ChatGPT not working today? Check status, then try these fixes

If ChatGPT is not working today, first check status.openai.com, then work through the fixes below in order. As of November 2, 2026, OpenAI's status page showed all systems operational and said the company was not aware of any issues affecting its systems, so a problem right now is most likely on your side: the browser, the network or the account.

This guide is for people who can open ChatGPT but get an error, a spinning reply or a blank page. It covers what OpenAI's help center says about its error messages and the order that saves the most time.

Step 1: Check whether ChatGPT is down

Open the OpenAI status page. It lists each service, such as Conversations and Login, and any active incident. OpenAI's own troubleshooting article tells readers with a "Something went wrong" error to check this page for outages before anything else.

If an incident is listed, the fix is to wait. Nothing on your device will change it. The status page also shows that incidents are usually short. The most recent ones in its history were all marked minor and were resolved within about one to four hours, for example elevated errors with search in ChatGPT Work and certain thinking experiences on October 30, 2026, which ran from 19:38 to 21:14 UTC.

If the page shows no incident, go on to step 2. Status pages can lag behind a problem that has just started, so if every fix below fails, check it again later.

Step 2: Refresh the page or start a new chat

For the general "Something went wrong" error, OpenAI says the cause may be a temporary server issue or a problem with your local setup. Its first suggestions are to refresh the page and to start a new chat. A long conversation that fails to respond sometimes works in a fresh one.

Step 3: Rule out your browser

If the error stays after a refresh, test the browser:

1. Open ChatGPT in an incognito or private window. If it works there, the problem is stored data or an extension in your normal window.
2. Turn off browser extensions you don't recognize, then reload.
3. Try another browser.
4. Clear the browser cache and cookies for the site. OpenAI's guide lists this for the "There was an error generating a response" error when it persists.

You will be signed out when you clear cookies, so have your login ready.

Step 4: Turn off VPNs, proxies and secure DNS

The same OpenAI guide tells users to disable VPNs, proxies and secure DNS services when a response fails to generate. These tools change how your connection reaches OpenAI's servers, and some networks block or break it.

Step 5: Change the network or the device

For network and websocket errors, OpenAI's article suggests switching networks or devices. In practice that means moving from Wi-Fi to mobile data, or trying the mobile app instead of the browser. If ChatGPT works on one device and not another, the fault is on the first device.

If you see an unusual activity message

OpenAI says this message appears when traffic may look automated or unusual. The article's advice is to make sure your account isn't shared and to secure your password and email. A VPN or shared network address is a common reason for it, according to third-party guides, but OpenAI's excerpt we could read does not say so. We could not open OpenAI's full article, so the details beyond what is described here are not confirmed.

Step 6: Contact OpenAI support

If nothing works, contact OpenAI through its help center. One OpenAI article recommends clearing site data and doing a hard refresh first, and capturing a HAR file, a log of your browser's network requests, to include with your report. Support will ask what you tried, so keep a short list.

Quick reference

Limits of this guide

OpenAI's help center blocked automated access while this guide was prepared, so the troubleshooting steps come from the excerpts of OpenAI's "Troubleshooting ChatGPT Error Messages" article that were available, and the status information comes from OpenAI's status page. Check the help center article for its current wording.