ChatGPT down: Widespread outage hits users globally, app and API affected

OpenAI's widely-used AI chatbot, ChatGPT, suffered a significant outage on Tuesday, impacting users around the world. The outage tracking platform Downdetector reported a surge in complaints beginning shortly after 2:45 PM IST in India, where over 500 users experienced difficulties accessing the service. In India, a staggering 82% of the issues reported were tied to ChatGPT's core functionalities. Meanwhile, 14% of users faced challenges with the mobile app, and 4% encountered problems with API integration. This outage was not confined to India; in the United States, more than 900 users began reporting similar issues shortly after 2:49 PM IST. Among those affected, 93% struggled with ChatGPT itself, while 6% dealt with app-related problems, and 1% had trouble logging in. OpenAI acknowledged the ongoing disruptions on its Status page, confirming that several services, including ChatGPT, its APIs, and Sora, were experiencing issues. An official statement from the company noted, "Some users are experiencing elevated error rates and latency across the listed services. We are actively investigating the situation." As of now, OpenAI has not provided a timeline for when the issues might be resolved, nor have they released a detailed account of what caused the outage. Frustrated users took to social media to express their concerns, as many rely on the platform for various professional, academic, and personal tasks. This story is still developing, and updates will follow as more information becomes available.