Is ChatGPT Down?

Quickest ways to check the current status of chat.openai.com plus recent known issues and working alternatives if it's out.

Last editorial review: 2026-04-22

How to check right now

Step 1 -- Load the site
Open chat.openai.com→

The simplest check. If it loads and you can log in, the tool is up for you.

Step 2 -- Crowdsourced reports
DownDetector: ChatGPT→

User-reported outages aggregated across regions. Good signal for partial or regional outages.

Step 3 -- Live social
Search X for “ChatGPTdown” →

Live tweets from other users. Fastest signal for a fresh outage -- often beats status pages by 10-20 minutes.

Step 4 -- Official status page
Find ChatGPT's status page →

Most vendors publish a status page at status.[domain] or on Statuspage.io. Google-search to find the current URL.

Known issues we've tracked

ChatGPT Images 2.0 / gpt-image-2 launched 2026-04-21 -- OpenAI's first image model with native reasoning ('thinks before it draws'), 3:1 to 1:3 aspect ratios, generates up to 8 related images with character/object continuity across the set, materially better multilingual text rendering. Free tier gets standard outputs; advanced thinking-mode gen is gated to Plus / Pro / Business / Enterprise. Reportedly took #1 on Image Arena leaderboard within 12 hours by ~242 Elo points (largest first-day jump on record). API model id: gpt-image-2. Bundled deprecation: DALL-E 2 + 3 retire 2026-05-12 -- code calling legacy endpoints will fail
2026-04•OpenAI Introducing ChatGPT Images 2.0, Tom's Guide, The New Stack
GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1-mini, and o4-mini were retired on 2026-02-13 (ChatGPT) / 2026-02-16 (API). Business/Enterprise/Edu Custom GPTs had grace period through 2026-04-03. If you have older prompts or agents hardcoded to 'gpt-4o', they are broken -- migrate to GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.4
2026-02•OpenAI deprecations, TechCrunch backlash coverage
New $100/mo Pro tier launched 2026-04-09 (between Plus $20 and Pro Ultra $200). OpenAI positioned it explicitly as a response to Claude Max pricing. Existing $200 Pro is retained for unlimited usage; the $100 tier offers 5x Plus quotas and 10x Codex during the launch promo through 2026-05-31
2026-04•OpenAI community post, TechCrunch, The Next Web
Legacy Deep Research mode was removed from ChatGPT on 2026-03-26 -- replaced by the newer agentic Deep Research. Users who preferred the old behavior (more predictable, less agentic) have no direct replacement
2026-03•OpenAI help changelog
ChatGPT Business annual was cut from $25 to $20 per seat on 2026-04-02 -- a rare downward pricing move. Existing customers on the $25 tier should check whether their renewal reflects the new rate
2026-04•OpenAI pricing page
Memory feature sometimes surfaces irrelevant stored memories or forgets things it should remember
2026-03•Reddit r/ChatGPT

Issues here are sourced from our editorial sweeps, not real-time telemetry. Newer issues may exist.

What to use if ChatGPT is down

Top AIToolTier-ranked alternatives in the same category, ordered by our overall score.

A

Perplexity AI

8.5

AI-powered search engine that gives cited answers instead of a list of links

A

Alexa+

8.3

Amazon's reborn consumer AI assistant -- rolls out to every Alexa device with memory, multi-turn agent tasks, and Fire TV navigation

B

NotebookLM

7.8

Google's free research assistant that turns your documents into an AI you can query -- and a podcast you can listen to

B

Microsoft Copilot

7.5

Microsoft's answer to ChatGPT -- free GPT-4 access with Bing search built in, but it feels like a corporate product

B

Poe

7.5

One subscription, every major AI model -- Quora's multi-model chatbot lets you switch between GPT-4, Claude, and more

About ChatGPT

Tier A (8.8/10). The chatbot that started the AI revolution -- most popular AI assistant in the world. ChatGPT Images 2.0 / gpt-image-2 (2026-04-21) brings native-reasoning image gen, 8-image character-continuity sets, 3:1 to 1:3 aspect ratios

Read the full ChatGPTreview →