime,” OpenAI described the situation as “degraded performance” for its chatbot. By 8:10 PM IST, the company updated that it had “applied the mitigation and are monitoring the recovery.”
User Experiences Across Platforms
Social media platforms revealed divided user experiences – some couldn’t access ChatGPT at all, while others faced extremely slow responses.
One ChatGPT Pro subscriber reported: “I’m noticing that ChatGPT (I’m on the paid plan using GPT-5) is extremely slow today. I asked it to help me create an Excel sheet, but it’s taking ages to respond, and my browser keeps freezing up.”
Another user wondered about potential connection to OpenAI’s recent launch: “Same here, very slow at the moment; I wonder if that can be related to the launch of the new OpenAI Internet Browser Atlas?”
OpenAI had launched its AI-powered browser ChatGPT Atlas on Tuesday, featuring ChatGPT as the central component while replacing traditional search engines.
More frustrated users added: “Yep, I’m not able to do anything. won’t load chats or start new ones,” while another quipped: “ChatGPT is down and I have to actually think now” on X.
