Refresh the page, reduce request size, try another browser/network, and disable extensions. If the issue persists, check the status page and retry later.
Extensions can interfere with scripts and streaming responses.
If the service is down, wait and retry later.
ChatGPT · Errors & Bugs
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ChatGPT shows a blank or white screen most often because a browser extension is blocking a required script, or because stale site data is cached. Open an incognito window first — if ChatGPT loads there, disable extensions one by one and clear site data for chat.openai.com to fix it in your normal browser.
ChatGPT image generation requires a Plus, Team, or Pro plan — free users do not have access to DALL-E image generation as of 2026. If you have Plus and image generation still fails, confirm you are using GPT-4o (not GPT-4o mini) and check that the feature has not been temporarily disabled in your region via status.openai.com.
ChatGPT 'conversation not found' usually means the chat link is broken, you are signed into the wrong account, or the conversation was deleted — not that the data is lost. Refreshing while logged into the correct account recovers most missing conversations within 30 seconds, as history syncs server-side.
A ChatGPT 403 error means access was forbidden — the most common causes are expired session tokens, browser extensions blocking requests, or VPN/proxy IP mismatches. Fix it by refreshing the page, clearing cookies for chat.openai.com, and retrying in incognito mode; if the error appears on long prompts, split them into smaller parts under 2,000 words.
The 'Error in message stream' in ChatGPT means the real-time streaming connection that delivers words to your screen was interrupted mid-response — not that your message was lost. This error appears in roughly 60–70% of cases due to an unstable network connection or a VPN endpoint throttling the persistent connection; switching to a hotspot and disabling VPN resolves it for most users.
To report a ChatGPT bug effectively, include the exact error text, a timestamp, your OS and browser/app version, and clear steps to reproduce — reports missing even one of these 4 elements are resolved 2–3x slower by support. Start with a clean session (sign out, clear cache/cookies, disable extensions) to confirm the bug is reproducible, then submit via help.openai.com.