ChatGPT suffered a brief outage on February 4 as thousands reported access issues worldwide. OpenAI later restored services. Phots: X.
ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, experienced a brief outage on February 4, leaving thousands of users unable to access the service. Outage-monitoring website Downdetector recorded a sudden surge in problem reports beginning around 1:50 a.m. IST, with complaints peaking at over 13,000, sharply higher than the usual baseline of 19 reports.
Downdetector compiles outage data by aggregating user-submitted reports from multiple sources. As a result, the actual number of affected users may differ from the figures displayed on the site.
OpenAI acknowledged the disruption on its official status page, stating that it was experiencing technical issues at the time.
“We’re currently experiencing issues,” the Sam Altman-led technology company said in an update posted during the outage.
Later, OpenAI confirmed that corrective steps had been taken. The status page indicated that the company had applied the “necessary mitigations,” and by 6:30 p.m. ET, ChatGPT was listed as “operational.”
While the outage appeared limited and short-lived in the United States, reports suggested the situation was more severe in other regions.
According to TechRadar’s analysis, users outside the US, particularly in the United Kingdom, India encountered greater difficulty accessing ChatGPT. The publication noted that attempts to use the chatbot in the UK failed repeatedly, while switching to a US-based VPN allowed the service to respond.
“Comments on Down Detector note that it’s down in the United States, which is my current experience, though it’s a bit slow – and that it’s still not working internationally, with Hungary specifically noted,” TechRadar reported.
The issue has since been resolved. At the time of writing, OpenAI’s status page in India stated, “We’re fully operational. We’re not aware of any issues affecting our systems.”
Providing a further update on the disruption, OpenAI said it had identified the root cause and implemented mitigation steps.
“We have identified the issue, applied the necessary mitigations and are monitoring the recovery,” Forbes quoted OpenAI as saying.
The company also acknowledged that users had faced service errors during the disruption.
“We have identified that users are experiencing elevated errors for the impacted services,” OpenAI said, adding that while a permanent solution was not yet fully implemented at the time, the company was “working on implementing a mitigation.”
Also Read: ‘Something Seems To Have Gone Wrong’: Did ChatGPT Just Crash As Thousands Report Global Outage
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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