ChatGPT down for thousands of users: Issues users are facing, OpenAI's official statement and all other details

ChatGPT

OpenAI's services are experiencing another major global outage, with users worldwide reporting disruptions across ChatGPT, Sora, and the GPT API. This marks the second significant outage this month, raising concerns about the platform's reliability as demand for AI tools continues to grow. The outage appears to be affecting all regions, with concentrated reports from North America, Europe, and Asia, including India.

What’s happening?
The latest outage began on July 16, 2025, with Downdetector recording a sharp spike in user reports shortly after 6:10 AM IST. Early data indicate:
- 88% of complaints relate to ChatGPT being completely inaccessible.
- Remaining issues involve API errors and problems with Sora and Codex.

OpenAI’s status page confirms “degraded performance” across multiple services, stating:
“We have identified elevated error rates and are working on a mitigation.”

Social media platforms like X (Twitter) are flooded with complaints, including:

Blank chat screens and incomplete responses.
Login failures, with users stuck in verification loops.
Sudden disconnections during active sessions cause lost work.
Developers relying on Codex for programming assistance and creatives using Sora for video generation also report significant delays.

OpenAI’s response
While OpenAI has acknowledged the issue, the company has not yet:
Confirmed the root cause (server overload, software bug, etc.) or provided an estimated time for full restoration.

What users can do
Until services stabilise, OpenAI recommends:

Avoid making repeated login attempts, as this may trigger security locks.
Checking the official status page for real-time updates.
Saving work externally to prevent data loss during interruptions.