ChatGPT Recovers After Major Outage – OpenAI’s ChatGPT experiences widespread outage, affecting millions of users. Learn about the cause, impact, and recovery of this significant AI service disruption.
On Thursday, December 26th, 2024, OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, faced a significant outage that affected millions of users across the United States and globally. The disruption, which began around 1:30 PM Eastern Time, impacted ChatGPT, the OpenAI API, and Sora, the company’s video generation model.
The Scope of the Outage
The outage’s impact was substantial, with over 15,000 incidents reported on Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions. Users experienced various issues, including the inability to access ChatGPT or load chat history. The OpenAI API, used by numerous businesses for AI-powered applications, also faced partial disruption.
OpenAI quickly acknowledged the problem, attributing it to issues with an “upstream provider.” This vague description could indicate problems with compute resources or network-related services, possibly involving Microsoft, OpenAI’s major cloud provider.
Recovery and Response
By early evening, OpenAI reported significant progress in resolving the issues. ChatGPT began recovering, with the number of reported problems dropping considerably. The company assured users that they were actively working on a complete solution.”
We’re sorry for the trouble this is causing,” OpenAI stated on their official X (formerly Twitter) account. “We’ve identified the issue and have started recovery. We hope to be back asap.”
Impact on Users and Businesses
With ChatGPT boasting over 200 million active users and a majority of Fortune 500 companies utilizing OpenAI products, the outage’s impact was far-reaching. Many users reported disruptions to their work and research processes, highlighting the growing dependence on AI tools in various sectors.

This incident serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in even the most advanced AI systems. As businesses and individuals increasingly rely on AI tools like ChatGPT, the need for robust infrastructure and quick response times to technical issues becomes ever more critical.
OpenAI’s swift acknowledgment and resolution of the problem demonstrate the company’s commitment to maintaining its services. However, as AI continues to integrate into our daily lives and work processes, incidents like these raise important questions about the resilience and reliability of AI infrastructure.
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