ChatGPT Outage: Global Users Report Service Down
## ChatGPT Outage: Global Users Report Widespread Service Disruption
**London, England** – A global outage of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT impacted thousands of users on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, beginning shortly before 3 PM BST. Reports of service disruptions surged to thousands by 4:30 PM BST, according to Downdetector, a website that monitors service outages. The vast majority (99%) of reported problems stemmed from issues directly accessing ChatGPT itself.
Downdetector's outage map showed significant activity in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, along with reports from various other countries including Italy and Morocco. Users took to X (formerly Twitter) to express frustration, describing error messages such as "error in message stream," "Something went wrong, please try reloading the conversation," and simply reporting that the service was unresponsive. While some users were mid-project – one citing research into quantum mechanics – many others described encountering difficulties completing tasks requiring ChatGPT, such as brainstorming, essay writing, translation and image generation.
Neither OpenAI's official X account nor ChatGPT's separate account acknowledged the outage immediately. This marks the third major disruption for ChatGPT this year. Previous outages occurred in February and January, causing significant user frustration. The February outage affected over 20,000 users and resulted in widespread complaints across multiple countries, including a peak of nearly 500 reports in the UK. OpenAI eventually acknowledged the February incident, stating they were investigating and later confirmed that some services were recovering. The cause of both the February and current outages remain unconfirmed.
This latest incident highlighted the dependence users, businesses, and developers have on ChatGPT, underlining the significant impact of even temporary service interruptions. OpenAI’s status page initially indicated "degraded performance" before reporting that mitigation efforts were underway. While the exact cause of the disruption remains unconfirmed, OpenAI's prompt action in addressing the issue is reassuring. As of the time of this writing, OpenAI has not yet publicly specified the cause of the outage, or the full extent of the impact. The company's status page and social media channels remain the primary source for updates regarding service restoration.
**London, England** – A global outage of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT impacted thousands of users on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, beginning shortly before 3 PM BST. Reports of service disruptions surged to thousands by 4:30 PM BST, according to Downdetector, a website that monitors service outages. The vast majority (99%) of reported problems stemmed from issues directly accessing ChatGPT itself.
Downdetector's outage map showed significant activity in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, along with reports from various other countries including Italy and Morocco. Users took to X (formerly Twitter) to express frustration, describing error messages such as "error in message stream," "Something went wrong, please try reloading the conversation," and simply reporting that the service was unresponsive. While some users were mid-project – one citing research into quantum mechanics – many others described encountering difficulties completing tasks requiring ChatGPT, such as brainstorming, essay writing, translation and image generation.
Neither OpenAI's official X account nor ChatGPT's separate account acknowledged the outage immediately. This marks the third major disruption for ChatGPT this year. Previous outages occurred in February and January, causing significant user frustration. The February outage affected over 20,000 users and resulted in widespread complaints across multiple countries, including a peak of nearly 500 reports in the UK. OpenAI eventually acknowledged the February incident, stating they were investigating and later confirmed that some services were recovering. The cause of both the February and current outages remain unconfirmed.
This latest incident highlighted the dependence users, businesses, and developers have on ChatGPT, underlining the significant impact of even temporary service interruptions. OpenAI’s status page initially indicated "degraded performance" before reporting that mitigation efforts were underway. While the exact cause of the disruption remains unconfirmed, OpenAI's prompt action in addressing the issue is reassuring. As of the time of this writing, OpenAI has not yet publicly specified the cause of the outage, or the full extent of the impact. The company's status page and social media channels remain the primary source for updates regarding service restoration.
