KEY POINTS
- Outage began at approximately 12:32 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, rapidly spreading to users across North America, Europe, and Asia.
- Downdetector.com reported over 28,000 incidents at the peak of the disruption.
- OpenAI acknowledged elevated error rates and is actively implementing measures to restore full service.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform experienced a widespread outage Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of users unable to access the AI chatbot and related services for several hours.
The disruption affected both individual users and organizations relying on the platform for professional and academic work.
The interruption occurred during peak hours, preventing users from completing tasks that rely on ChatGPT, including content generation, coding assistance, and research queries.
Both free and subscription tiers experienced service degradation. Since its launch, ChatGPT has become a widely used tool in education, business, and creative industries.
The platform handles millions of requests daily, making uptime critical. Previous outages have highlighted the technical challenges of operating large scale AI systems hosted in cloud environments.
“Large AI platforms face unique pressures because even short outages can affect thousands simultaneously,” said Dr. Linda Nguyen, associate professor of computer science at UC Berkeley.
John Davis, senior analyst at DataTrend Insights, noted, “Downtime can disrupt workflows, impact clients, and undermine trust in AI services.”
| Time (PST) | Event | User Reports |
|---|---|---|
| 12:32 p.m. | Outage begins | Initial reports |
| 12:46 p.m. | Escalation | 20,000+ users |
| 12:51 p.m. | Continued increase | 22,000+ users |
| 1:03 p.m. | Widespread disruption | 25,000+ users |
| 1:08 p.m. | Peak | 28,000+ users |
Graduate student Maria Torres said, “I couldn’t access my ChatGPT notes, which delayed my research.” Developer Ahmed Khan added, “I rely on the API for client tasks, and this outage stalled critical work.”
OpenAI is working to improve infrastructure and redundancy to prevent future interruptions. Analysts say robust failover systems will become increasingly important as AI services expand globally.
The incident underscores the growing dependence on AI platforms and the challenges of ensuring consistent service for millions of users worldwide.
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