OpenAI Restores ChatGPT After Database Instability Causes Prolonged Outage
ChatGPT returns online following a multi-hour outage caused by database instabilities, though users still face potential capacity limits. The disruption marks the second major downtime for the AI chatbot in under 90 days.
ChatGPT is back online after experiencing a disruptive outage that lasts for over three hours. OpenAI restores service for both paying and free users, but the company continues to monitor the system closely as it comes back online, meaning users still encounter frequent "at capacity" messages during the recovery phase.
The disruption stems from database instabilities that prompt OpenAI to temporarily take the chatbot offline to implement a fix. While ChatGPT remains inaccessible, other OpenAI services like the API, DALL-E 2, and Microsoft's Bing Chat stay fully operational. OpenAI brings the service back to ChatGPT Plus subscribers first before opening access to free users approximately 30 minutes later.
This incident marks the second major outage for ChatGPT in the last 90 days, highlighting ongoing server capacity issues as the viral AI tool grows overwhelmingly popular. With OpenAI's status page showing 17 API outages in the past three months, these stability problems pose a growing challenge as third-party companies like Snapchat actively integrate the technology into their own platforms.