ChatGPT not working today?

You're staring at a blank screen, spinning loader or cryptic error message where your ChatGPT conversation should be. The fastest way to know if it's OpenAI or just you: check the [live OpenAI status](/status) monitor on

ChatGPT not working today?

You're staring at a blank screen, spinning loader or cryptic error message where your ChatGPT conversation should be. The fastest way to know if it's OpenAI or just you: check the live OpenAI status monitor on this site, which pulls directly from OpenAI's infrastructure every 60 seconds, or visit status.openai.com for the official feed.

How to check if OpenAI is actually down

Start with this site's live status monitor. It updates every minute from OpenAI's official status API and shows operational state for ChatGPT (web and mobile), the API, Sora and every major component. If you see "Operational" across the board, the problem's almost certainly on your end.

OpenAI's own status page at status.openai.com breaks down incidents by component. A "Partial Outage" for "ChatGPT on the web" means the service is struggling but not dead. "Major Outage" means it's completely offline. Check the incident timeline—OpenAI posts updates every 15-30 minutes during active problems, with estimated resolution times.

Third-party monitors like DownDetector and IsItDownRightNow aggregate user reports in real time. A sudden spike in reports confirms widespread trouble. Twitter search for "ChatGPT down" or "@OpenAI" surfaces fresh complaints within minutes. If you're seeing thousands of recent tweets about errors, you're not alone.

Is it OpenAI or is it you

If status monitors show everything green but ChatGPT still won't load, work through these isolation steps:

  • Open an incognito or private browsing window and navigate to chatgpt.com. Sign in fresh. If it works here but not in your regular browser, corrupt cache or cookies are the culprit.
  • Clear ChatGPT's site data. In Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Site settings → View permissions and data stored across sites → search "chatgpt.com" → Remove. In Firefox: Preferences → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Manage Data → search "openai.com" → Remove Selected. Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data → search "chatgpt" → Remove.
  • Disable browser extensions. Ad blockers, privacy tools and VPNs routinely break ChatGPT. Turn off everything, reload, then re-enable one by one to find the troublemaker.
  • Test on mobile data or a different network. If ChatGPT loads instantly on your phone using cellular but fails on Wi-Fi, your router or ISP is blocking OpenAI's servers. Some corporate and school networks explicitly blacklist AI services.
  • Try the mobile app instead of the browser. The iOS and Android apps connect differently. If the app works but the web doesn't, you've isolated a browser-specific problem.
  • Check a different device entirely. Borrow someone's laptop or use a library computer. If ChatGPT loads fine there, the issue lives on your original device—corrupted profile, DNS cache, firewall rules.

For detailed troubleshooting beyond outages, see ChatGPT not working — troubleshooting.

What to do during an outage

If OpenAI confirms the outage, here's your play:

  • Don't touch your account. Don't log out, delete cookies, cancel subscriptions or delete your account. You'll just create new problems when service returns.
  • For API users: implement exponential backoff immediately. Start with 1-second retry delays, double after each failure (1s, 2s, 4s, 8s), cap at 60 seconds. Set a retry budget—say, 5 attempts maximum—then fail gracefully. Queue requests locally instead of spamming endpoints.
  • Save your work elsewhere. Copy any in-progress conversations to a text file. You won't lose chat history, but having a backup prevents scrambling later.
  • Monitor status pages actively. Refresh status.openai.com every 10 minutes. OpenAI posts resolution estimates and incident post-mortems.
  • Don't spam support. OpenAI's help team can't make servers come back faster. Support tickets during confirmed outages get generic auto-replies. See how to contact OpenAI support for when tickets actually help.

Questions people actually ask

Q: Is ChatGPT down right now?

A: Check the live status monitor at the top of this site or visit status.openai.com. If both show "Operational" but you're still having trouble, work through the isolation steps above—it's almost always cache, extensions or network blocks.

Q: How long do ChatGPT outages usually last?

A: Minor incidents resolve in 15-45 minutes. Major outages stretch 2-4 hours. OpenAI posts time estimates on status.openai.com during active incidents.

Q: Will I lose my chat history during an outage?

A: No. Conversations are stored server-side. Once service returns, your entire history reappears unchanged.

Q: Does ChatGPT Plus get priority during outages?

A: No. Paid subscribers face the same downtime as free users. Plus gives you priority access during peak load periods, not during infrastructure failures.

What to remember

  • This site's live status page updates every 60 seconds from OpenAI's official feed
  • Clear chatgpt.com cookies and site data before assuming it's an outage
  • Disable all browser extensions—ad blockers and VPNs break ChatGPT constantly
  • Don't delete your account, cancel subscriptions or spam support during confirmed outages
  • API users: implement exponential backoff and retry budgets immediately

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

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