Possible Degradation Resolved

ChatGPT possible degradation on May 21, 2026 — 1 hour 30 minutes incident report

ChatGPT appeared to experience possible degradation for 1 hour 30 minutes on May 21, 2026.

See live ChatGPT status →
ServiceChatGPT
StartedMay 21, 2026 at 14:00 UTC
ResolvedMay 21, 2026 at 15:31 UTC
Total duration1 hour 30 minutes
Peak severityPossible Degradation
DetectionOfficial OpenAI status feed

Timeline

  1. Possible issue detected
  2. Confirmed by re-check
  3. Service responding normally

What happened

On May 21, 2026, ChatGPT appeared to experience possible degradation lasting 1 hour 30 minutes, according to our automated monitoring. The incident was first detected by Are The Bots Down's monitoring system at May 21, 2026 at 14:00 UTC and our checks resumed normal results at May 21, 2026 at 15:31 UTC. OpenAI's public status feed reported the issue during this window. 10 status observations were recorded across the lifetime of this incident.

What to do when ChatGPT appears to be having issues

Most detected ChatGPT issues resolve within 15 minutes. While you wait, the API often stays available even when the consumer chat is having problems — check status.openai.com for the official picture, but expect that page to lag the actual incident by 20 to 40 minutes.

Most users find it faster to switch tools than to wait. The closest alternatives to ChatGPT for the same workflows are Claude or Gemini.

Status information on this page is based on automated monitoring of publicly accessible endpoints and user-submitted reports. Are The Bots Down? is an independent monitoring service not affiliated with any monitored service. Automated monitoring can produce false positives; the source of record for any service's actual operational status is the service operator itself.

This report was generated automatically by Are The Bots Down's real-time monitoring system. Methodology ›