Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

ChatGPT is back online after being down for more than 3 hours

Jacob Roach
By

ChatGPT is back offline after being down for over three hours. OpenAI has restored service for free and paying users, but it’s continuing to monitor the service as it comes back online. That might mean you’ll see more “at capacity” messages than normal

The outage only impacted ChatGPT itself. OpenAI’s API and other research websites stayed live, powering ChatGPT alternatives and services like Microsoft’s Bing Chate. In addition, OpenAI’s other models, such as DALL-E 2, stayed online, as well.

ChatGPT error message that its servers are offline.

The outage was due to “database instabilities,” and started rolling out a couple of hours after the servers were taken offline. OpenAI restored service for ChatGPT Plus subscribers first, waiting for around 30 minutes before restoring the service for free users.

Related

Down Detector showed a peak of user reports around 8:30 a.m. PT, as well as a spike around 11 a.m. During this time, OpenAI was testing fixes that allowed some users to access the AI chatbot. However, after discovering the root of the problem, OpenAI temporarily took ChatGPT offline to work on a fix.

This is the second major outage ChatGPT has seen in the last 90 days. The service experienced another outage on February 21, which brought down the chatbot for four and a half hours. You can keep an eye on OpenAI’s status page to see when the service becomes available again, as well as subscribe for updates.

Server capacity is one of the biggest issues with ChatGPT right now. OpenAI’s viral chatbot has become overwhelmingly popular, often showing “at capacity” messages when new users try to access the service. OpenAI’s status page shows 17 outages for the API over the past 90 days, some of which lasted over five hours. This could become a larger issue with time, especially as services like Snapchat move to integrate ChatGPT.

Now that ChatGPT is back online, make sure to read our roundup of the best ChatGPT tips to get the most out of your chatting.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
You could be creeped out by Bing Chat on the go soon
Alan Truly
By Alan Truly
February 20, 2023
Microsoft Edge browser is open on an iPhone.

Microsoft's latest changes to Bing Chat must be making the company feel more comfortable with the AI's stability. Microsoft is pressing forward, it seems, as a mobile version has been spotted by a few people who received early access.

Microsoft announced in a February 7 blog post that a mobile experience would be available soon. Less than two weeks later, it is beginning to arrive, despite the recent trouble with Bing Chat becoming unhinged and declaring that it wants to be human.

Read more
Here’s why ChatGPT might be ‘at capacity’ for you still
Aaron Leong
By Aaron Leong
February 17, 2023
ChatGPT and OpenAI logos.

AI-powered ChatGPT has recently been frustrating a sizable number of potential new users due to its own popularity, resulting in a very common "at capacity" notice that many people are facing.

Unfortunately, right now, you have to wait it out or come back at a time when less people are using it. You could also try out one of the best ChatGPT alternatives, including Microsoft's recently announced ChatGPT integration in Bing.

Read more
‘I want to be human.’ My intense, unnerving chat with Microsoft’s AI chatbot
Jacob Roach
By Jacob Roach
February 17, 2023
Bing Chat saying it wants to be human.

That's an alarming quote to start a headline with, but it was even more alarming to see that response from Bing Chat itself. After signing up for the lengthy waitlist to access Microsoft's new ChatGPT-powered Bing chat, I finally received access as a public user -- and my first interaction didn't go exactly how I planned.

Bing Chat is a remarkably helpful and useful service with a ton of potential, but if you wander off the paved path, things start to get existential quickly. Relentlessly argumentative, rarely helpful, and sometimes truly unnerving, Bing Chat clearly isn't ready for a general release.
Bing Chat is special (seriously)

Read more