ChatGPT down for thousands as users report issues

Key AI platforms including ChatGPT and Google Gemini have gone down for thousands of users with issues reported across the globe.

The website Downdetector, which reports real-time service problems and outages, has documented reports of issues with artificial intelligence services including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot today (April 20).

Issues have been reported both in the US and the UK, with ChatGPT reports in the US jumping on Downdetector from a baseline of eight reports to almost 2000 today (April 20).

Users have reported losing access to their conversations and projects, with many taking to social media to share their complaints.

"Chatgpt down? Total history just wiped, can’t access any chat history…. @OpenAI," one user wrote.

OpenAI, which runs ChatGPT, has said it is 'investigating' an issue affecting the system, noting: "Impacted users are currently unable to access ChatGPT, Codex and API Platform." The AI company has dubbed the situation as a 'partial outage', with not all users impacted in the same way.

Complaints about ChatGPT going down have been reported in the US and UK (Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

According to the company's status page, impacted features for the chatbot include conversations, login, search, file uploads and image generation, among others.

In its latest update, the company said: "We are continuing to investigate the issue for the listed services".

Meanwhile, reports of issues using Google Gemini in the US have increased from next to nothing earlier today, to almost 90 reports. Claude AI jumped from a baseline of around six outage reports to 169, and Microsoft Copilot jumped from a baseline of one report to 99, according to Downdetector.

"Chat gpt, Gemini and Claude are down? WTF?," one user wrote on X, though some noted that Elon Musk's Grok still appeared to be in full working order.

For those concerned AI could be coming for our jobs, it seems like there's still some kinks to work out - or maybe they just all called in sick today?

Whatever the reason for the outage, thankfully it seems as if reports are decreasing at the time of writing, so our AI companions will likely be back in no time.