OpenAI ChatGPT Faces Global Partial Outage

Thousands of users worldwide encountered disruptions with OpenAI's ChatGPT on April 20, 2026, as the popular AI chatbot experienced a partial outage affecting access to conversations, image generation, voice features, and the company's coding tool, Codex. The issue, which began around 10:05 a.m. ET, left many staring at blank screens, endless loading indicators, or error messages, halting workflows for individuals and businesses reliant on the service.

Reports flooded outage-tracking site Downdetector, surging from a few hundred to a peak of over 13,000 within hours. Users described difficulties loading the platform, sending messages, or logging in, with some able to initiate new chats while others faced complete lockouts. The API platform, used by developers and integrated applications, also saw interruptions, amplifying the impact on broader digital operations. OpenAI's status page initially classified the problem as degraded performance before escalating it to a partial outage, confirming that affected individuals could not access core services.

In an official update, OpenAI stated, "We are investigating the issue for the listed services. Impacted users are currently unable...