Global AI tool ChatGPT experiences brief outage, affecting thousands of users worldwide. The cause remains unclear, but a fix was implemented after just over four hours.
ChatGPT, the world’s best-known artificial intelligence (AI) tool, was taken offline after experiencing an outage that affected thousands of users worldwide.
The issue began at around 11:00 GMT on Thursday, with more than 10,000 people reporting problems accessing the AI chatbot in the UK alone. Users attempting to access ChatGPT were met with a “bad gateway error” message from the web server.
Cause of Outage Remains Unclear
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has not yet publicly commented on the cause of the outage. However, its status page indicated that the app was experiencing elevated error rates and that the firm was investigating.
A fix was implemented at 15:09 GMT, and OpenAI is now monitoring the results. Despite the brief disruption, many people took to social media to highlight the problem and share their experiences.
Impact of Outage on Users
Some users found humor in the situation, joking about having to think for themselves while ChatGPT was down. However, others were more frustrated by the outage, which came at a busy time of day.
ChatGPT’s popularity has been growing rapidly since its launch in November 2022. By December 2024, it had been used weekly by over 300 million people worldwide. The tool is free to use, but OpenAI charges up to $200 per month for its various membership tiers.
The outage comes as tech firms, including OpenAI, pledge a significant investment into AI infrastructure in the US.
