On December 11, 2024, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Sora, and its API services experienced a major down, affecting millions of users worldwide. According to OpenAI’s status page, the issue was first identified at 3:17 PM PT, and by 4:55 PM PT, the company confirmed it had found a path to recovery. The exact cause of the down remains unclear, and the team is working hard to bring the services back online.

By 7:00 PM PT, OpenAI reported that ChatGPT, Sora, and the API were slowly coming back online. However, users who attempted to access ChatGPT encountered an error message stating, "ChatGPT is currently unavailable,” with the assurance that a fix was being rolled out. The down also coincided with OpenAI's integration of ChatGPT into iOS 18.2, which may have contributed to a surge in traffic and further exacerbated the issue.

Sora, a product OpenAI recently launched, also faced difficulties. After a highly anticipated public release, many users reported issues generating videos, as OpenAI's servers were at capacity. CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that the startup had not anticipated such high demand, leading to a limited user signup and server congestion.

The timing of this major down also coincided with another global service interruption that affected Meta's products earlier that day. It is unclear if the two incidents were related, but users across platforms experienced disruptions.

This down happened on day five of OpenAI’s “12 Days of Shipmas” event, during which the company had been releasing new products and updates in the lead-up to the holiday season. Prior to the down, OpenAI had introduced several new features, including the full release of its o1 reasoning model, updates to Canvas, and integration with Apple Intelligence.

OpenAI is working diligently to restore its services and has assured users that steps are being taken to prevent such disruptions in the future. Developers and users who rely on these platforms are eagerly awaiting updates on when full functionality will be restored.

TECHCRUNCH