Chat GPT not working? First find out whether the problem is on OpenAI’s side or yours. Check OpenAI’s status page, status.openai.com. If there is an outage, wait for it to be fixed. If everything is green and ChatGPT still fails for you, the steps below, taken from OpenAI’s help center, find the cause in a few minutes.

On this page

Step 1: rule out an outage

OpenAI puts “Check status.openai.com” in almost every troubleshooting list, because no browser setting fixes a server problem. Look for incidents on ChatGPT itself and on the feature you are using, such as file uploads, voice or image generation. Comparing it with another service’s status page, such as Claude’s, helps you tell a ChatGPT problem from a wider internet one.

OpenAI’s slow-response article adds that users “may notice a pattern of slowness at specific times of the day” during peak hours, even without a listed incident.

Step 2: reset the page and the session

  1. Refresh the page or start a new chat. OpenAI lists this first for the general “Something went wrong” error.
  2. Hard refresh with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + R, or close and reopen the desktop or mobile app.
  3. Sign out and sign back in.
  4. Clear cache and cookies for ChatGPT. OpenAI says that when ChatGPT was fine before and suddenly is not, outdated cache data is the most common cause. For a blank or frozen page, clear the site data for chat.openai.com, not only the cache.

Step 3: rule out the browser

  1. Open an incognito or private window. It runs without most extensions and saved data, so if ChatGPT works there, the cause is in your normal browser profile.
  2. Disable extensions, “especially privacy or security tools”, ad blockers and script blockers, according to OpenAI’s error-message guide. Turn them back on one at a time to find the culprit.
  3. Try a different browser.

Step 4: rule out the network

  1. Turn off VPNs, proxies and secure DNS tools such as Web Protect. OpenAI names these in nearly every error it documents.
  2. Switch networks. OpenAI’s network article offers a simple test: if the error goes away when you move from company Wi-Fi to a phone hotspot, the company network is the cause.
  3. Ask IT to allowlist ChatGPT. The same article lists the domains ChatGPT needs, such as *.chatgpt.com, *.openai.com and *.oaistatic.com, and asks networks to allow WebSocket traffic over TCP port 443 to wss://ws.chatgpt.com. Security gateways from vendors like Zscaler, Cisco Umbrella or Fortinet may need to stop blocking ChatGPT explicitly.

Step 5: match the symptom to a fix

Different failures have their own pages:

  • The page loads but a reply fails with “Something went wrong”, “An unknown error occurred” or “Error in message stream”: see the guides linked at the end of this page.
  • The reply hangs on “Thinking…” or never finishes: wait 30 to 60 seconds, click “Stop generating”, then “Regenerate”. Our ChatGPT not responding guide has OpenAI’s full sequence.
  • You cannot log in: OpenAI’s login article says to wait at least 60 seconds, check the status page, clear cache and cookies, and use the same sign-in method you signed up with (Google, Microsoft, Apple or email).
  • “We detect suspicious activity”: disable VPNs or proxies, restart the browser, and make sure you are not sharing your account; change your password if needed.
  • A file will not download: files generated by ChatGPT expire quickly, so regenerate it, and keep downloads under the 512 MB limit.

Step 6: contact OpenAI Support

If ChatGPT is not working on any browser, device or network and the status page is clear, contact Support through the chat at help.openai.com. OpenAI asks for a HAR file recorded while you reproduce the problem, browser console errors with timestamps, the model you used and the conversation URL.