ChatGPT, OpenAI’s widely utilized artificial intelligence chatbot, is currently experiencing a significant global outage, leading to widespread frustration and halting countless daily tasks for users across continents. The ChatGPT Down issue began around 3:30 PM BST (7:00 PM IST) on June 10, 2025, and has persisted for several hours. It is affecting both free and premium (Plus) subscribers, disrupting access to various AI models, including the flagship GPT-4o, its mini versions, and older iterations like GPT-3.5 (O3) and GPT-4.1. OpenAI’s other services, such as its AI video generation tool Sora, are also grappling with related technical difficulties.
Reports from users in diverse geographical locations – spanning the UK, various US states (Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin, Philadelphia), Germany, Norway, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia – paint a consistent picture of service instability. Common error messages include “Conversation not found,” “Hmm… something seems to have gone wrong,” and “Too many concurrent requests.” While some users, like Mark in Wisconsin, have reported extremely delayed responses, others describe a complete lack of functionality, with prompts yielding no results or immediate error messages.
OpenAI’s Response and the Search for a Fix
OpenAI has acknowledged the ongoing issues, updating its service status to “Partial outage” and confirming “elevated error rates and latency across the listed services.” Srinivas Narayanan, an OpenAI representative, stated via X that the company has “diagnosed the root cause and are working on the fix to recover our services as quickly as we can.” Despite these assurances, the outage has dragged on for over five hours as of the latest updates in the live blog, leaving many in limbo.
We are observing elevated error rates and latency across ChatGPT and the API.
Our engineers have identified the root cause and are working as fast as possible to fix the issue.
For updates see our status page: https://t.co/oUGSSyltRU
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 10, 2025
The live blog author, John-Anthony Disotto, noted the cyclical nature of these outages, pointing out that a similar major disruption occurred exactly 12 months prior, in June 2024. This observation has led to speculative questions about potential recurring patterns or even OpenAI employees’ summer vacation schedules. The company has yet to provide a detailed explanation for the current incident or a firm estimated time for restoration.
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Human Impact: Daily Lives Upended by AI Reliance
The widespread nature of this outage has starkly revealed the deep integration of AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, into the daily routines of millions. For students like Jack from the UK, facing college assignments due in mere hours, the lack of ChatGPT access poses a severe threat to their academic performance. Similarly, high school senior Koushiki, who uses ChatGPT for motivation and engagement, finds her work stalled. Maus from the Netherlands, undertaking niche research on wild zebrafish behavior, described the outage as a “battlefield,” lamenting the difficulty of finding information without the AI’s assistance.
Beyond academic and professional tasks, the outage has impacted personal well-being. Elise, commemorating the one-year anniversary of her breakup, found herself unable to engage in her usual emotional regulation discussions with ChatGPT, which she had relied on for a year to process her feelings. Her experience highlights the role AI now plays in supporting mental and emotional health.
The live blog also featured more unusual, yet equally critical, use cases. Simon from the UK, for instance, revealed he was using ChatGPT as an “AI solicitor” to navigate a “high conflict divorce” against his ex-wife, a professional solicitor. The outage has left him feeling exposed and disadvantaged in a highly sensitive legal battle. Even passion projects, like Matthew from Cumbria’s Spotify playlist covers, are on hold as he struggles to achieve desired aesthetic results with Photoshop without AI guidance.
Creative Workarounds and Community Chatgpt Down Support Emerge
Amidst the chaos, some users are attempting creative workarounds and sharing alternative AI tools. Mitchell suggested that Plus subscribers try switching to “lower-tier models” like O3 or 4.1-mini, reporting that these sometimes offer slow but functional responses. Kevin from Ohio corroborated this, finding O3 to be “a little slow” but working. Jack from the UK also shared a list of alternative, independent AI chatbots, including Gemini, Claude, GitHub Copilot, DeepSeek, and Perplexity, which remain operational as they do not rely on the OpenAI API.
The outage has also fostered a unique sense of chatgpt Down community among affected users. The live chatgpt Down blog, receiving an “unprecedented” volume of emails, became a virtual gathering point for shared frustration and mutual support. Readers offered troubleshooting tips, commiserated over their stalled tasks, and even provided lighthearted advice, such as Dean’s steps for setting up a virtual machine for a “Darth Vader” user or cleaning mechanical keyboards after a “Popeye’s spicy mayo” incident.
While OpenAI works to resolve the issues, the June 10, 2025 chatgpt Down outage serves as a stark reminder of the growing dependence on AI technologies and the significant disruptions that can occur when these powerful tools unexpectedly go offline.
