Summary

On Sep 2, 2026, between approximately 10:49 a.m. and 11:31 a.m. PDT, some users experienced errors when creating new OpenAI accounts. An automated maintenance process interrupted communication between internal services required for account creation. Service was restored by approximately 11:31 a.m. PDT.

Impact

During this period:

• Some users were temporarily unable to create new OpenAI accounts.

• Existing sign-ins and authenticated API usage were not directly affected by this account-creation issue.

Root Cause

An automated cleanup process removed access still needed by a service involved in account creation. The process relied on usage records that did not capture all internal service activity, so it incorrectly treated that access as unused. This prevented a required check from completing and caused sign-up requests to fail.

Resolution

Engineers restored the required service access, and account creation recovered by approximately 11:31 a.m. PDT. The cleanup process remained paused, and engineers subsequently reversed related changes and monitored sign-up success rates.

Prevention and Improvements

We have identified the following improvements to reduce the likelihood and impact of similar incidents:

• Improve sign-up resilience. Update how critical services connect to reduce the risk of maintenance changes interrupting account creation.

• Strengthen cleanup safeguards. Review critical service dependencies and confirm that access is no longer needed before resuming cleanup.

We apologize for the disruption and are continuing to strengthen the reliability of the systems that support account creation.