Last updated: March 5, 2026
The OpenAI API may become unavailable, return 500/503 errors, experience extremely high latency, or reject valid API requests. This affects applications and services built on top of ChatGPT, GPT-4, DALL-E, and Whisper APIs.
Server overload: High traffic to OpenAI's servers.
Planned maintenance: OpenAI may be performing scheduled maintenance.
Rate limiting: Your API key may have exceeded request limits.
Billing issues: Your OpenAI account may have insufficient credits.
Region-specific outage: Some regions may experience localized issues.
• Visit status.openai.com for real-time service status.
• Check for degraded performance or outage notifications.
• Follow @OpenAI on Twitter for announcements.
• Log into platform.openai.com.
• Go to Billing to verify you have credits available.
• Check your API key is valid and not revoked.
• Verify your usage hasn't exceeded your plan limits.
• Add exponential backoff retry logic to your API calls.
• Start with a 1-second delay, doubling each retry.
• Set a maximum of 5 retries before failing.
• Review your rate limits at platform.openai.com/account/rate-limits.
• Tier 1 users have lower limits than higher tiers.
• Implement request queuing to stay within limits.
• If GPT-4 is experiencing issues, try GPT-3.5-turbo as a fallback.
• Smaller models may have better availability during outages.
• Switch back when the primary model is stable.
• Verify your API request format is correct.
• Make sure headers include the correct Authorization bearer token.
• Test with a minimal API call to isolate the issue.
If you believe there's an issue with your account or API key, contact OpenAI support at help.openai.com. Enterprise customers have dedicated support channels.
Q: How often does the OpenAI API go down?
A: Major outages are infrequent but degraded performance during peak hours is more common. Implementing retry logic and fallback models is recommended.
Q: What are OpenAI API rate limits?
A: Rate limits vary by tier and model. Check platform.openai.com/account/rate-limits for your specific limits.
Q: Can I get an SLA for the OpenAI API?
A: Enterprise plans include uptime SLAs. Standard plans do not have guaranteed uptime.
Q: What should I do if the API is down and my app depends on it?
A: Implement caching for common responses, use fallback models, show graceful error messages to users, and consider using multiple AI providers for redundancy.