HIGHLIGHTS

Numerous users are facing accessibility challenges with ChatGPT, prompted by a “Bad Gateway” error.

Downdetector indicates that over 4,000 users are impacted by the disruption, reaching its peak around 5:30 PM.

This incident signifies the second substantial outage for ChatGPT in recent months, as users take to social media to express their frustrations and share memes.

ChatGPT is currently experiencing a significant disruption, as a large number of users are reporting accessibility problems with the widely-used AI chatbot. Many users have encountered a “Bad Gateway” error message while trying to access the service. The message indicates that “The web server reported a bad gateway error,” suggesting issues with the communication between the website and its server. Unfortunately, OpenAI has yet to publicly address the current outage.

According to data from Downdetector, a real-time outage monitoring service, approximately 87% of the users in question have reported problems with ChatGPT’s functionality, while 12% have indicated issues accessing the website directly. The peak time for these complaints occurred at around 5:30 PM, with over 4,000 users experiencing disruptions. Notably, the outage has affected several regions, including the United States and the United Kingdom, among others.

READ: Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+ first impressions: Familiar faces, powerful performance

While the precise cause of the outage is still unclear, it reasonably appears to be server-related. Currently, some users are able to access the chatbot again, but questions linger regarding whether or not OpenAI will provide any official acknowledgment of the disruption.

READ: One UI 7 features unveiled with Galaxy S25 series: AI Interactions, new editing tools and more

As a result of these issues, users have flocked to various social media platforms to voice their concerns about ChatGPT’s outages. A portion of them has even found a humorous angle to the situation, sharing memes, comments, and playful jabs at both ChatGPT and its CEO, Sam Altman. Here are a selection of their creative responses:

Remarkably, this is not the first instance where ChatGPT has encountered a significant outage. In fact, just last month, the AI platform suffered a similar incident, exhibiting the same type of error. That particular disruption arose in the early hours of December 12 and had an extensive impact, affecting millions of users across various countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India.

This trend of outages raises concerns about the reliability of the service, especially as more users depend on ChatGPT for various applications ranging from casual inquiries to more serious tasks in business and education. The growing traffic on the platform has put significant pressure on OpenAI’s infrastructure, which seems to struggle to keep pace with user demand. As the organization works to improve its service stability, many users are left wondering how to navigate these frequent interruptions and ensure they have access to this valuable AI tool.

It’s evident that while ChatGPT has proven itself to be a transformative technology, the challenges associated with its operational reliability are equally important to address as both OpenAI and its users continue to adapt and evolve within this rapidly changing digital landscape.