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Why Does ChatGPT Return an Error Message?
Aside from the heavy traffic that OpenAI is struggling to keep up with, there are several common reasons why ChatGPT displays an error message, like these:
- You might have an unstable internet connection
- The user prompt is too long, this can cause ChatGPT to jib out
- An issue with users with VPN-Enabled browsers (Virtual Private Networks)
- ChatGPT’s server backend issues
Fear not, we’ll guide you through some quick fixes to get you back up and chatting soon enough.
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How to Fix ChatGPT Network Error
We know a few of the problems that cause ChatGPT to display the dreaded error message, so what can you do about it?
1. Don’t ask for really, really, really long responses
No one likes whittling on all day about one subject (unless it’s your job. Wait, what?) and ChatGPT is no different.
If you ask complicated queries that are verbose and complex, you’re likely to get a long response or an error more often than not.
While there is no official character limit for ChatGPT, users have reported error messages occurring more frequently between 500-1000 words. So it’s best to keep prompts below this threshold to reduce errors.
This doesn’t mean you can’t ask for longer responses but to avoid problems try these tips:
- Break your query down into smaller chunks
- Ask ChatGPT to answer specific portions of long-form queries
- Ask ChatGPT to give you shorter response. Less than 500 words or “summarise” a piece of text would be ideal.
- Ask your main query, then ask ChatGPT a follow-up question separately to explain the point further
- Ask ChatGPT to show the first 30, 40, or 50 lines of its response, then ask for more
2. Refresh your page
It sounds almost too simple but it might just cure it!
Hit the circular arrow in the top left of your browser and see if that does the trick.
What you’re doing here is resetting ChatGPT’s backend servers, the only annoyance is that you’ll lose your current prompt when starting a new chatbot session.
3. Check OpenAI’s chatbot servers status
Speaking about backend servers, head over to OpenAI’s official server status page at https://status.openai.com/.
This will tell you exactly the current status of ChatGPT and if there are any internal server errors.
Unfortunately, should you be unlucky enough to encounter an outage, all you can do is wait for OpenAI to fix it and come back later.
Because ChatGPT is still technically in a testing phase, it’s entirely normal for disruptions to occur.
4. Check your network connection speed
Another reason for receiving a ChatGPT error code could be a poor internet connectivity.
Checking your speed is a piece of cake, just head over to https://www.speedtest.net/ and hit “Go”. Technical problems can happen at any time.
5. Clear your Browser cache file (browsing data)
Caches are temporary data stored on your browser to reload pages and elements quicker when you revisit them.
The more of it you have, the more sluggish your browser can get. This can affect applications like ChatGPT from running smoothly.
A simple method to fix ChatGPT’s network error is to clear your cache and browsing history.
We tried this on Google Chrome but other browsers follow a similar process.
- Click the three dots in the top right of your window and select “Settings”.
- Select the “Privacy and security” section and choose “Clear browsing data” from the menu.
- Select which elements you want to clear (browsing, cookies and cached images and files). Make sure to deselect “Passwords” further down else you’ll lose them!
6. Disable your VPN
VPNs are popular for redirecting internet traffic through a private server but they can cause issues when interacting with ChatGPT.
Users do report a higher frequency of error messages when using a VPN so it’s worth switching yours off to see if that helps.
In some circumstances, ChatGPT might flag your IP address for repeatedly trying to access its servers, in which case you might want to try connecting your VPN to a different server and see if that works instead!
Curious about how ChatGPT works? We have the right article for you. Easy and detailed to read in a few minutes.
7. Report the issue directly to OpenAI
Your last port of call is to send a report straight to the source at OpenAI.
Head over to their Help Centre at https://help.openai.com/en/ and select the chat icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
This will open a window where you can select the “messages” section in the middle. Click “Send a message” and away you go!
Due to exceeding demand, you might find that an AI representative is unavailable at that time but it does say when you can expect them to come back online, for example, 30 minutes.
Fixing ChatGPT’s Network Error
Getting served an error message when you’re trying out ChatGPT is frustrating.
Especially when it’s with the internet’s hottest property. Hopefully, by following the steps we’ve laid out here you can fix ChatGPT’s issues and get back online in no time!
If all the above-mentioned solutions fail, there is an option to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus, a paid membership option we’ll be exploring in another article. Or you can consider some of ChatGPT’s alternatives.