You are Not Alone, ChatGPT is Down

Latest News on ChatGPT Outage - January 2025

As of January 2025, OpenAI's ChatGPT has been experiencing significant service disruptions, which have been attributed to several factors.

Outage Details

On January 23, 2025, ChatGPT suffered another global outage, preventing many users from accessing the service. The outage started around 6:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, with over 4,329 incidents reported on Downdetector1 5.
The outage was characterized by users receiving "Internal Server Error," "Bad Gateway," or a 503 "Service Temporarily Unavailable" message when attempting to use the chatbot5.

Causes of the Outage

The exact cause of the outage is still under investigation, but it is believed to be due to server overload, technical glitches, or underlying infrastructure problems within OpenAI’s systems1 5.
This is the third recent instance of widespread outages for ChatGPT, raising concerns about the reliability of the service1.

DDoS Attack Vulnerability

A recent security vulnerability in ChatGPT’s API was discovered, which could be exploited to generate Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks against targeted websites. The vulnerability allowed an attacker to send unlimited connection requests through the API by including multiple URLs in a single request. This could overwhelm the targeted website with traffic from OpenAI’s servers3 4.
The vulnerability, described as a result of "bad programming," was detailed by German security researcher Benjamin Flesch. It has since been addressed by OpenAI, but it highlights a potential vector for DDoS attacks3.

Impact and User Experience

Despite the website sometimes loading, users were unable to receive responses to their inputs. Even paying users were affected, unable to contact the service through the usual URL5.
The high demand for ChatGPT services, particularly with the introduction of premium models like ChatGPT Pro, may contribute to the frequency and severity of these outages5.

Official Response

OpenAI has acknowledged the issue on its status page, stating an "Elevated Error Rate for ChatGPT and API" and that they are continuing to investigate the problem1.
As of the latest reports, there is no official word on when the service will be fully restored, although the company is working to resolve the issue1 5.

Conclusion

The recent outage of ChatGPT in January 2025 underscores ongoing challenges with the service's reliability and infrastructure. While the immediate cause of the outage is still under investigation, the presence of vulnerabilities such as the one allowing DDoS attacks through the API highlights the need for robust security measures to protect both the service and its users. As the service continues to grow in popularity, addressing these issues will be crucial for maintaining user trust and ensuring uninterrupted service.

References:

1 https://techstartups.com/2025/01/23/chatgpt-is-down-again-chatgpt-is-hit-with-outages-heres-what-you-need-to-know/
3 https://cyberscoop.com/ddos-openai-chatgpt-api-vulnerability-microsoft/
5 https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/128060/chatgpt-once-again-suffers-global-outage/