ChatGPT Outage Disrupts Millions; Users Turn to Alternatives Amid Service Downtime

On June 10, 2025, OpenAI’s ChatGPT experienced a widespread outage that affected millions of users globally. The disruption lasted several hours, causing frustration among individuals and businesses relying on the AI for productivity, creativity, and communication.

Nature of the Outage

Symptoms: Users reported error messages, slow response times, and complete inability to access the ChatGPT interface.

Cause: OpenAI attributed the outage to unexpected server overload combined with a software deployment glitch.

Resolution: The engineering team worked around the clock, restoring full service by late evening June 10.

Alternatives Suggested During Downtime

While ChatGPT was offline, users explored several AI chatbot and assistant alternatives:

Microsoft Copilot: Seamlessly integrated with Microsoft 365 apps, offering AI-powered writing, summarization, and data analysis.

Google Gemini: Google’s advanced AI assistant, known for multimodal input and real-time web access, integrated with Google Workspace.

Anthropic Claude: Praised for its safety features and natural conversational style.

Character.AI: Popular for role-playing and creative storytelling.

Semrush ContentShake AI: Focused on marketing content generation.

OpenAI’s Commitment

OpenAI apologized for the inconvenience and announced plans to enhance infrastructure resilience and introduce real-time status dashboards to keep users informed during future incidents.