ChatGPT can feel slow today for a few common reasons. Here’s a concise rundown and practical steps to improve responsiveness. What’s usually behind the slowness
- Server congestion and outages: high demand or regional outages can cause delays in processing or delivering responses. OpenAI sometimes experiences spikes or intermittent problems that impact all users or specific regions.
- Plan and routing effects: free-tier users often see slower responses during peak times because priority is given to paying users or API clients. If on the free plan, this can noticeably affect speed during busy windows.
- Client-side factors: your internet connection quality, browser performance, and device speed can add latency. Clearing caches, updating browsers, or trying a different device can help.
- Long or complex prompts and chats: extremely long conversations can tax the front-end rendering or increase per-message processing time, especially if many context windows are loaded in your tab. Starting a fresh chat can feel dramatically faster in some cases.
- Ongoing incidents or maintenance: occasional outages or maintenance windows can cause brief slowdowns or outages across the service. Checking real-time status or outage trackers can confirm.
What you can try to speed things up
- Check status and outages: look for any current OpenAI service status updates or regional outage notices to see if the slowness is widespread.
- Switch plan if applicable: if you’re using the free tier and slowdowns are frequent during peak hours, consider trying during off-peak times or upgrading to a paid plan if you rely on speed for work.
- Reduce browser load: clear cache and cookies, close unused tabs, and disable heavy extensions that might slow down page rendering. Try a fresh browser profile or another browser.
- Start a new chat: for very long threads, starting a new chat can restore responsiveness, since the front-end memory load and rendering burden may be lower. Note that you’ll lose chat history in that new session.
- Improve connectivity: if on a slow or unstable connection, try a wired Ethernet connection or move closer to the router, and ensure VPNs or proxies aren’t introducing extra latency.
If you’d like, share a couple of details:
- Are you on the free tier or Plus/enterprise?
- Is the slowness regional (e.g., specific country) or global?
- Does the slowness occur with long chats, code blocks, or during simple prompts?
I can tailor steps based on those details and provide more targeted troubleshooting.
