ChatGPT Outages Disrupt Thousands Across North America

On the mornings of February 3 and 4, 2026, thousands of users across the United States and beyond found themselves unable to access OpenAI’s ChatGPT, one of the world’s most popular artificial intelligence platforms. The disruption, which quickly became a trending topic on social media, sparked confusion, frustration, and a flurry of speculation as to what might have gone wrong. For many, the familiar error message—“Hmm...something seems to have gone wrong”—was all they could see, leaving both casual users and professionals scrambling for alternatives.

According to data crowdsourced by the outage tracking site Down Detector, the issues began on February 3, when an initial wave of connectivity problems hit the service. Reports poured in from users in the U.S. and abroad, with more than 28,000 individuals flagging problems with the platform by the end of the day. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, had not provided an official explanation or timeline for resolution as of that evening. As reported by Diario AS, “OpenAI had not yet posted an update but users have been highlighting the issue.”

The following day, February 4, the problems returned with renewed intensity. Starting in the early morning Pacific Time, Down Detector began recording a rapid escalation in user complaints. At 9:26 a.m. PST, more than 4,000 users had already reported issues. Within just minutes, that number had ballooned to over 7,000 by 9:29 a.m., then to 10,000 at 9:32 a.m., and hit 15,000 by 9:36 a.m., according to Downdetector.com. By 9:40 a.m., over 23,000 users had reported being affected, and at the peak, more than 24,000 users had flagged the outage.

What were people experiencing? The symptoms varied but were universally disruptive. Some users could not load their projects, others found that ChatGPT was unresponsive to queries, and many were unable to retrieve their chat histories or upload images. In Toronto, a user named John Chen posted on X (formerly Twitter) that ChatGPT wouldn’t load his profile or allow image uploads, displaying an error 403 message. Others in southern California echoed similar complaints. As TechRadar reported, “Users reported that their projects wouldn’t load or that ChatGPT wasn’t providing answers to queries. In some cases, it wouldn’t pull up chat histories or let people upload images.”

Initially, OpenAI’s official status page did not reflect the scale of the problem. For much of the early outage, the page continued to display all systems as “fully operational,” with all indicators in green. This disconnect between user experience and official status only fueled the confusion. However, as the volume of complaints became impossible to ignore, OpenAI updated its status page to acknowledge the issue. The company stated, “We have identified that users are experiencing elevated errors for the impacted services. We are working on implementing a mitigation.”

By 9:32 a.m. PST, OpenAI’s status checker specifically noted that “custom GPT updates are failing for users.” The company claimed to have “applied the mitigation and are currently monitoring the recovery.” As the minutes ticked by, the number of reports on Down Detector began to slow, suggesting that the worst of the outage may have passed. By around 10:00 a.m., reports had dropped to approximately 4,200, and OpenAI’s status page offered a slightly new message: “We are investigating the issue for the listed services.”

This incident was not an isolated event. In fact, it was the second significant outage for ChatGPT in as many days. On February 3, the service had experienced a similar, albeit shorter, interruption. As TechRadar noted, “OpenAI hasn’t suffered any major multihour outages recently but it has annoyingly been infected with this 35 to 45 minutes ones in recent weeks.” The back-to-back disruptions raised questions about the underlying cause, though OpenAI has yet to provide a detailed explanation. Some observers speculated about possible infrastructural issues, but with no official word, such theories remain just that—speculation.

For many users, the outages were more than just a minor inconvenience. ChatGPT has become an essential tool for students, professionals, and businesses alike, powering everything from homework help to customer service chatbots. The sudden loss of access highlighted just how dependent people have become on reliable AI services. As one user on X put it, “ChatGPT down can’t load profile can’t upload images with error 403 in Toronto.”

Social media platforms, particularly X, became a virtual town square for those affected. Users shared screenshots of error messages, commiserated over lost productivity, and speculated about when the service might return. The hashtag #ChatGPTDown trended, and some users even poked fun at the situation, riffing on the AI’s usual helpfulness with tongue-in-cheek complaints. Meanwhile, forums and comment sections on Down Detector filled with similar stories from across North America and beyond.

OpenAI’s response, while ultimately acknowledging the problem, was criticized by some for its initial lack of transparency. The company’s status page lagged behind user reports, and updates were slow to arrive. Once OpenAI did recognize the issue, it moved quickly to implement mitigation measures and monitor recovery. By late morning, most users were able to access ChatGPT again, though some residual issues lingered for a short while.

The repeated outages serve as a reminder of the challenges facing even the most advanced technology companies as they scale up to meet global demand. With millions relying on AI tools for daily tasks, even brief disruptions can have outsized impacts. While OpenAI has built a reputation for innovation and reliability, the events of February 3 and 4 show that no system is immune to technical hiccups.

For now, users are back online, and ChatGPT is once again answering questions, generating code, and assisting with a dizzying array of tasks. But the memory of those error messages lingers, a subtle reminder that in our increasingly digital world, even the smartest machines can have an off day.