Yesterday was terrible for ChatGPT as a second wave brought down online browsers and the mobile app after it seemingly recovered from a “major outage” that affected millions globally earlier in the day
Fortunately, all of the issues appear to have been resolved. However, if you continue encountering difficulties with the web version of ChatGPT, OpenAI suggests performing a “hard refresh.” Instructions on how to accomplish this are provided below.
The initial reports of the ChatGPT issues that occurred yesterday were initiated at approximately 2:30am ET / 7:30 am BDT / 4:30 pm AEST on June 4. OpenAI acknowledged a significant issue, as the company’s status page reported that its AI companion was unavailable for several hours.
At approximately 7:30 a.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. BST / 4:30 p.m. AEST, OpenAI dispatched a remedy, resulting in the service’s status returning to a more favorable “all systems operational.”
However, this solution soon failed, and a large number of users began to complain on social media that they were once again unable to access the service. Ultimately, OpenAI verified the existence of new issues.
OpenAI has not yet provided a specific explanation for the cause of ChatGPT’s most significant outage of 2024. However, the company did acknowledge the outage on its status page and indicated that it had been resolved as of 5:01 PM BST.
We have requested feedback from OpenAI regarding the events of the day and will update this post with their responses as soon as we receive them.
June 5, 2024, at 9:46 a.m.
Are you still experiencing issues with ChatGPT?
The day following ChatGPT’s significant outage has passed, and all issues appear to have been resolved. However, if you continue to encounter the problems with the web version of the service, whether on a desktop or mobile device, OpenAI strongly advises performing a forced refresh.
The instructions for accomplishing this task on a Mac or PC are below. This should resolve any remaining issues; if not, there may be an alternative issue. Check out our guide on what to do when ChatGPT is down for problems unrelated to yesterday’s outage.
How to perform a “hard refresh” on a Mac:
Press Cmd + Shift + R in Chrome and Firefox.
Safari can be accessed by pressing the following keys: Cmd, Option, and R
How to perform a “hard refresh” on a personal computer: Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge: Press the Ctrl and F5 keys simultaneously.
June 4, 2024, at 7:21 p.m.
Has it concluded?
For fans of ChatGPT, there is good news: the generative AI platform appears to be operational once more. OpenAI has now reported the situation as “Resolved” as of 5:01 PM GMT (approximately 1 PM New York time). From the status page of OpenAI:
“We encountered a significant outage that affected all ChatGPT plans and affected all users.” The effect encompassed all ChatGPT-related services. Platform.openai.com and the API were not included in the impact. This incident commenced at 2:15 p.m. GMT on June 4th and was resolved at 5:01 p.m. GMT on the same day.
This was the second significant disruption of the day. The initial issue persisted throughout the night and into the morning and was resolved early on Tuesday. Nevertheless, the system experienced a failure a few hours later.
That is an excessive amount of instability for a single system; however, OpenAI has yet to provide an explanation for the incident as of the time of this publication. It provides additional guidance for individuals attempting to reestablish a connection with ChatGPT.
It is possible that a forced reset is necessary for the majority of platforms to resume chatting. Therefore, if you are still unable to communicate with ChatGPT, it may be beneficial to perform a forced refresh on your browser.
June 4, 2024, at 7:13 p.m.
A return to the norm
The AI appears to be resuming normal operation even though the status page of OpenAI still displays a red bar for ChatGPT. We inquired about the operation status of the new GPT-4o, despite the fact that the automaton is unaware of the situation.
OpenAI maintains a low profile
We have requested that OpenAI provide an explanation of the underlying issues with ChatGPT and the potential timeline for their resolution. However, the only information available at this time is contained on the status page. And the service remains “still down for some users” on both the web service and mobile applications. Additionally, a large, red warning remains.
Even though the major tech titans don’t always comment on outages of this kind, OpenAI did say that a DDoS attack in November of last year was to blame.
However, those remarks were made a day following the AI chatbot’s malfunctions, so the ChatGPT manufacturer may disclose additional information at a later time. Google Gemini or the most effective ChatGPT alternatives are available to provide entertainment until then.
An adverse day for artificial intelligence?
Interestingly, some of ChatGPT’s competitors have also been experiencing difficulties today, although they are not on the same magnitude as OpenAI.
Perplexity AI and Claude AI users have reported issues with those services, as some have noted on X (formerly Twitter). The downdetector does indicate a spike for perplexity at 10.20am ET / 3.20pm BST.
Although the Perplexity reports are a minor tremor in comparison to the increases observed for OpenAI (which may be indicative of the size of its user base), they occurred simultaneously with ChatGPT’s second wave of issues. All of this has left us feeling somewhat bewildered.
The same issue, but with new error messages?
OpenAI has yet to comment on the cause of the recent outage, except to indicate that it is “investigating” the matter on ChatGPT’s status page. However, the service is undoubtedly unavailable in the web browser, and the application generates new error messages.
Previously, the error message was “internal server error.” Presently, it is “we are experiencing exceptionally high demand.” This does not provide any information; however, we are eager to hear OpenAI’s explanation for the extended outage.
In a previous outage in November 2023, OpenAI was slightly more explicit about the cause of the issues, stating that “we are experiencing periodic outages as a result of an abnormal traffic pattern that is indicative of a DDoS attack.” There is no indication that this is the case once more; however, we are persisting in our efforts to obtain a spokesperson’s response in order to resolve the enigma.
That is quite the aftermath
According to Downdetector, this second significant ChatGPT outage may be more severe than the one that occurred earlier today, or it may have been more poorly timed.
There has been a significant increase in the number of reports in the United States and the United Kingdom, with thousands of individuals expressing their inability to access the service via the web or mobile app.
As a consequence, a significant number of individuals appear to have been left in a coding or assignment dilemma. Therefore, it is imperative that we anticipate the release of another fix in the near future.
The ominous red “major outage” alert has returned to OpenAI’s status page just as it appeared that ChatGPT was beginning to feel better.
At present, OpenAI is only stating that it is “currently investigating this issue.” I trust that it will not require the same amount of time to repair as it did the previous time, which was approximately five hours.
ChatGPT has returned, which is a relief
Right, that should resolve the matter. The status page of OpenAI now indicates that “all systems are operational,” and it is completely functional on both the web and mobile app.
While that was an extensive disruption, we remain uncertain as to its precise cause. We have reached out to OpenAI to ascertain the information and will inform you upon receiving a response.
However, with ChatGPT’s return from its medical leave, it is now appropriate to resume posing inquiries to the chatbot, who is so beloved.
There is good news! There is a solution.
OpenAI has recently modified its ChatGPT status page to indicate that
“a fix has been implemented, and we are monitoring the results.”
Therefore, if you have not yet observed the chatbot revert to its previous state, you will shortly have the opportunity to test its AI brain. The cause of the issues remains unknown; however, the primary concern is that ChatGPT appears to have returned from medical leave.
The official timing of the outage
Although ChatGPT appears to have recovered for us in the UK, OpenAI is still reporting a “major outage” and is “continuing to work on a fix.”
The initial reports of issues were received by Downdetector at approximately 2:30 a.m. ET / 7:30 a.m. BST / 4:30 p.m. AEST. However, OpenAI has confirmed that the disruption has lasted for just over two hours. It is anticipated that official information will be forthcoming shortly.
How does this ChatGPT disruption compare?
ChatGPT is not entirely impervious to disruptions; however, this appears to be the most significant and protracted incident of the year. The service was unavailable for approximately eight hours just over a year ago in May 2023, the most recent significant incident.
Although there are indications that ChatGPT is regaining its former functionality, it has been nearly five hours since the initial reports of issues. Additionally, OpenAI’s status page continues to indicate that the service is “unavailable for some users” due to a significant incident.
Recently, ChatGPT momentarily deviated from its intended course, as users reported receiving a variety of perplexing and even threatening responses from the bot. It appears that even chatbots have bad days. Signs of existence!
Most users are still affected by the ChatGPT issues of today, as the service is still being rolled out to those who are logged in, even though OpenAI announced the option to use the service instantaneously without logging in April.
However, it appears that the issues are being addressed gradually. We are currently experiencing complete access to the most recent GPT-4o model in the mobile app and our Plus account, accessed through a web browser.
Following a second surge earlier, Downdetector is also experiencing decreased reports. Now, all that remains is for OpenAI to provide us with a more optimistic status update.
The ChatGPT malfunction has affected millions
Although the average person may not use ChatGPT frequently, millions still rely on it for coding, ideation, and report writing, according to an intriguing new study by the Reuters Institute and Oxford University.
The service has approximately 180 million active users worldwide, and it experienced a significant increase in user base to 100 million during its breakthrough first year, which began in late 2022. Users who employ ChatGPT consistently have integrated the tool into their workflow, which is why this prolonged disruption is causing them significant distress.
OpenAI’s status page has not provided any additional updates in the past hour, despite its assertion that it is “continuing to work on a fix” for the issue.
There are three hours remaining
The number of ChatGPT users reporting the outage on Downdetector in the US and UK appears to be decreasing, although there is still no indication of an official repair over three hours after the issues began. We are still unable to utilize the service on the web or mobile program.
Although OpenAI has not yet addressed the matter, it will be intriguing to learn the issue’s root cause when it does. Following a similar incident, OpenAI reported in November 2023 that the ChatGPT disruption was due to “an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack.”
Although there is no indication that this is the case today, the previous outage occurred during an unstable period for ChatGPT, during which it was down twice in two days. Fans of ChatGPT will be praying that this does not occur again.
In the interim
The ChatGPT outage appears to be a global issue, as reports on X (formerly Twitter) indicate that it is unavailable for many users in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, and numerous other countries.
While we await the engineers at OpenAI to address the issues with ChatGPT, it may be beneficial to investigate the most effective alternatives to ChatGPT.
We are curious as to how many individuals have signed up for Claude 3 to try it out today, and we suspect that Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot are relishing the outage.
It appears that there is no immediate solution
OpenAI’s most recent update indicates that the ChatGPT issues are not a straightforward resolution. The status page has transitioned from orange to red, and the company is still developing a solution.
OpenAI has yet to provide a direct statement regarding the cause of the issue; however, it is anticipated that we will receive an update in the near future. Otherwise, it will be necessary for all individuals to begin utilizing pre-ChatGPT instruments for coding and brainstorming.
What is the root cause of the problems?
Although it appears to be a straightforward server disruption, OpenAI has not yet committed to the cause of the ChatGPT issues that are currently occurring.
Most users are either unable to access the website in a browser (we are receiving a “bad gateway” response) or cannot transmit messages in the web or app versions.
The ChatGPT status page indicates that the issue is still unresolved. Consequently, it is time for rival chatbot users, such as Copilot, to begin bragging.
OpenAI has “identified the issue”
As of 1.32PDT, OpenAI’s status page indicates that it has “identified the issue and is mitigating” the ChatGPT issues, despite the absence of any communication from the company on social media.
In theory, a solution should not be too far away; however, the reports on Downdetector have continued to increase in the UK (although they seem to be stabilizing in the US).
When did the ChatGPT issues commence?
The initial reports of a ChatGPT outage were initiated approximately two hours ago at 2:30 a.m. ET / 7:30 a.m. BDT / 4:30 p.m. AEST, according to Downdetector.
The service was experiencing a significant number of issues, with approximately 2,300 reports of issues in the United States and approximately 1,000 in the United Kingdom at its zenith. This suggests that a substantial number of users cannot utilize the service.
A “internal server error” prevents us from utilizing ChatGPT in either the web browser or the iOS mobile app.