ChatGPT Downtime: What Happened During the Global Outage

Announcing the Outage — What Happened to ChatGPT?

ChatGPT experienced a sudden global outage on June 10th. Users began reporting that ChatGPT was down starting around 2:36-3 AM ET. The platform remained largely inaccessible or heavily impacted for approximately 7 hours. This widespread disruption left many users unable to access the popular AI chatbot for a significant part of their day. The sudden nature of the problem immediately indicated a major issue affecting OpenAI's infrastructure.

Global Reach — Who Was Affected by the ChatGPT Downtime?

The ChatGPT downtime had a truly widespread impact, affecting ChatGPT users across the globe. Reports of issues flooded in from numerous regions, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, highlighting the international scope of the problem. Data from outage tracking websites like Down Detector showed a significant spike in reported issues, illustrating the sheer number of people affected. The outage map on such sites lit up with red markers, confirming that the problem wasn't isolated but a genuine global outage. Users from different time zones woke up or logged in to find their access disrupted, underscoring the dependency many have on the service.

Beyond Basic Access — Specific Issues Users Faced During the Downtime

Beyond simply being unable to connect, users reported a variety of specific ChatGPT problems during the outage. Many encountered message latency, where responses were incredibly slow or didn't appear at all, sometimes resulting in "just the dot" animation endlessly spinning. The dreaded "Hmm... something went wrong" error message was frequently displayed. A particularly frustrating issue for many was the failure of the "Read Aloud" feature; users reported that Read Aloud was not working, making the chatbot less useful for those relying on that functionality. It wasn't just ChatGPT; OpenAI's text-to-video AI tool, Sora, also experienced issues, indicating a broader problem within OpenAI's services leading to the Sora outage. User reports on platforms like Reddit and X quickly filled with complaints detailing these diverse technical glitches. (Consider linking to user reports/forums like Reddit, X).

OpenAI's Official Response and Steps Towards Resolving the Outage

As users reported widespread issues, OpenAI addressed the situation on its official OpenAI status page. The company acknowledged that users were experiencing "elevated error rates and latency" starting early in the morning ET. Throughout the duration of the incident, OpenAI's status page provided updates, indicating that they were actively investigating the root cause and working on mitigation efforts. While specific technical details were limited, their communication on the status page served as the primary source of official information regarding the outage resolution. This transparency, although sometimes delayed for users eager for updates, confirmed that OpenAI was aware of the ChatGPT downtime and was actively working to bring the service back online. Users were encouraged to monitor the status page for the latest information. (Consider linking to the OpenAI status page).

After the Outage — Are There Any Lingering Concerns?

Following the significant downtime, reports began emerging that ChatGPT was back online for many users. OpenAI updated its status to indicate that the issues were resolving or largely resolved. However, some users reported potential post-outage issues. While many could access the service without any problems, a few users mentioned experiencing sluggishness or difficulty with the chatbot maintaining focus or coherence in longer conversations, though this was not a universal experience. These reports suggest that while the main global outage was resolved, the system might have taken some time to return to full, optimal performance for everyone. Community discussions on forums indicate that for the majority, service was fully restored, but the brief period of instability highlighted the potential for occasional glitches even after a major incident is declared resolved. (Consider linking to community discussions about lingering effects).