Summary
On Aug 19th, 2026, between approximately 4:50 p.m. and 5:19 p.m. PT, some users experienced errors when signing in, creating accounts, or using ChatGPT. A deployment of an authentication service left an incompatible configuration in place, causing some authentication requests to fail. All affected services recovered by approximately 5:19 p.m. PT.
Impact
During this period:
Some users could not sign in to ChatGPT or create new accounts.
Some signed-in users experienced errors while starting or continuing conversations.
Root Cause
During a deployment, two incompatible configurations were applied to the systems that support authentication. This mismatch caused authentication requests to fail. Because these systems verify sign-ins and requests, some users experienced errors when signing in, creating accounts, or using ChatGPT.
Resolution
Engineers restored service by removing the incompatible configuration from affected environments. Recovery began approximately at 5:14 p.m. PT and recovered by approximately 5:19 p.m. PT.
Prevention and Improvements
We have implemented or are working on several improvements to reduce the likelihood and impact of similar incidents:
Expand automated cleanup during deployments to remove outdated configuration when service settings change.
Make rollbacks safer by using gradual, staged recovery steps by default and reserving faster paths for emergencies.
Add validation and warnings to identify incompatible or incomplete configuration before deployment.
Improve authentication resilience so ChatGPT can continue verifying sign-ins and requests during disruptions to dependent systems.
We apologize for the disruption and are continuing to strengthen the reliability of the systems that support ChatGPT.
