OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Sora, and API Face Global Outage: What Went Wrong This Time?

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has gone down once again and for thousands of users around the world, the frustration is very real. API user in the development community, student in the middle of an assignment, or simply a curious user learning about AI tools such as Sora; the outage on today has caused a ripple effect of disruption. It is the second time that ChatGPT has greatly failed this month, and customers are starting to raise a hard question: can we trust the OpenAI offering its services during critical times?

What Exactly Happened Today?

On July 16, 2025, an outage of ChatGPT and many other services of OpenAI, including Sora, Codex, and even the GPT API, started affecting users in North America, Europe, and Asia. In India there was also a significant increase in complaints on social media, also on the forums and in communication services, such as Reddit and X (formerly Twitter).

Several users commented that once they have logged in, they have received blank screens. Some users were not able to find their chat history or received such messages as unusual error detected in the process of communicating with the chatbot. Programmers using the OpenAI API to access real-time functionality also had their responses returned either unsuccessfully or in-progress.

Everyone running to X to see if ChatGPT is down. pic.twitter.com/9DX2fXliL6

— Heisenberg (@rovvmut_) July 16, 2025

ChatGPT is down, I was literally having a trauma dump and annoy to get some helpful tips on coping .. now what pic.twitter.com/a8bHe21ify

— LodyDody 💭 (@lodydody1021) July 16, 2025

is chatgpt down for anyone else? im currently arguing with a stranger online and need it to win badly.

— one1 (@one1wonm) July 16, 2025

Everyone running to X to confirm if chatgpt is down 💀pic.twitter.com/M8sTlTa0KW

— SUAREZ (@suayrez) July 16, 2025

DownDetector, a website that tracks service outages, reported that 82% of complaints were about ChatGPT’s core service, while 12% pointed to issues with the website, and another 6% were related to the mobile app. Clearly, the problem wasn’t confined to one platform and it spread across the entire OpenAI ecosystem.

What Did OpenAI Say?

“We are currently experiencing degraded performance across several services including ChatGPT, Sora, and Codex. We’ve identified the root cause and are actively working on mitigation.”

The message did not provide an exact schedule of the resumption of the services to a normal level but assured its users that an update will be posted in case solutions have been implemented. Currently, the users continue to complain about occasional issues, particularly, when attempting to open the saved chats or use the GPT-4-turbo features.