July 16, 2025: Is ChatGpt Down? OpenAI is currently grappling with another widespread service outage, affecting millions of users across its AI platforms — including ChatGPT, the GPT API, Sora, and Codex. This marks the second significant outage in July, raising renewed concerns over the reliability of one of the world’s most widely used AI providers.
The outage began in the early hours of Tuesday, with Downdetector registering a sharp surge in user complaints around 6:10 AM IST. Users across North America, Europe, and Asia (including India) reported disruptions, with 88% citing complete inaccessibility of ChatGPT, while others experienced errors with API usage, Sora video generation, and Codex programming tools.
OpenAI’s Acknowledgement and Response
OpenAI’s official status page confirmed the disruption, reporting “degraded performance” across multiple services and noting:
“We have identified elevated error rates and are working on a mitigation.”
However, as of this writing, OpenAI has not disclosed the root cause of the issue—whether it stems from server overloads, internal bugs, or external attacks—and has not provided a timeline for restoration.
What Users Are Experiencing
Social media platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter), have been flooded with posts detailing:
- Blank chat screens or frozen sessions on ChatGPT.
- Repeated login failures and endless security verification loops.
- Sudden disconnects during ongoing conversations or creative projects.
- Developers reporting that Codex is returning incomplete or failed responses.
- Creators using Sora experiencing lags in rendering and video generation.
Advice for Affected Users
Until full functionality is restored, OpenAI recommends the following:
- Avoid multiple login attempts to prevent triggering security blocks.
- Monitor the official status page for real-time updates: status.openai.com.
- Backup ongoing work externally to avoid loss during session crashes.
Growing Concerns
This is the second global outage in less than three weeks, at a time when OpenAI’s user base continues to expand rapidly. Industry observers note that repeated disruptions—particularly during peak hours—could erode user trust, especially among developers and enterprises relying on uninterrupted API access.
While OpenAI has previously managed to restore service within a few hours during similar incidents, users are hoping for more transparency and a long-term solution to these recurrent issues.