Just imagine that you’re having a ‘conversation’ with AI chatbot ChatGPT, and you’ve been seamlessly in a back and forth tussle between your prompts and its generated text output. And all is going well, until you receive its not unusual error message, “ChatGPT is at capacity right now.”
So, what should you do now, especially if the AI cuts itself off in the middle of a sentence? If you ever find ChatGPT at capacity, what do you do? Read on to find out the few things we discovered that will help you to work around this very common problem.
ChatGPT At Capacity: What To Do
Most users of OpenAI’s text chatbot will have come across the “ChatGPT is at capacity right now” error message at one time or another.
Sometimes it can even happen several times in one day.
The quite frequent error message simply means that there are currently too many people using the platform at the sam time, and OpenAI’s servers just can’t keep up.
So, whenever you’re using ChatGPT and you are confronted with this annoyingly familiar message, then the AI service is overloaded and needs time to get back on track, due to the system being overwhelmed with user prompt requests.
Whenever you’re using ChatGPT and you are confronted with this annoyingly familiar message, then the AI service is overloaded and needs time to get back on track, due to the system being overwhelmed with user prompt requests.
During this time, unfortunately it won’t be possible for the majority of free users to access the site. However, it might still be possible for those users who subscribe to the Plus service to keep their access for their intended purposes. (which is totally worth trying out: ChatGPT 4 is way better than 3.)
But when you do find “ChatGPT is at capacity right now”, the good thing is that the AI chatbot will eventually start working well again. You just need to have a little bit of patience before you can send another prompt.
You’ll probably find that if you take a break from you desk and go get a coffee, by the time you come back, it will be working again. In general, you’ll only have to wait a few minutes. The longest period of time we’ve ever had to wait before we were able to continue using ChatGPT was around 20 minutes, but usually it’s no longer than about 10 minutes.
While you’re waiting, it’s a good idea to continue refreshing your web browser to see if it has started working again.
ChatGPT also has an option available that allows you to receive an email notification when the service is up and running as it should be.
You can find the “Get notified when we’re back” link on the “ChatGPT is at capacity right now” error page.
Are There Other Options Possible?
The “ChatGPT is at capacity right now” error message only occurs when there are too many people wanting to use the site at the same time, which would suggest that business hours are usually the busiest.
1. Pick Your Hours
So, with this in mind, you could try gaining access during non-peak business hours, although with the current level of usage and its continuing rise in popularity with users worldwide, finding these low load times won’t always be so easy.
But, for instance, if you try using it before 8am EST in the morning and after 8pm (EST) at night, then you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting your prompts answered by the AI chatbot.
2. Use a VPN
It can also be the case that your IP address could be causing you to receive the high capacity error. For example, there may be too many people using the same IP address as you. On the other hand, it’s also possible that OpenAI has restricted access in your region, because there have been too many requests in the area, and there aren’t enough resources to serve all of the site’s visitors.
It can also be the case that your IP address could be causing you to receive the high capacity error. For example, there may be too many people using the same IP address as you. On the other hand, it’s also possible that OpenAI has restricted access in your region.
However, if this is the case, then using a virtual private network, or VPN, which allows your computer or smartphone to use an IP address from a server in another country, just might make it possible for you to bypass this restriction altogether, because you’re pretending to be somewhere else.
If you don’t already have one, there are loads of good free VPN apps available, all you need to do is choose a country that’s in a completely different location — most VPN providers give free access to servers in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, for example.
If you want to use a particular country , then you’ll probably need to sign up for a subscription.
3. Spring for ChatGPT Plus
As we’ve mentioned above, ChatGPT’s high usage hours don’t necessarily correlate with general business hours, which is when most people would expect the service to be at its busiest.
Basically, it seems that these days ChatGPT is always in high demand, and so has the potential to reach full capacity, even while you’re in the middle of having a conversation with it, due to OpenAI’s servers being overloaded.
The company sends out the “Chat GPT is at capacity right now” error message when the AI has reached the limit that it has set, which is due to the expense of running the servers.
However, it is possible that you can bypass the capacity limit by subscribing to ChatGPT’s paid subscription plan, known as ChatGPT Plus. Doing so will give you priority access, because it lets you use the service even when high demand means it’s under a heavy load.
If you’re using ChatGPT enough to frequently hit the capacity limit, try a month or two of the Plus version. You probably won’t go back.
It is possible that you can bypass the capacity limit by subscribing to ChatGPT’s paid subscription plan, known as ChatGPT Plus. Doing so will give you priority access, because it lets you use the service even when high demand means it’s under a heavy load.
At present, ChatGPT Plus will set you back $20 per month, which may seem a bit much for using a service that for many features, is basically free if you have the patience to wait until any high demand goes down. However, if you rely on the service to do your work for you, doing spreadsheets, coding, tables, etc., then not having to be faced with the capacity error message might just be worth forking out the $20.
And as mentioned above, ChatGPT 4 is much more powerful than 3.5 or 3, particularly for data analysis and coding.
4. Switch over to Bing AI in Creative Mode
BingAI, from Microsoft, is a free version of ChatGPT 4, that is available for all users. It’s trained on the same data as ChatGPT, but it has a different vibe. The Creative mode can work quite well, and seems to be closest to GPT Plus.
If ChatGPT is at Capacity, try switching over to Bing. However, you’ll have to start your conversation over or start a new one, the data won’t transfer over from ChatGPT.
Conclusion
It’s definitely annoying when you’re in a conversational flow with ChatGPT and suddenly receive an error message that puts an immediate stop to your progress. And yet, Chat GPT at capacity is something you’ll have to get used due to the AI chatbot’s immense popularity.
However, you now know what to do with the few workarounds we’ve discussed in this blog post, so it shouldn’t be too long before you’re back to chatting to ChatGPT and getting the answers you need.
