On July 23, OpenAI confirmed that both ChatGPT and Codex are facing increased error rates. This is leaving some users unable to access the services as they usually would.
The company’s official system status page has acknowledged the outage, indicating issues with its main AI chatbot and Codex, the AI tool designed to help developers write, debug, and review code automatically. OpenAI hasn’t disclosed how many users are affected or what caused the problem.
What’s Actually Happening
When OpenAI says “elevated error rates,” they mean the service is partially down. Picture a highway with most lanes closed — some cars can get through, while others are stuck. Some users are encountering errors right away when trying to start a conversation, while others make it partway through a session before experiencing a failure.
ChatGPT and Codex run on OpenAI’s shared infrastructure, which likely explains why both products are having issues at the same time. When the backend systems that process requests run into problems, everything built on top of them tends to feel the impact.
Android Authority confirmed that the outage is widespread, with users across multiple regions reporting issues at the same time. They first flagged the problems on July 23, 2026.
Who’s Affected
This outage seems to be affecting both free and paid ChatGPT users, as well as developers who rely on Codex for automated coding tasks. Codex is especially crucial for software teams reviewing pull requests (proposed code changes) and generating code automatically. Any downtime there can directly disrupt software development workflows.
| By The Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Products affected | ChatGPT, Codex |
| Outage confirmed by | OpenAI system status page |
| Outage type | Elevated error rates (partial outage) |
| Date reported | July 23, 2026 |
| ChatGPT weekly active users (as of early 2025) | ~400 million |
What This Means for You
If you use ChatGPT regularly for drafting emails, summarizing documents, or answering quick questions, you might want a backup plan. Tools like Google Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude can serve as alternatives while the outage lasts.
For developers who depend on Codex for automating code reviews or generating boilerplate code (standard code that gets reused across projects), the impact is more immediate. Paused pipelines and slower review cycles can add up quickly when these tools go offline, even for a short time.
The best place for real-time updates is OpenAI’s system status page at status.openai.com. The company usually posts progress updates there as engineers work on the issue.
Community Reaction
Users on Reddit and other social platforms quickly took notice. One commenter on r/ChatGPT said: “Thought it was just me, refreshed like five times before checking the status page. At least it’s not my internet.” That sentiment resonates with anyone who’s spent time troubleshooting their own connection before realizing the issue is elsewhere.
In YouTube comments related to ChatGPT tutorial videos, several users mentioned the downtime: “Just tried following along with this video and kept getting errors — looks like OpenAI is having issues right now, not your tutorial.”
Context: How Often Does This Happen?
Since its launch, ChatGPT has faced intermittent outages. However, partial outages like this one, where service degrades but doesn’t disappear completely, happen more often than full blackouts. As OpenAI’s user base has grown to hundreds of millions, keeping the infrastructure stable at that scale remains a challenge. Even small percentage failures affect a significant number of users.
Sources: 9to5Mac, Android Authority, OpenAI System Status
What To Watch
- OpenAI’s status page is the quickest way to find out when the outage is resolved. The company usually posts an “all clear” notice once everything is stable.
- Keep an eye out for a post-incident report from OpenAI explaining what caused the outage. They’ve published these in the past, often revealing useful insights about what went wrong.
- If the outage lasts more than a few hours, expect broader media coverage and pressure on OpenAI to provide an explanation, especially from enterprise customers needing guaranteed uptime.
Daniel Park
Daniel Park covers AI, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise software for Explosion.com. A former software engineer who transitioned to technology journalism 5 years ago, Daniel brings technical depth to his reporting on artificial intelligence, startup funding rounds, and the companies building the future of computing. He breaks down complex AI developments and business strategies into clear, actionable insights for readers who want to understand how technology is reshaping industries.
