OpenAI’s ChatGPT Suffers Global Outage, With India and US Most Affected

In a striking reminder of how deeply AI tools have embedded themselves into daily workflows, OpenAI’s flagship chatbot ChatGPT faced a widespread global outage today, disrupting access for thousands of users across multiple countries. The impact was most heavily felt in India and the United States, where the majority of complaints originated, leaving users frustrated and sparking waves of reaction across social media platforms.

The outage began around 3:00 PM IST, when users attempting to engage with ChatGPT began receiving error messages such as “Hmm…something seems to have gone wrong” and “A network error occurred. Please check your connection and try again.” With no immediate explanation, users turned to online forums and real-time outage trackers like Downdetector to confirm that the problem was not limited to them.

Downdetector recorded a sharp spike in complaints—about 800 from India alone within a short window. According to the data, approximately 88% of Indian users reported that the chatbot was not responding to their prompts. An additional 8% flagged issues with the mobile app, while 3% cited problems with API access.

The situation in the United States mirrored these disruptions. About 93% of U.S. users reported chatbot unresponsiveness, while 7% noted issues on mobile devices and only 1% reported API troubles. The high percentage of chatbot-specific issues suggested that the core interface of ChatGPT was experiencing a backend failure or server-side breakdown, affecting both casual users and developers alike.

OpenAI, the U.S.-based company behind ChatGPT and other AI applications like DALL·E and Sora, acknowledged the outage via its official status page. The company confirmed that “some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across the listed services.” Both ChatGPT and Sora were identified as impacted services, and the company stated that investigations were underway. However, it did not offer a precise timeline for resolution.

For many users, the downtime felt like a major disruption. ChatGPT has become a staple across industries for tasks ranging from coding assistance and writing help to research summaries and customer service automation. The dependency was evident in the immediate and widespread social media backlash, where memes, jokes, and complaints flooded platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit.

Some posts humorously lamented how users were “forced to think again,” while others shared their disbelief at how much daily routine had come to rely on a single AI tool. The outage wasn’t just an inconvenience—it exposed the growing reliance on generative AI tools and how a temporary breakdown can ripple across academic, professional, and creative workflows.

Despite the initial chaos, some regions saw a gradual recovery within an hour. Users began reporting that the service was functioning again, although inconsistently. In certain parts of India and the U.S., responses from ChatGPT resumed, but latency and error messages persisted sporadically. This uneven restoration left users guessing about the stability of the fix and whether the system would hold.

This isn’t the first time OpenAI has faced such challenges. A significant outage in December 2024 similarly left users without access, and the company later attributed it to issues with an upstream provider. These recurrent issues, while understandable for a service operating at such massive scale, are beginning to raise questions about the robustness and resilience of global AI infrastructure.

OpenAI, which has rapidly scaled its operations and user base, has yet to release detailed information on the root cause of today’s disruption. Industry experts speculate that the strain on servers due to increased traffic, or a potential glitch in service deployment, could have caused the outage. Some also suggest that updates or backend maintenance might have inadvertently triggered a system-wide fault.

For developers who integrate ChatGPT through API into their platforms, the outage also meant broken features and disabled functionality. While these users represent a smaller segment of the overall user base, they rely heavily on real-time API connectivity for seamless product performance. Downtime in this space can directly impact business operations and customer experience.

As of the latest update, OpenAI is continuing to monitor the situation and has encouraged users to check the company’s official status page for real-time updates. Though partial service has resumed, full functionality restoration may still be in progress for certain regions.

The outage serves as a stark reminder that even the most advanced AI platforms are not immune to technical hiccups. As usage of AI tools like ChatGPT continues to surge globally, companies like OpenAI will face growing pressure to ensure consistent uptime, robust fallback systems, and transparent communication during downtimes.

For now, users in India, the U.S., and around the world are watching closely—refreshing their screens and hoping their digital assistant comes back online in full force.