ChatGPT faced a global outage, disrupting users for hours. Social media erupted with memes as many struggled with errors. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the widely used AI chatbot, experienced a global outage on Tuesday, leaving users unable to access the platform or complete their tasks. The disruption began around 12:30 pm IST and persisted for several hours, with reports of service failures steadily increasing across multiple countries.
The outage sparked a flood of reactions on social media, particularly on X (formerly Twitter), where users expressed their frustration with a touch of humour. Timelines were quickly filled with memes and witty remarks, turning the technical hiccup into a shared online spectacle.
One user quipped, “Is chatgpt down? am i supposed to use my brain now at work? tf” Another joked, “ChatGPT is down? Guess I’ll start talking to real people again.”
A user added, “Is ChatGPT down How am I supposed to do things” while another lamented, “ChatGPT is down how will I answer if someone asks me my name.”
According to outage tracking site Down Detector, India reported over 600 cases by 3:00 pm. Nearly 500 complaints were recorded in the United States, while more than 1,000 users in the United Kingdom experienced issues. Most reports indicated users were either unable to access the platform or encountered repeated network errors.
Users met with network errors
During the downtime, those trying to access ChatGPT were greeted with an error message that read:
“A network error occurred. Please check your connection and try again. If this issue persists please contact us through our help center at help.openai.com.”
Data from Down Detector revealed that 88% of Indian users reported issues with the chatbot’s core functionality, 9% had trouble with the mobile app, and 3% encountered API-related problems.
A message on OpenAI’s system status page acknowledged the disruption:
“Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across listed services. We are investigating.”
