[Software] ChatGPT is down for many – here's everything we know about the outage so far

[King_of_dark]

ChatGPT is currently down for many users, or at least behaving very erratically – and it isn't yet clear what's causing it or how long it'll last.

The website Downdetector is showing a large spike in reports in both the US and UK, with the issues starting at around 9amET / 2pm BST. Most users are reporting either laggy performance or error messages like "something went wrong" on the desktop version and "upstream connect error" on the mobile app.

We've also noticed some intermittent issues on the TechRadar team on both ChatGPT's mobile app and browser versions. So what's going on? Have too many Studio Ghibli image requests pushed OpenAI's over the edge, or is this (hopefully) just a short-term blip?

Here's everything we know about the latest ChatGPT outage so far...

The latest news
ChatGPT is down for many users on both desktop and mobile
The issues started at around 9am ET / 2pm BST
The problems include error messages and laggy performance
31 March 2025 at 16:47
Is Gemini having issues too?
A laptop screen showing a Google Gemini error message

So it wasn't just our collective imaginations – OpenAI's Status page is now showing an "Increased Error Rates" issue for ChatGPT.

The notice states that "we are investigating the issue" but doesn't provide any more information about a cause, other than it's been "ongoing for 2hr".

The description seems to fit our experience – while it isn't a complete outage for the service, we have certainly been seeing a lot or error messages.

The Downdetector reports seemed to have dropped slightly from their earlier peak, but not by far – with the number hovering at around the 1,000 mark at the timing of writing. Seems like ChatGPT had a heavy weekend on the old Ghibli cocktails...

(Image credit: Google / Future)
Maybe we do need more of those AI chips and GPUs after all – it seems Google Gemini also experienced a minor outage at the same time as ChatGPT, though its issues seems to be largely resolved already.

We noticed error messages like the above in Gemini recently and Downdetector showed a fairly big spike in reported problems at around 9.36am ET / 2.36pm BST. This could point to DNS issues affecting both Gemini or ChatGPT, or it may be unrelated.

Either way, Gemini seems to be back to its old self – while OpenAI is seemingly having a second spike in reported problems, according to

It isn't yet clear what's causing today's ChatGPT problems, but OpenAI's status page says it's investigating a live incident.

The problems seem to be intermittent and producing a variety of lovely symptoms, including the "something went wrong" message above and the classic "upstream connect error" (always a favorite) on the mobile app.

While it's a bit too soon to blame the Studio Ghibli image craze, it's hard to ignore the timing of Sam Altman's increasingly panicked X posts telling us to stop making so many...

According to Downdetector, the latest ChatGPT outage started at around 9am ET / 2pm BST, when we saw a big spike in reports in both the US and UK.

The issues are seemingly intermittent, with the main problems including "something went wrong" error messages in ChatGPT's browser version and "upstream connect errors" in the mobile app.

We've seen both issues on the TechRadar team, though it doesn't appear to be a complete outage that's affecting everyone equally...

Link: https://www.techradar.com/news/live/chatgpt-down-march-31-2025