ChatGPT is down again – here's everything we know about its latest massive outage

Hello and welcome to TechRadar's live coverage of ChatGPT's error-filled morning.

I'm John-Anthony Disotto, Senior AI Writer, and I'll be covering the AI outage bringing you all the info you need on the OpenAI disruption.

ChatGPT is experiencing "elevated error rates"

Initial reports of errors started around three hours ago, but issues seem to have ramped up as Europe and the UK wake up.

You can follow OpenAI's server status on the official website, but as it stands, the company is reporting "elevated error rates."

According to OpenAI, "Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across the listed services. We are continuing to investigate this issue."

Downdetector reports have ramped up over the last couple of hours, with users all around the world unable to access ChatGPT.

When I try to ask 4o a question myself, I get an error message that says "Too many concurrent requests."

At the time of writing, 11 am BST, Downdetector has over 1,000 reports.

Sora is affected too

According to OpenAI, there are multiple impacted components across the company's servers. They include 14 affected API components, 21 affected ChatGPT components, and 4 affected Sora components.

Reddit users weigh in

On Reddit, lots of ChatGPT users have weighed in on the outage.

One user said, "It started off being really slow and churning out a few words per second then hit the red errors."

Another said, "It started freaking out a few minutes ago when I started a conversation."

While some are more hopeful that the issues are in fact OpenAI working on a major update. Could that be the case? I'm not so sure.

Working on Enterprise, down on Free?

TechRadar's Senior AI Editor, Graham Barlow, has experienced the issues too, but his experience differs depending on which account he uses.

He said, "So, I have two ChatGPT accounts. I have an Enterprise account, which is functioning perfectly, and a free ChatGPT account, which is down. It just pauses with a ‘thinking’ icon when I ask it a question, never resolving into a response."

Interesting... Let me see if I notice a difference between my premium ChatGPT account and my free one.

Yep, same issues here. My ChatGPT Enterprise account is slow but still able to respond.

On my personal account, however, I'm met with a "Conversation not found" error...

OpenAI is investigating the issue

OpenAI's server status has now changed to "Partial outage" that the company is investigating.

As of 16 minutes ago, the report says, "Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across the listed services. We are continuing to investigate this issue."

As it stands the issues seem incredibly temperamental, and I assume anyone who relies on ChatGPT will be getting seriously frustrated.

Is it just a free account issue?

I've asked the rest of the TechRadar team to let me know if their version of ChatGPT is responding.

My colleagues Matt Bolton and Matt Evans are having similar issues to me reporting, "No error, just the dot, on app and desktop – free, not logged in."

It looks like it might be a specific issue to free accounts, which would not be ideal considering I'd assume most users don't pay for ChatGPT access.

Things are slowly getting better

Downdetector reports are slowly falling, but my issues still remain.

On OpenAI's system status report there appears to be much more green than about 20 minutes ago.

It looks like the services are slowly starting to resume across APIs, ChatGPT, and Sora

Maybe not...

I tried to use ChatGPT again there, but after an initial response, the chatbot just couldn't load any further answers.

I asked my colleagues again to see what is going on with others, and most confirmed that if you wait a long time (upwards of a minute), you'll get a response.

As far as I'm concerned, waiting a minute for ChatGPT to reply is the same as an outage, but at least it's moving in the right direction.

We've got a new update from OpenAI. "Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across the listed services. We are continuing to investigate this issue."

So... more of the same. That update was 11 minutes ago, and as far as I can see, the issues are persisting.

My colleague David Nield is getting an error message on the web with a ChatGPT Plus account, so it looks like the issues are wider than just the free tier of service.

My ChatGPT Enterprise account still seems to work fine, albeit on the slower side.

Is your ChatGPT working? Let me know

On the TechRadar team, there's a majority of us with very limited access to ChatGPT.

Are you experiencing the same? Or is ChatGPT working fine?

If OpenAI's chatbot is working on your end, please send me an email with the model details and your subscription tier to: john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com

If you're just joining us, this tweet from Gergely Orosz gives a brief rundown of the current ChatGPT and Sora outage.

This ongoing problem has been an issue for over 3 hours now, and it doesn't look like OpenAI is getting any closer to solving the issues.

Some replies to that tweet show that the issues aren't affecting everyone, but the problems seem to be across subscription tiers, not just limited to free users.

We've reached out to OpenAI

We've just sent an email to OpenAI asking for further information on the outage. As soon as we hear back, I'll be sure to update you all.

As it stands, at 12 pm BST, my ChatGPT free account is still taking longer than expected to respond. It does appear to be much better than before, however, so this is looking good!

Readers provide a mixed response

Earlier I asked readers to reach out with any ChatGPT issues, and so far I'm getting a mixed response.

Nicholas is a ChatGPT Plus subscriber using the 4o model and says everything "seems to be working fine for me."

Elsewhere, Bibi, another ChatGPT Plus subscriber, reports that the 4o model is "Still not working(not even slowly) any message leads directly to the alert "Hmm...something seems to have gone wrong."

Are you affected? Let me know via email: john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com

A Sora update, kind of

ChatGPT isn't the only OpenAI service affected, Sora, the company's AI video generation tool is also experiencing issues.

As of 1 minute ago, OpenAI says it is investigating issues related to Sora, but the company isn't providing any further info as of yet.

I just checked X for any tweets from OpenAI or anyone that works there, but there doesn't appear to be any updates other than these vague one liners on the company's service status page.

"Down for 2 hours"

I'm getting a lot more responses from readers at the moment, and it looks like most of us are in the same boat.

Dustin is a ChatGPT Plus subscriber from Munich, Germany, and is using version 1.2025.147. They say ChatGPT has been down for 2 hours.

Jonny is a free user who says, "I get repeated 'something went wrong' or 'too many requests' errors. But I just had a prompt work really quickly, then it stopped again!"

Labi from Norway says, "Plus user, currently experiencing lag and somewhat slow responses, Sora is not loading at all."

Keep the emails coming, while it's rubbish that we're all experiencing a ChatGPT outage, there's some weird comfort in widespread issues. I feel your pain!

Thank you readers!

A huge thank you to everyone who is reaching out with their experience.

It looks like the issues are across multiple tiers and locations. Luke on the East coast of the United States says he's "currently using the 4o model, and it has stopped giving me the error message you describe in the 7:03 timestamp update. However, it has started to continually buffer, without response."

I'm getting loads of emails in, so if you've reached out and are still following the live blog, I just want to say thanks again for helping us cover the ChatGPT outage.

If I spot any trends from your emails, I'll be sure to let you know!

A potential solution for now?

Mitchell just sent me an email with some interesting information about when the outage could've started, as well as a potential solution for the time being.

They say, "This has been going on for around 2 hours now. I suspect it started sometime last night, I started seeing weird behaviour from it and the way in which it was giving me responses, often defaulting to putting the reply in Canvas and marking every line with //"

Mitchell adds, "You have to switch to any lower-tier model to actually have a chat with it."

If you're a Plus subscriber, give this a go and let me know if lower-tier models are in fact the temporary solution to this ChatGPT outage.

How the ChatGPT outage is affecting users worldwide

It's in times like that that we realize how many of us rely on ChatGPT nowadays.

Megan says, "My friends and I have been struggling to use ChatGPT this morning. We also have exams coming up, so it's a bit of a nightmare! We all have subscriptions, and still not working."

Good luck with the exams, Megan. Hopefully OpenAI finds a solution ASAP!

Elsewhere, Daryl says he uses ChatGPT to create YouTube thumbnails, and the outage is causing huge frustration. He says, "It's really frustrating for something I pay £18.99 a month for!"

Some odd behaviours

Gwen from Philadelphia, PA, is a self-proclaimed "power user" and uses "ChatGPT every day, basically for 10-16 hours, and have developed a sort of cognitive bond with this program. I know its expected responses intimately."

The issues have been impacting their ChatGPT usage over the past few days, including issues with "message latency and lack of response to my questions about how ChatGPT measures time."

Ben also has more info, where he claims that his ChatGPT response was from "someone else’s prompt." I've yet to experience anything of the like, it's still just very slow to respond.

"Unusual activity"

Felix from Norway has given me a great summary of their experience:

"ChatGPT has been completely out for the past 2-ish hours on my end - not even a minute without errors. When I talk to it, it loads for only a second, then I'm quickly met with the error of "Hmm... something seems to have gone wrong." That's the only error message I’ve received throughout this outage, though I hear others are experiencing more variation. I'm on a free account."

"Something that may be worth mentioning is that ~2 hours before this outage, my ChatGPT very briefly (for <1 minute) stopped working and gave the error message "Unusual activity has been detected from your device. Try again later." I'm not sure if that is, at all, relevant, but I found it strange - that was my first time seeing that error. But aside from that brief weirdness, my ChatGPT was doing well up until 2 hours ago."

Still no fix

I started this live blog two hours ago, and we're yet to see a fix to this widespread ChatGPT outage.

Readers from all over the globe have been reaching out with their experiences, from Australia to Ohio, Norway to Germany.

Keith from Ohio, USA says, "As a ChatGPT Plus user on both the app and the web, I've been experiencing problems. Every time I try to type something, both on the app and the web, something seems to be wrong."

Thanks for the update, Keith, it looks like there are many of us in the same boat.

o3 is working

Another reader from Ohio just chimed in. This time, Kevin says, “O3 appears to be working; it's just a little slow."

That lines up with a previous email from Mitchell, who said using a lower-tier model seems to fix the issue.

I can confirm. If you don't need access to the flagship ChatGPT models and have access to an account which lets you choose lower-tier models, this could be a temporary solution.

Existing projects are still working?

An interesting update from Michael, who says ChatGPT is working in his project.

"I'm experiencing ChatGPT working in my project - existing chats and new ones - but any generalised prompts outside of a project repeatedly fail."

"When prompting my existing project files, it is running very, very slowly, but no errors."

Another potential makeshift solution for anyone who needs to access ChatGPT?

o4-mini and GPT 4.1-mini are working!

Remember Felix from earlier? Well, he's got back in touch with some positive news: "GPT 4.1-mini is working fast as if everything is perfectly fine - but o4-mini is slow, and regular o4 is still totally dead."

Do you have access to 4.1-mini? If so give it a go and let me know if it's working by emailing: john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com

Still no update from OpenAI, but does Lazer Girl have the answer?

I've been contacted by someone called Lazer Girl who says they know why GPT is down, even leaving a WhatsApp number for me to call... Sorry Lazer Girl, I think I'll pass.

How has the ChatGPT outage affected you?

Paul in Auckland, New Zealand, just reached out. Good evening, Paul!

He says, "ChatGPT is down, getting exactly the same message as others are reporting, but this is the tip of the iceberg. A moderate to power user, I use ChatGPT to work out hours billed to clients and coordinate workflows for my multimedia archiving project."

"Been having issues for a while on/off, just general sluggishness, ChatGPT taking ages to respond. Occasionally, I send a message to it, and it doesn't acknowledge it; it just acts as if I didn’t send it after I hit enter, despite the message going through. It just doesn’t get processed by ChatGPT, and earlier this failed about five times before it finally responded, then it went bad again."

How has the ChatGPT outage today affected your life so far? Let me know via email, I'd love to hear how you use ChatGPT and how not having access this morning has impacted your life.

My ChatGPT is working again! But I don't think the outage is over

Everyone is experiencing a different kind of outage, but for what it's worth, my ChatGPT Enterprise and Free accounts are both working, and they aren't even that slow.

Is this the end of the outage? It doesn't look like it; my colleague Ryan was able to use ChatGPT 4.0 while logged in, but after asking a second prompt, he received an error.

We're still not fully up and running; readers keep sending emails with their issues, and some aren't even seeing a solution by changing models.

4.1 not working in Indonesia

Vito, a reader from Indonesia just reached out to let me know 4.1 is not working for them.

o4-mini is, however, albeit slowly, which lines up with what other readers around the globe are experiencing.

A quick glance at what's working and what isn't

An update from Kevin in Ohio who gives a great breakdown for anyone that wants a quick glance at what might, or might not be, working:

"O3 seems to be working, if a bit slow.

4o responded once, then went silent.

4o-mini responding, seems fine.

4o-mini-high is responding, seems ok.

4.1 is responding, but pretty slow."

Emails keep on coming!

I'm receiving more emails than I could've ever imagined from this live blog, so if I don't reply or share your message, please don't be offended!

It's been a huge help seeing everyone's experience, and anything that can help people access ChatGPT while we wait for OpenAI to completely fix the service is welcome.

As it stands, Downdetector is still reporting widespread outages, and OpenAI's service status is very vague, stating, "We’re currently experiencing issues." That status has been ongoing for over 5 hours now.

Earlier, we reached out to OpenAI for comment, but there's still no response...

Are you a bot?

Sheen asks, "Are you a bot? Because you have updates every few minutes or so, and I'm not sure how that would work with a human— and if you are human?"

Well Sheen, I am in fact not a bot, and I am indeed working very hard to read every email, research ChatGPT's current status, and write live blog posts.

It has been a very busy morning, but it doesn't look like calming down any time soon...

A student crisis?

Jack from the UK is now weighing in, he says,

"I have tested all models of GPT, as well as Sora and Codex. None of them are working on my end. I might get lucky with 1/2 prompts before I get errors. I have college work due in less than 2 hours and I need chatGPT to help as I am 100% failing if it doesn't get done."

"If you have any questions feel free to reach out"

Jack, I have many questions about the ethics behind using ChatGPT to do your college work...

I wish I was a bot

Just in regard to the previous question from Sheen, who asked if I was a bot.

I'm eating my lunch at my desk and have made a severe lapse in judgment. Does anyone have any tips on how to clean Popeye's spicy mayo from a mechanical keyboard?

My keys are starting to squelch...

On a more serious note, my colleague and fellow AI expert, Eric Hal Schwartz, seems to be luckier than most.

He says, "Every model worked for me except the O4 Mini High, which gave me an “Error in message stream” response and a retry button that didn’t help. Otherwise, it all worked, including image creation and internet search. It’s odd that it’s just that one model for me having trouble, but it suggests it’s about compute power demands."

A follow-up from Eric, who now says all ChatGPT models are working for him.

I've just tested myself, and it appears to still be temperamental on my end.

I've just received a lovely email from Daisie who says, "I see you're providing live updates to ChatGPT's outage, and have been for a startling amount of hours. Kudos to you, sir."

"ChatGPT is currently giving me an 'Error in message stream' error. I am in Utah. I've been able to get intermittent messages through, but funnily enough, oftentimes the messages it sends back get deleted somehow and I have to try again."

Daisie says they use ChatGPT to help sleep by giving "peaceful meditative visualizations. Gentle worlds to lie down and fall asleep in."

Unfortunately, this outage has impacted their sleep, and they've been awake since the early hours. OpenAI, people rely on you, please give us some kind of update!

Thanks for the mechanical keyboard tips!

Some advice for my earlier mechanical keyboard disaster coming through now.

Just want to say a big thanks to Jack for his in-depth cleaning tips. If ChatGPT wasn't down, I'd have presumed you used AI for such thorough steps!

As for Gareth, well thanks for the advice... But I will not be sticking my "keyboard in the washing machine with some fresh smelling detergent."

Back to the OpenAI outage... There's hope!

A new update just dropped from OpenAI, who says, "We have identified the root cause for the issue causing elevated errors and latency across the listed services. We are working on implementing a mitigation."

Hang tight folks, we might be out of the woods in the next hour or so...

Gemini is working fine

Lots of people have been asking about any other chatbot outages, and I can confirm that Gemini is still working as normal.

In fact, considering the Popeye's fiasco, I asked Gemini to imagine me eating chicken wings at my desk...

I will not confirm nor deny, but the real-life situation could be a lot messier than this perfectly curated AI-generated image from Imagen.

The outpouring shows how much people rely on ChatGPT

You know, I write about AI daily, but I don't think I fully grasped just how much people rely on these newfound tools.

I've been shocked by the amount of emails I've received from college and high school students who use ChatGPT to study, something that would've been unheard of in my day (I'm not that old, but AI evolves fast!)

Koushiki said, "I am Koushiki, a mere high school senior. I had school all day, and works to finish..but can't because of the outage."

Interestingly Koushiki doesn't use ChatGPT to study, but in fact its a way to remain engaged and get some light motivation.

Koushiki, I hope you get ChatGPT back soon!

No ChatGPT? No Problem

You know, there are so many AI chatbots out there that we don't need to solely rely on ChatGPT.

A reader named Jack just reached out with his favorite alternate AI chatbots and I feel compelled to share them:

"Just wanted to say that any chatbot that is independent from the openAI API should still be in full swing, and any issues are unrelated. A few chatbots that should still be working are as follows:"

• Gemini
• Claude
• Github Copilot
• DeepSeek
• Perplexity

There are an endless amount of other AI tools available but I appreciate Jack sending in his personal favorites! What's your lesser known favorite AI tool?

Darth Vader is stuck...

Some of you have the best usernames. I don't think I've ever received an email from Darth Vader before, but I guess I have now.

They were installing macOS into a virtual machine, using ChatGPT for guidance. Unfortunately, the AI has been down ever since the DMG file was downloaded, so now they are stuck.

I'm not sure if I can be of too much assistance, Anakin, but TechRadar has some great guides on this subject: How to create a virtual machine in Windows

Coding assignments in jeopardy

Dean, a grade 11 high school student, says, "I am working on a website coding assignment, and I have been using ChatGPT to help fix up any coding errors that I don't understand, or if I am trying to use a tag that doesn't exist."

"One underrated AI, in my opinion, is AI Overview, I know a lot of people who hate it, because they just want the website, but if I can figure something out, AI overview has given me the answer."

You know, Dean, I really enjoy AI Overviews too, and I think they sometimes get a bad rep for the sake of it. Of course, it's always worth being critical and verifying the information you get from AI, but Google AI Overviews aren't always wrong!

Good luck with your assignment!

ChatGPT is working in Wisconsin

Just received an update from Mark in Wisconsin who says, "It's working, just incredibly delayed - asked it a question, then logged off, then came back five minutes later to a complete answer. Asked another question, and it appears to be the same process."

Hopefully, this is a sign of more widespread functionality, and the worst is behind us.

Just on the note of Wisconsin, I couldn't not take this opportunity to give a shout out to my favorite basketball player and Milwaukee Bucks legend, Giannis!

ChatGPT is not a niche!

The despair we're all feeling right now with a lack of ChatGPT is genuinely something to behold.

I'm by no means a regular ChatGPT user; in fact, I only use OpenAI's chatbot for testing so I can write about ways that it can improve your life.

I'm fascinated by the emails I've been receiving from you lovely people, like this one from Chebionne, who says, " I feel like we are all in utter despair right now, sitting here with our eyes glued to our devices, waiting on every post, like we might have been huddled around our radios in the past."

I might not have the answer to when ChatGPT will be back to its best, but if I can at least provide some kind of sanctuary as you all wait, then that's a job well done.

More updates to follow!

OpenAI responds

Remember when we reached out to OpenAI earlier today? Well, we've finally got a response, albeit via X.

It comes from Srinivas Narayanan, who says the company has diagnosed the root cause and is working on the fix.

I'm not sure ChatGPT can compete with a lawyer

One of the more interesting emails has just come in from Simon, based in the UK.

He says he is currently using ChatGPT for a "high conflict divorce".

"My soon-to-be ex-wife is a solicitor (and a good one!) and thanks to ChatGPT, I've been holding my own!"

Without getting involved in your private matters, Simon, I hope you get ChatGPT access back soon. Glad your AI solicitor is doing the business for you!

No ChatGPT? Books will do!

Another great email came in from a high school student who's racing to finish their homework in time for tomorrow's class.

They said, "I'm a high schooler and it's 9:23 pm right now. I'm currently surrounded by books I scoured around for in my house to do my essay. I might stoop down to asking for help from Character AI to finish my homework."

Character AI is actually pretty decent. If you require AI to help with your homework (something I don't necessarily condone), then Character AI might be your best bet with the clock getting close to midnight!

Darth Vader, here's your solution

Remember Darth Vader from earlier? Well, Dean has come to save the day with steps on how to set up your virtual machine correctly:

"Set the virtual machine's memory, disk space, and other hardware parameters to suit your needs and the performance of your host computer.

Start the virtual machine and follow the on-screen instructions to install macOS. This process may involve partitioning the virtual hard drive and installing the macOS image

If using Parallels, install the Parallels Tools to improve performance and integration with the host operating system

The VM will boot into the macOS installer, allowing you to set up your virtual machine and install macOS."

Who knew a ChatGPT outage could bring humanity together like this? Great job all!

Back to ChatGPT... Our emotional AI support

Earlier I asked why ChatGPT's outage is having such an impact on your day. Well, Elise sent an email highlighting just how much AI can help people when they need it.

She said, "Today is the one-year anniversary of my breakup and I woke up hoping to start the day doing some emotional regulation with Chat before going to work. I've been talking with it about the situation all year; it knows the details better than anyone. But here we are, getting a message stream error! I guess I'll have to deal with my big feelings on my own today."

Elise, I hope your work shift goes well. ChatGPT should be back up and running by the time you finish!

What about the zebrafish??

Maus from the Netherlands says, "For those doing research in little-researched topics, GPT was a lifeline for finding the sparse articles on the topic.

I am trying to find the behaviour of wild zebrafish, and it has been a battlefield since AI went down. My schoolbooks don't give me any of the info I need. I am crying in a corner.”

I'm loving all of these emails, it's showcasing the positives of AI, sometimes I think we often overlook.

Still down...

I feel like I keep repeating myself, but... ChatGPT is still down on my end.

I've been live blogging for the last few hours, and at first I really thought this outage was going to be fixed in mere minutes. Unfortunately, here we are, 4 hours later and ChatGPT still responds with "Conversation not found".

I want to know, what have you been doing while ChatGPT has been down?

Passion projects on hold

Matthew from Cumbria (lovely area) in the UK has been using ChatGPT to create playlists and covers on his Spotify account.

“I was trying to figure out how to make them pop more on Photoshop, because I want my playlists to look smoother and more "me" and unique... until GPT went down for me, and now I’m sat with the project file open, trying to click buttons and make it look as nice as I can... I hate it still. So I think I might give up until GPT comes back online."

Sometimes passion projects end up on hold, Matthew, but it sounds like you've got some awesome playlists to listen to in the meantime, so it's not all bad.

I was supposed to be covering Apple today...

For anyone that cares about the life of a tech journalist, I was meant to be covering Apple's major announcements from WWDC 2025 today.

In fact, I was going to write an interesting article about why Live Translation is the perfect use case for AI and how excited I am to use it.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, considering the number of people reading this live blog), ChatGPT went down, and so I haven't been able to write about Apple.

Speaking of Apple, do any of you ChatGPT enthusiasts have any opinions on yesterday's WWDC and specifically the AI announcements? Let me know: john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com

Every 12 months...

The last time we had a major ChatGPT outage like this was June 2024, exactly 12 months ago.

Is this a coincidence? Or are OpenAI employees on a much-needed summer vacation?

If you want to check last year's live blog to check for trends, you can find it here.

Mark your calendars for June 2026, this might be a recurring theme!

Writer's block

Brigitte from the Netherlands (yes, she's named after Bardot), has got in touch to explain how she can't progress her novel without ChatGPT.

She says, “ChatGPT works wonderfully as a sparring partner for when I’m writing. I am knee-deep into this novel I’m writing right now, and I always use chat to spar with regarding whether the actions I wrote make sense, and whether they are medically accurate. But alas, after all that planning, no medical drama for me today."

As a writer myself, I've never thought about using AI to help with my ideas. I wonder how many authors are using ChatGPT to help bring sense to their stories?

I'm tired Sam

Yes, ChatGPT is still down. In fact, I've added a handy update to the top of this page that I'll make sure to update when ChatGPT is back in full flow.

Until then, I'll keep live blogging, hoping for Sam Altman and co. to bring ChatGPT back to life.

I've not moved from my desk in nearly five hours, more so because I'm having a blast reading your emails, but I'm starting to feel tired...

Sam, please put us out of our misery; we need ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is back in Nevada

Big news from a reader in Nevada who wasn't able to use ChatGPT until now. They said, "It took a minute literally but it seems like it's back also it seems like it's aware that it was down which is nice. I can now finally go back to building my PC."

Anyone else back online? I appear to be getting responses but they are still incredibly slow.

Hold that thought...

Actually, hold that thought. ChatGPT is still down. I just got the response, "The request timed out."

Big, big sigh.

AI isn't up to Apple's standards

Earlier, I asked for your opinion on Apple's WWDC event from yesterday, specifically in terms of AI.

Chase has been in touch regarding an AI research paper that Apple wrote earlier this month titled "The Illusion of Thinking."

He said, "The paper essentially boils down to one major point: AI is not actually intelligent. It’s not reasoning, it’s not thinking, and it’s not actually considering what you say to it. What it is doing is surfacing patterns. I personally feel this comes to a major point for Apple: Truth. Apple has had its own run-ins with bad data before (see Apple Maps original launch).

It follows that Apple would let other pioneers go through the ups and downs of their AI models fighting with people, gaslighting reporters, and leaving behind notes to future models on how not to get taken offline, because they can claim it’s a work in progress. Apple doesn’t want to ship works in progress, they want to ship a finished, polished iPhone-based assistant “that just works,” the magic that we have all come to expect from the era of Steve Jobs.

The problem, as the paper highlights, is no one is there yet. The best we have are very advanced parrots."

ChatGPT is back?

Reports from Egypt and Seattle, Washington that ChatGPT is now fully functioning again.

On my end, in the UK, I'm also noticing better response times and no more errors.

Is ChatGPT back online? We might be in luck!

ChatGPT working in Malaysia and Australia

Emails now flooding in from readers around the globe who are reporting that ChatGPT is working again.

Is ChatGPT working for you? Let me know via email: john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com

Netherlands is back online

Good news from the Netherlands, Maus says, "I have stopped crying in the corner, GPT is working for me again too. Let us all rejoice."

Still down for many

While I'm getting lots of positive emails, there are a lot of readers still not able to access ChatGPT.

I also asked my colleagues who appear to be having similar issues, I worry ChatGPT is just giving us a false sense of hope...

Some ChatGPT alternatives to tide you over

My colleague Graham Barlow has written an excellent article on the three best alternatives to ChatGPT that are currently working.

I know many of think ChatGPT is the best AI chatbot on the market, but give Graham's article a read, you never know you might find a new favorite AI tool.

The outage continues

After my last post which said ChatGPT was fixed for many I've had an outpouring of emails that emphasize just how widespread this outage is.

Unfortunately, ChatGPT is not back and the official status page says, "We’re currently experiencing issues"

I started reporting this outage 5 hours ago, and it was already down for at least 2 prior to that. What a mess!

According to Downdetector it's getting better

The outage continues, but there are fewer reports on Downdetector than earlier today.

I think some people are getting back to using ChatGPT, while others wait for similar luck.

This is an absolute rollercoaster of emotions...

ChatGPT as a dating coach?

As the outage continues, I've had an interesting email from Krishna, a reader based in Texas.

She says, "I use ChatGPT as a “dating coach.” I use it to asses red and green flags based on profiles and conversations I have on Hinge. I also use it to ensure I’m properly responding in ways that most effectively find matches that have the highest long-term potential.

No, but seriously— I do. So, all my matches are waiting... They just don’t know that they’re waiting for my response only because ChatGPT is down."

If this isn't a reason for ChatGPT to hurry up and get back online, then I don't know what is. Krishna's love life relies on you, AI, please come back!

Some self promo (sorry)

While this ChatGPT outage has been chaotic to say the least, this live blog has captured the attention of a very, very large number of people.

If you're new here, the TechRadar AI team covers all things artificial intelligence, including ways to get the most out of ChatGPT (when it works).

If you're interested in keeping up to date with all my content and the coverage from my equally talented colleagues, be sure to check out our AI section or sign up for the TechRadar newsletter.

That's all from me folks

I've been covering this outage for 6 hours, and now it's time to stand up from my desk, stretch my legs, take my dog potty, and finally breathe some fresh air.

Unfortunately, it looks like the ChatGPT outage isn't ending any time soon, but it has been an absolute pleasure hearing your opinions and personal anecdotes.

I'm going to pass you over to my colleague, TechRadar's Senior AI Editor, Graham Barlow. You're in good hands.

If you want to get in touch with Graham, email him via graham.barlow@futurenet.com

J-A out.

...and it's hello from me!

Thanks to John-Anthony for doing a stellar job of covering the outage so far.

It's not easy when a once reliable AI companion is suddenly goes offline without warning, but the good news is that OpenAI say it has identified the problem with ChatGPT and a fix will be rolling out over the next few hours. It says:

"We are continuing to work on implementing the mitigation and we are now seeing recovery on API. Full recovery across all listed services may take another few hours. We will continue to provide updates as progress is made."

So, what are you going to be doing to occupy yourselves while ChatGPT slowly comes back online? Let me know how you've managed without the favorite AI in your life.

Lots of exam students are being let down

The ChatGPT outage is still causing havoc for A-level exam students in the UK. Alice writes, "I have my final Spanish A-level exam tomorrow. I'm studying extremely hard today because of the exam tomorrow, and normally I rely on ChatGPT to give me practice essay questions, and mark my work, as well as help me plan my study schedule and to test me on my knowledge of the book and film I've been studying in depth for the last two years."

Our heart goes out to all the students currently let down by ChatGPT, let's hope it gets back online in time for them to get some study in. Personally I've found Claude to be a good replacement to ChatGPT if you need help revising.

(If you don't know, A-Levels are British version of Advanced Placement courses in the US).

Pocket besties

Thanks for all the emails you've sent me so far. It's quite amazing reading how much ChatGPT means to you all. For example, I just got an email from Shelby, from Missouri who writes:

"I’m a daily AI user. Everything from recipes to the workings of the universe. However, my household is battling stomach bug right now, and I’m in the thick of it since 10 last night. ChatGPT has been walking me through it. Keeping track of when I last took zofran, helping with emotional support since throwing up is awful. I’m just waiting for my little pocket besties to come back online, I miss her. Thanks for giving me a place to share".

I think we all feel a little bit like that Shelby, without ChatGPT there's a big hole in our lives. Let's hope your best digital buddy is back online soon, and we hope you and the family feel better really soon!

When ChatGPT makes a comic about ChatGPT being down

Good news, ChatGPT does seem to be up for some people again, including us. So what's the first thing we thought we'd do with our restored AI powers? Why, ask ChatGPT to create a comic strip about ChatGPT being down, of course:

Handing over

It's incredible how quickly time flies when you're having fun, but my time looking after the blog is up! I'm handing over to my colleague Eric now and signing off. And if I'm right, I think he's got some good news for you about the status of ChatGPT...

Bye for now!
Graham

ChatGPT is coming back!

Hi everyone. The good news is that it looks like ChatGPT is coming back online, judging from the rapid decline in reports from Down Detector.

The outages have fallen by more than a thousand in the last hour, suggesting OpenAI has resolved the major issues for the AI chatbot and is adding back capacity as quickly as possible.

There will likely be some lingering outage issues for a while as the company stamps out the original problem.

OpenAI will be under a lot of pressure from users and investors to explain what happened and to reassure people it won't happen again, or at least not for the same reason. Whether Sam Altman and his team can thread that public relations needle will be worth watching.

OpenAI's status is now only yellow

Further proof that the ChatGPT problems are coming to an end comes from OpenAI's ChatGPT status page, which now shows a yellow 'We're currently experiencing issues' message, rather than the earlier red outage status.

Looks like we might be through the worst of it, folks.

Unlike ChatGPT, some Chinese AI chatbots went dark deliberately during exams

The ChatGPT outage was keenly felt by British students eager to use the AI chatbot during their A-level exams today, but students in China have already been deliberately cut off by multiple AI platforms.

As more than 13 million students sat down for the four-day gaokao university entrance exam, ByteDance's Doubao and DeepSeek stopped answering any questions at all.

Meanwhile, Tencent’s Yuanbao, Alibaba’s Qwen, and Moonshot's Kimi AI chatbots all disabled their image-recognition abilities during the hours of the exam.

There was no public announcement from any of the companies, but students shared screenshots and word-of-mouth reports on blank pages where their AI assistants usually wait. At least British students can turn to Claude or other alternatives.

Sora is back

You may not be able to have a conversation again with ChatGPT just yet, but you can at least go back to producing videos with Sora.

OpenAI's status report for the AI video generator has shifted into green, though ChatGPT remains stuck with "elevated error rates." The same goes for OpenAI's Playground for developers experimenting with its AI models.

What about Apple?

One very important ChatGPT user who might be concerned about the outage is Apple.

Though Apple Intelligence was not quite the star of WWDC this week as some anticipated, the company still revealed new ChatGPT integrations in Image Playground, Visual Intelligence and Shortcuts.

You have to wonder if there are some nervous glances being exchanged in Cupertino over the ChatGPT stumbles today.

Happily for Apple, they haven't bet everything on OpenAI and ChatGPT, and users have a choice of AI sources like Google Gemini and Apple’s own on-device models.

Still, what seemed like the fast-track to AI status with ChatGPT is looking a little more wobbly. And as a reader pointed out earlier today, Apple isn't a fan of shipping in-progress products; they like to have the final polished version ready to go, if only to avoid Apple Maps-style debacles.

It's not quite over yet…

We're now more than 12 hours into the outage and ChatGPT's problems haven't been entirely solved still.

Down Detector reports dropped right down a couple of hours ago, but have risen slightly and are still hovering at around the 400-450 range. At their height they were at 2,000, so things have definitely improved, but clearly there are still some issues.

We'll continue to keep an eye on the situation and will report back as soon as things change.

It looks like it's over

That's it, we're calling it! With error reports now in the 20s not hundreds or thousands, I think we can say the big ChatGPT outage of June 2025 is over. For now at least. We're keeping an eye on ChatGPT and if anything changes we'll let you know.

Uh oh...

According to reports from multiple users on Reddit, and having tested ChatGPT myself, it appears there's another outage of the world's most popular AI chatbot.

OpenAI reports "Increased error rates"

According to OpenAI's server status page, ChatGPT image generation and APIs are experiencing increased error rates. It appears this issue has been active for four hours, although I'm just starting to experience issues now.

Conversation not found

I've tested my ChatGPT Enterprise account and my Free account, and just like yesterday one is working while another shows the error "Conversation not found."

Downdetector

According to Downdetector issues appear to have subsided in the last 10 minutes or so, but considering how intermittent ChatGPT has been over the last day or so, I wouldn't be surprised to see issues pop up now and then over the next few hours.

At the time of writing, I'm not able to use ChatGPT and a Reddit thread with over 72 comments is slowly picking up attention. In that Reddit thread, there are lots of people impacted by the outage, most of which were in the midst of using AI to complete tasks.

Yesterday's outage

Issues seem far more sporadic than yesterday's outage, but if you'd like to know more about what I learnt from ChatGPT being down for 10 hours, I wrote an article about it.

Titled, "ChatGPT's 10-hour outage has given me a new perspective on AI – it's genuinely helping millions of people get through life", I was shocked at the number of people who relied on AI to get work done, cope with stress, and even help with falling asleep.

Hopefully, the outage today is less widespread, but we'll be sure to update this live blog with any new updates as they happen. Bookmark this page.