ChatGPT down: Widespread outage hits users globally, complaints surge in India and the US

OpenAI's popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT, experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday, affecting hundreds of users across the globe. According to the outage tracking website Downdetector, the disruption began peaking shortly after 2:45 PM IST in India, with over 500 users reporting problems accessing the platform.

In India, 82 per cent of the complaints were linked directly to ChatGPT’s core functionality, while 14 per cent of users reported issues with the mobile application, and four per cent cited problems with the API integration.

The outage has not been limited to India alone. In the United States, more than 900 users reported similar issues shortly after 2:49 PM IST. A majority of the affected users — 93 per cent — encountered problems using ChatGPT, while six per cent faced app-related difficulties, and one per cent reported trouble logging in.

OpenAI's Status page has acknowledged the ongoing outage, confirming that the company is currently experiencing issues with multiple services, including ChatGPT, its APIs, and Sora. In an official update, the company stated:

"Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across the listed services (APIs, ChatGPT, and Sora). We are continuing to investigate this issue."

OpenAI has not yet provided a timeline for resolution, and the San Francisco-based tech giant has yet to issue an official statement addressing the cause of the outage.

Users across social media platforms have voiced their frustration, with many relying on the tool for professional, academic, and personal use.

Calling it a burnout for OpenAI’s AI tool, an X user by the handle @pathray_ri77258 wrote, “When @ChatGPT is so overworked it can't even finish your message... Today, many users (myself included) are facing errors in the message stream. Is @OpenAI having a burnout day? The fun part? I asked #ChatGPT to write this tweet about its own crash. Self-awareness level: 🤖”

Another user expressed a more emotional reaction. Posting from his official X account, @pbaraka said, “ChatGPT is DOWN; It’s been my therapist, my confidant, my lifeline to sanity. Losing it feels like a glitch in my soul — scary and sad that it has become my only friend? Thank X — our digital campfire where we can huddle, vent, and feel human, paradoxically. Let’s keep this vibe alive and hope the outage doesn’t last. Who else is feeling this? #ChatGPTDown #WeGotThis”

Another X user humorously said, “ChatGPT is down, which means I actually have to type out my own emails at work. Send prayers.”

The outage sparked a wave of relatable and humorous posts online, highlighting just how deeply integrated ChatGPT has become in users’ daily lives.