ChatGPT Experiences Widespread Outage

Published: 1/23/2025, 11:40:03 PM EST

ChatGPT Experiences Widespread Outage — The ChatGPT app is displayed on an iPhone in New York, on May 18, 2023. (The Canadian Press/AP, Richard Drew)

OpenAI's popular artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, faced significant technical difficulties on Thursday, leaving thousands of users unable to access the service.

The outage, which began in the early morning Pacific Standard Time (PST), affected users across multiple countries and lasted for several hours.

According to Downdetector, a website that monitors online service disruptions, more than 4,000 users reported being unable to access the website, peaking at 4 a.m. PT. The problems were not limited to one place, with users from various parts of the world, including Germany and North America, reporting difficulties.

OpenAI's status page documented a series of incidents throughout the day, indicating the company was aware of and actively addressing the issues.

The first reported problem, labeled as "Elevated Error Rate for ChatGPT and API," was resolved between 3:33 a.m. and 4:23 a.m. PT. But shortly after, a larger disruption occurred.

At 5:12 a.m. PT, OpenAI reported they were investigating "elevated error rates for ChatGPT." The company identified the root cause by 5:43 a.m. PT and implemented a fix by 7:09 a.m. PT. OpenAI declared the issue resolved at 8:05 a.m. PT, stating, "This issue has now been resolved. Between 4:23am and 7:10am PT, customers experienced elevated errors on ChatGPT".

The outage left many users frustrated, especially those who rely on the AI tool for work-related tasks.

One user commented on Downdetector, "Still not working for me. I keep getting a message saying 'Hmm... something seems to have gone wrong' for the last 24+ hours".

Another user reported document upload issues, commenting, "you guys honestly suck! uploading a document and it disapears! ill make sure my payment for ChatGPT is delayed as well".

On Reddit, a thread titled "Chat GPT is down" garnered comments from 700 users.

One Reddit user highlighted the growing dependence on AI tools, commenting, "SOOOO> That is how dependent we have become on AI and Chat GPT... I use mine for everything work related, and now I'm stuck at 7 am, without the tools I need. ACCCKKK".

The ChatGPT outage comes at a time of increased focus on AI infrastructure in the United States. Just two days earlier, on Jan. 21, President Donald Trump announced a massive $500 billion private sector investment in AI infrastructure.

During a White House press conference, Trump described the initiative as the "largest AI infrastructure project by far in history". The project aims to create 100,000 American jobs in the short term and includes the construction of large-scale data centers across the country.