Is OpenAI / Codex down?
How to check OpenAI / Codex's status properly
Codex (CLI and cloud agent) authenticates through ChatGPT accounts and calls OpenAI's API — incidents on either surface reach Codex.
OpenAI's status page tracks API, ChatGPT, and related surfaces as separate components; check which one an incident names.
Is it down, or is it just you?
A 401 or 403 error is almost always your own auth — an expired token or a session that needs re-login, not an outage. A run of 5xx errors, or a 529 "overloaded" response, during an incident that's actually listed on the vendor's status page is on them, not you.
Before you conclude it's a real outage: try a second surface (the web app instead of the CLI, or vice versa), rule out your own network or VPN, and only then treat the vendor's official status page as the final word.
What to do while OpenAI / Codex is down
- API green but ChatGPT degraded? Codex CLI sessions authenticated via API key may keep working while ChatGPT-auth sessions fail.
- Rate-limit errors (429) during an incident are congestion, not your quota — retry with backoff before assuming you're capped.
- Cross-provider fallback (Claude Code, Aider) is the practical answer to a multi-hour OpenAI outage.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if Codex is down?
Codex has no separate status page — it lives on OpenAI's. The live board above reads status.openai.com's official API in your browser; incidents naming the API or ChatGPT are the ones that reach Codex.
Is Codex down when ChatGPT is down?
Often, yes — Codex sign-in and the cloud agent depend on ChatGPT infrastructure. A ChatGPT-scoped incident can block Codex even while the raw API stays green.