ChatGPT and Major AI Services Hit by Global Cloudflare Outage

ChatGPT is down -- live updates on massive OpenAI outage

Users are having a hard time interacting with their favorite chatbot Users around the world are currently unable to use ChatGPT, which is hindering productivity for those who rely on the AI tool to get things done. Whether you're using it for image generation or deep research, the incredibly useful tool isn't working. This is likely due to the current Cloudflare outage affecting the internet. It's taken out several other services -- even Downdetector, a reliable source for tracking the relative severity of an outage, is down. OpenAI has acknowledged the outage on its status page, confirming that it is "investigating" the affected services and that a "third party" is the reason for the outage. While it didn't name Cloudflare, that's the likely culprit.

Is ChatGPT down? Cloudflare outage confirmed.

Many users who attempted to log in to the ChatGPT website this morning were met with an error message: "Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed." At Downdetector, hundreds of users were similarly reporting problems, starting around 6:30 a.m. ET and then ramping up significantly throughout the morning. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Ziff Davis, the same parent company as Mashable.) And at 7:12 a.m. ET, OpenAI confirmed on a status page that it was investigating a problem with some of its websites. A later update on the OpenAI website reads, "We have confirmed that the incident is caused by an issue with one of our third-party service providers. We will provide updates as they become available." The issue is connected to the ongoing Cloudflare outage. ChatGPT is one of many affected services, which also include X, Grindr, Canva, Spotify, and YouTube. When a major cloud computing platform like AWS or Cloudflare experiences a problem, it can cause ripple effects throughout the World Wide Web. However, we do have some good news for ChatGPT users. The AI chatbot's iOS app appears to be working like normal, as of this writing. It's specifically the ChatGPT website that appears to be suffering problems. It's too soon to say what caused the Cloudflare outage. The latest update from Cloudflare states that the cloud services platform was "working on restoring service for application services customers." This is a developing story... Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Why is ChatGPT down? 3 alternative generative AI tools to use for work amid Cloudflare outage affecting global networks

The popular generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, along with numerous other global internet services, experienced widespread inaccessibility earlier today due to a major disruption affecting the content delivery network (CDN) provider, Cloudflare. The outage caused difficulties for users attempting to access major platforms, including social media, design tools, and gaming services. The multi-platform disruption began around 6:00 AM ET (4:30 PM IST), according to the outage-tracking website Downdetector. The issue reportedly surfaced with a Cloudflare support portal provider before rapidly escalating into broader service problems across its network. Cloudflare plays a critical role behind a substantial portion of the modern internet. Its functions include content delivery, security management, and providing tools to keep websites operational during high-traffic periods or cyber attacks. When its systems fail, the impact extends across countless services that rely on its network infrastructure. Users attempting to access sites protected by Cloudflare were met with various difficulties. For example, some were unable to load posts on X (formerly Twitter), utilize design tools like Canva, or access services like OpenAI's ChatGPT. In many cases, users were blocked by a generic security message, such as "Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed," which signaled a malfunction in Cloudflare's own security and challenge systems, even if the underlying websites were still functioning. During times when critical infrastructure components like Cloudflare experience downtime, users seeking uninterrupted access to generative AI tools can turn to alternatives that run on different infrastructure: Microsoft Copilot: This AI chatbot is integrated into various Microsoft services. It typically runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and can be accessed via the Microsoft Copilot website. Google Gemini: Google's AI assistant operates using the company's global infrastructure. The free version is available for use on the Gemini website. QuillBot's AI Chat: This service offers an AI chat feature as part of its wider set of writing tools. Since it may run on different infrastructure, it can serve as a suitable alternative. Information is available on the QuillBot website.