This marks the second significant outage for OpenAI's ChatGPT in recent times. On December 27, around 1:30 PM ET (12 AM IST), numerous users encountered issues with the chatbot, which stopped responding to queries. According to the outage tracking platform, DownDetector, some users were met with an "internal server error" message, while others experienced complete downtime. The majority of the reports came from the United States, with the issue affecting a large number of users during the early afternoon hours. However, the number of complaints began to decrease after around 30 minutes.
In response, OpenAI acknowledged the outage on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, stating that it had identified the underlying issue and was actively working on a resolution. However, OpenAI did not specify the exact cause of the disruption, only noting that the issue was linked to an "upstream provider." This coincided with a power issue reported by Microsoft, OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider, at one of its data centers. The power disruption, which started around the same time as the outage, also impacted services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, further indicating that the problem was tied to infrastructure issues at Microsoft's data centers.
As the outage progressed, OpenAI confirmed that API services and Sora were also affected, and a few hours later, they posted an update stating that the issue with Sora had been resolved. ChatGPT and the API were still experiencing problems, but the company assured users that both services were nearly restored.
This is not the first time ChatGPT has experienced significant outages. Earlier this month, on December 11, the chatbot underwent a similar disruption, coinciding with the launch of iOS 18.2, which integrated GPT features into Apple's Siri. During the December outage, all three platforms—Sora, ChatGPT, and the API—were affected, and DownDetector reported 2,483 outage complaints. Additionally, in November, ChatGPT faced a major outage that impacted over 19,000 users worldwide for about 30 minutes. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledged the issue on Twitter, noting that the company had made significant strides in reliability but still had room for improvement.
Despite these setbacks, ChatGPT’s popularity continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. Since its debut in November 2022, the AI-powered chatbot has reached an impressive 250 million weekly active users. OpenAI's valuation has skyrocketed to $157 billion, a significant jump from its $14 billion valuation in 2021. The company’s revenue has also surged to $3.6 billion, surpassing the optimistic projections made by Altman. Earlier this month, Altman revealed that the company was now serving 300 million active users weekly, further solidifying ChatGPT’s position as one of the leading AI tools in the market.
These outages, though temporary, highlight the growing pains of a rapidly expanding tech company. As OpenAI continues to scale, ensuring reliable performance and minimizing service interruptions will be crucial for maintaining its user base and reputation.
