OpenAI has a page dedicated to possible problems with its services, such as ChatGPT or its API. In the event of disconnection, inability to access or slowness, you must refer to it while waiting for a solution.
A ChatGPT outage means thousands of students panicking. OpenAI’s chatbot, launched at the end of 2022, is used by more than 100 million people every week. This is less than most social networks, but huge for such a young platform. ChatGPT never ceases to impress with its ability to become a habit.
When ChatGPT goes down, many of its users are lost. OpenAI often has server problems (which forces it to limit access to the service) and can even, in some cases, experience larger outages. On June 4, 2024, for example, ChatGPT became inaccessible for many people.
What to do if ChatGPT goes down? There are several tools to try to understand the bugs or alternatives to temporarily replace it.
How do I know if ChatGPT is down?
Like most large tech groups, OpenAI has a page to consult the status of its services. It is generally updated quickly, which is not the case with all of its competitors. Otherwise, it is always possible to go to the DownDetector site, which collects user reports (note: you must search for “OpenAI” and not “ChatGPT”).
What should I do to restore ChatGPT in the event of an outage? Try connecting to the site in private, in hopes of resolving a possible connection issue. You can also use a VPN, since sometimes certain problems are localized. If nothing changes, the only solution is to wait for a server patch from OpenAI.
What are the alternatives to ChatGPT in the event of an outage?
If you absolutely need access to a chatbot to summarize a document and generate content, it is possible to turn to ChatGPT competitors in the event of an outage. The only downside: your conversation history will not be available.
To find a level of intelligence similar to ChatGPT, the best is to go to Microsoft Copilot (or Bing). Since Microsoft owns 49% of OpenAI, it uses GPT-4 in its services. The answers may be different (since the configuration is not the same), but the central “intelligence” is the same. It’s a good free equivalent to ChatGPT.
In the event of a widespread outage at OpenAI, with an API suspension, the alternative is Google Gemini, ChatGPT’s competitor. Also free, it can analyze documents and images, and answer many questions. However, it is not the same language model as ChatGPT.
Typically, it only takes a few hours for OpenAI to fix a ChatGPT outage. In the worst case, you will have to reconnect everywhere, since you may be forcibly disconnected in the event of an outage.
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