ChatGPT not responding to prompts

ChatGPT sits there blinking at you, cursor mocking your carefully crafted prompt, and nothing happens. You hit send again — still nothing. Before you assume OpenAI's servers are on fire, check two things: whether ChatGPT

ChatGPT not responding to prompts

ChatGPT sits there blinking at you, cursor mocking your carefully crafted prompt, and nothing happens. You hit send again — still nothing. Before you assume OpenAI's servers are on fire, check two things: whether ChatGPT is actually receiving your message (look for "Thinking..." or any loading indicator), and whether your browser console shows JavaScript errors (right-click anywhere, select "Inspect", click "Console").

How to check if OpenAI is actually down

Start with the live OpenAI status monitor on this site — it updates every 60 seconds from OpenAI's official status feed and shows component-level health for ChatGPT, the API, and other services. If everything shows green but you're still stuck, the problem is almost certainly on your end.

Head to status.openai.com next. Look specifically at "ChatGPT" under components — not just the top-level summary. OpenAI breaks down status by service: web interface, iOS app, Android app, and backend processing. If ChatGPT shows "Operational" but you see "Degraded Performance" on API services, that won't affect prompt responses through the web interface.

Check social media secondarily. Search "ChatGPT down" on X (Twitter) or check r/ChatGPT on Reddit. If thousands of people report the same issue in the last 10 minutes, it's an outage. If you see nothing recent, it's you.

Is it OpenAI or is it you

Step 1: Open an incognito or private browsing window and go to chatgpt.com. Sign in fresh. Try your prompt again. If it works, you've got a cache, cookie, or extension problem on your main browser profile.

Step 2: Clear chatgpt.com data specifically. In Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data → See all site data and permissions → Search "chatgpt" → Remove all. In Firefox: Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Manage Data → Search "chatgpt" → Remove Selected. In Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data → Search "chatgpt" → Remove. Reload the page and try again.

Step 3: Disable every browser extension. Every single one. Extensions that modify page content, block ads, or inject scripts routinely break ChatGPT's WebSocket connections. Re-enable them one at a time to find the culprit. Grammarly, privacy badgers, and cryptocurrency extensions are frequent offenders.

Step 4: Check your network. If you're on a VPN, disable it — some VPN exit nodes are rate-limited or blocked by OpenAI's Cloudflare protection. If you're on corporate or university WiFi, network filters may block WebSocket protocols ChatGPT requires. Try your phone's hotspot as a test.

Step 5: Try the ChatGPT mobile app if you're on a browser, or the browser if you're on the app. Platform-specific bugs exist — iOS app version 1.2024.352 had a known bug where prompts wouldn't send on iOS 16.1 specifically. If one platform works and the other doesn't, it's not an OpenAI-wide outage.

Step 6: Check your account status. Sign out completely, close all browser tabs with chatgpt.com open, then sign back in. If you see any warnings about policy violations or payment issues, address those first. Unpaid subscriptions get throttled before they're cut off entirely.

For persistent issues beyond these steps, see our complete guide: ChatGPT not working — troubleshooting.

What to do during an outage

Step 1: Don't refresh repeatedly. You're adding load to already-struggling servers and may trigger rate limits that lock you out for hours. The live OpenAI status monitor will show when services recover — bookmark it instead of hammering the ChatGPT page.

Step 2: If you're a Plus subscriber losing work time, document the outage: screenshot status.openai.com, note the exact time and duration, save your prompts elsewhere. OpenAI doesn't automatically refund for outages, but detailed reports help if you request account credits through help.openai.com.

Step 3: For API users experiencing similar issues, implement exponential backoff with jitter: retry after 1 second, then 2, 4, 8, up to 60 seconds between attempts. Set a retry budget of 5 attempts maximum. Queue prompts locally instead of spamming endpoints. See OpenAI API error 429 and other API errors for specifics.

Step 4: Don't delete and recreate your account. Don't cancel and re-subscribe to Plus. Don't email support 47 times. These actions make recovery harder, not easier, and support tickets during major outages get auto-replied with status page links.

Questions people actually ask

Q: Is ChatGPT down right now?

A: Check the live OpenAI status — it pulls directly from OpenAI's feed every minute. Green means operational; anything else means confirmed issues.

Q: Why does ChatGPT accept my prompt but never respond?

A: This usually means the request reached OpenAI's servers but processing timed out. If the live status monitor shows "Degraded Performance", that's why. If status is green, your prompt may have triggered content filters — try rephrasing without potentially sensitive terms.

Q: Can I get a refund for ChatGPT Plus downtime?

A: OpenAI's terms don't guarantee uptime SLAs for Plus subscriptions. You can request account credit through help.openai.com with documented outage evidence, but refunds aren't automatic. For more on contacting support, see How to contact OpenAI support.

Q: Does using ChatGPT during peak hours cause this?

A: Yes, frequently. ChatGPT sees traffic spikes weekday mornings (9-11 AM ET) and lunch hours (12-2 PM ET). Free-tier users get deprioritised during high load. Plus subscribers get faster response times but aren't immune to capacity issues.

What to remember

  • Check the live status monitor first — it updates every 60 seconds from OpenAI's official feed
  • Test in incognito mode and on mobile data to isolate browser and network issues
  • Clear chatgpt.com cookies and disable all extensions before assuming it's an outage
  • Don't delete your account, cancel your subscription, or spam support during confirmed outages
  • Document downtime if you need to request account credits later: screenshots, timestamps, error messages

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*openai-support.com is an independent resource, not affiliated with OpenAI Inc.*

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