ChatGPT Outage Hits Millions as OpenAI Scrambles to Fix Issue
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Written By
Barry Elad
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ChatGPT users across the world are facing major disruptions today, with the AI tool failing to respond to prompts and leaving many without assistance.
Quick Summary – TLDR:
ChatGPT is down for many users globally, with reports flooding in since early Wednesday morning.
OpenAI has confirmed a partial outage and is actively working on a fix.
Some users report the bot not showing any responses at all across desktop and mobile.
The outage comes shortly after the August launch of GPT-5, OpenAI’s newest and most powerful model.
What Happened?
ChatGPT is currently experiencing a global service disruption, with thousands of users reporting that the AI assistant is not responding to prompts or showing any answers. The issue began early on Wednesday, September 3, and remains unresolved at the time of writing.
OpenAI acknowledged the problem on its official service status page, confirming a “partial outage” and noting that the tool is “not displaying responses.” The company says it has identified the root cause and is working on a resolution.
OpenAI Confirms ChatGPT Outage
Reports of the outage began flooding sites like DownDetector early Wednesday. More than 1,000 complaints were logged, pointing to the AI chatbot being unresponsive across multiple platforms.
OpenAI provided an update timeline, confirming that they began investigating the problem as early as 3:10 am PDT, and had identified the root cause by 4:13 am PDT. By 4:52am PDT, OpenAI updated the page with message “This is now mitigated and we keep monitoring“. However, the issue remains unresolved, affecting both desktop and mobile apps.
“We have identified the root cause and are working to resolve it,” OpenAI stated in a brief update.
While some users on social media joked about missing their “work partner,” others expressed concern over being unable to access essential tools for their day-to-day tasks.
ChatGPT reportedly has around 700 million weekly active users
Many rely on it for tasks ranging from writing reports to generating code
The current issue seems to be affecting users at random, with some reporting normal service
Social media has become the primary outlet for users sharing their experience. A post on Reddit read, “ChatGPT down?” while another user commented, “Same I can’t see any responses. Not even my previous ones”
Some reports indicate that despite the outage being widespread, ChatGPT was still working for a few users, which suggests the issue may be affecting specific regions or account tiers.
Technical Cause and Temporary Workaround
AI reverse engineer Tibor Blaho pointed out that the issue may be due to JavaScript assets failing to load from OpenAI’s CDN. According to Blaho, users can try a temporary fix:
It seems like something is wrong with ChatGPT, and it is giving empty responses for some users (it works for me, though) pic.twitter.com/crGCLAOrEo
While this workaround has worked for some, it’s not officially endorsed by OpenAI and may not resolve the issue for all users.
GPT-5 Rollout Adds Context
The outage comes just weeks after OpenAI launched GPT-5 on August 7. Marketed as “smarter, faster, and more useful” than GPT-4, the new model includes advanced features like:
A 256,000-token context window for longer conversations
Improved performance in medical, coding, and logical reasoning tasks
A more human-like, PhD-level response quality
The rollout was intended for all users, including those on the free tier, and might be tied to ongoing backend changes or scaling efforts.
SQ Magazine Takeaway
I rely on ChatGPT as part of my daily work too, and I know how frustrating it is when it suddenly stops responding. It feels like your digital coworker just ghosted you mid-sentence. What’s more surprising is how this comes right after the launch of GPT-5, a version that was supposed to be more stable and reliable. While OpenAI is actively working on a fix, the lack of immediate resolution shows how dependent we’ve all become on AI tools and how critical uptime is for productivity.
Barry Elad is a seasoned fintech, AI analyst, and founder of SQ Magazine. He explores the world of artificial intelligence, uncovering trends, data, and real-world impacts for readers. When he’s off the page, you’ll find him cooking healthy meals, practicing yoga, or exploring nature with his family.
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