Reports from users unable to access ChatGPT surged all at once on September 3.
The problem was not limited to ChatGPT. Claude and Grok also reported outages at the same time.
However, the fact that several services were disrupted together does not, by itself, establish the cause or confirm a complete recovery.
3-line summary
1. Reports of a ChatGPT outage surged on September 3
2. OpenAI said it was recovering after taking action
3. The cause of the simultaneous outages was not confirmed
More than 1-man 2,000 reports, 85% related to ChatGPT
The first thing confirmed in the September 3 reports was the surge in user reports that ChatGPT was difficult to use. Citing data from the outage-tracking service Downdetector, the Asbury Park Press reported that there were more than 1만2,000 reports of problems related to OpenAI just before 11 a.m. The report said the problem appeared at around 10:30 a.m. that same day.
It is difficult to read this number directly as the actual number of users affected by the outage. That is because Downdetector’s figures show reports from people who said they were unable to use the service. Even so, the sharp increase in reports over a short period indicates that access or usage problems were widely felt at the time.
An explanation also emerged that about 85% of complaints related to OpenAI concerned ChatGPT problems. This means that among reports concerning OpenAI’s various services, complaints related to ChatGPT made up a large share. Therefore, the figure of more than 1만2,000 reports and the ratio of 85% are not numbers repeating the same information; they respectively show the total volume of reports and the share ChatGPT represented within that total.
No time for completion of the resolution had been given when the reports were published. Because the problem had just emerged, there was speculation that it could be resolved quickly, but that was a projection at the time, not confirmation that it had been resolved. For users experiencing access errors, there was reason to distinguish between information that many outage reports had been filed and confirmation that the service had returned to normal.
Claude and Grok also confirmed outages
9to5Google reported that, in addition to ChatGPT, Claude (Anthropic’s artificial intelligence service) and Grok (X’s artificial intelligence service) were also experiencing outages. The outlet mentioned not only the increase in Downdetector reports but also outage notices confirmed on each service’s status page. The reports described cases in which the services themselves announced outages, beyond simply an increase in user complaints.
The fact that all three services were affected around the same time is a point worth noting in this case. If the experience were limited to being unable to access ChatGPT, it could be viewed as an individual service problem. But with outages also confirmed for Claude and Grok, the situation became one in which the use of multiple artificial intelligence services was disrupted during the same period.
By contrast, Gemini (Google’s artificial intelligence service) was reported differently. 9to5Google said that although user reports increased around a similar time, Google did not confirm an official outage in this incident. This comparison shows that a change in report volume and the fact that a provider announced an outage do not mean the same thing.
Cursor (an artificial intelligence agent) also announced that it was experiencing problems because of the Claude and Grok outages. Access problems with ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok did not remain confined to those individual services and could also affect the operation of other tools that use them. However, Cursor’s problem was described in the reports as resulting from the Grok and Claude outages; there was no confirmation that the ChatGPT outage was a direct cause.
OpenAI described the status as “recovering”
At the time of 9to5Google’s update, OpenAI said that it had applied a fix and that the service was recovering. User reports were also said to be declining. This was a signal that the problem had begun to subside, but it was distinct from a declaration that all users had regained normal access at the same time.
The status on Claude’s side was also not the same for every service. According to the reports, Claude said that most of it had recovered, but Opus 4.8 and Opus 5 were excluded. Grok was still shown as being in an outage state. Even when several services experienced outages at the same time, the application of fixes, the scope of recovery, and the wording on status pages did not match.
The possibility of an issue with Microsoft Azure was also mentioned in the article. This possibility was raised alongside an explanation that ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok use Azure as a cloud service. However, the report said that other providers were also used and did not announce this as the confirmed cause of the incident. The simultaneous outage of several services and the determination of its cause were separate issues.
What can be confirmed from this case is that several artificial intelligence services, including ChatGPT, experienced outages on September 3, and that a recovery signal subsequently appeared for ChatGPT. By contrast, the single cause, the time when all services had fully recovered, and whether Gemini actually experienced an outage cannot be confirmed from the reports provided. Interest in ChatGPT searches was observed in the Japanese search market, but this does not mean that the incident occurred in Japan.
References
Tags #ChatGPT #ChatGPT #ChatGPTOutage #OpenAI #OpenAI #ServiceOutage #Claude #Claude #Grok #Grok #Gemini #Gemini #Downdetector #AIServiceOutage