TL;DR - Why ChatGPT Sucks Now:
- 46 outages in 90 days
- Gets dumber with every update
- Hallucinations worse than ever
- $20/month for degrading service
- Better alternatives exist (Claude, Gemini)
The 15 Reasons
It Goes Down Constantly
46 outages in 90 days. That's an outage every two days on average. For a service charging $20/month, this is unacceptable. When you need ChatGPT most, there's a good chance it won't be there.
It's Getting Dumber
This isn't just perception. Thousands of users report GPT-5 performs worse than GPT-4 did. Tasks that worked perfectly months ago now fail. OpenAI denies it, but the user experience tells the truth.
Hallucinations Are Out of Control
ChatGPT makes up facts, invents citations, fabricates quotes, and does it all with complete confidence. Users have cited fake papers in research, used fake legal precedents in court filings, and published fabricated statistics.
It Ignores Your Instructions
"Don't use bullet points." (Uses bullet points.) "Keep it under 200 words." (Writes 800 words.) "Don't add a conclusion." (Adds conclusion.) ChatGPT does what it wants, not what you ask.
Lazy, Incomplete Responses
Ask for a complete solution and you get "etc." and "and so on." Ask for 10 examples and you get 3. ChatGPT seems to be conserving compute at your expense.
Refuses Everything
Write a villain for a story? "I cannot help with harmful content." Research a historical atrocity? "I cannot provide information that could be misused." Birthday card? "Could be used to manipulate emotions." The safety theater has become absurd.
$20/Month for This?
ChatGPT Plus costs $240/year. For that money, you get a service with constant outages, degrading quality, and features that Claude and Gemini offer for free. The value proposition no longer makes sense.
Memory is Broken
ChatGPT "forgets" what you told it three messages ago. It contradicts itself within the same response. The context window supposedly got bigger but the actual memory got worse.
Code Quality Tanked
Developers are fleeing to Claude for coding. ChatGPT produces buggier code than before, suggests deprecated methods, and can't maintain context across a coding session.
The Competition Is Better
Claude 3 is smarter and more reliable. Gemini has real-time web access for free. Perplexity cites its sources. The AI landscape has evolved and ChatGPT hasn't kept up.
Privacy Concerns
20 million ChatGPT logs just got ordered released in a lawsuit. Your conversations are being used to train future models. OpenAI's data practices are increasingly sketchy.
No Transparency
OpenAI won't tell you when they change the model. They deny obvious downgrades. They gaslight users who notice quality drops. Trust has eroded completely.
Customer Support is Non-Existent
Good luck getting help when something goes wrong. OpenAI's support is automated responses and form letters. Paying customers get the same nothing as free users.
Features That Don't Work
GPTs? Buggy. Plugins? Mostly abandoned. Memory? Unreliable. Code Interpreter? Hit or miss. OpenAI launches features with fanfare then lets them rot.
The Company Itself is a Mess
Board drama. Lawsuits everywhere. For-profit conversion controversy. Leadership turmoil. The chaos inside OpenAI is reflected in the product quality.
What To Do About It
If you're fed up with ChatGPT, you have options:
- Switch to Claude or Gemini - Both are often better and have free tiers
- Cancel your ChatGPT Plus subscription - Save $240/year
- Use multiple AI tools - Don't depend on any single provider
- Document your issues - The more complaints, the more pressure on OpenAI
The Bottom Line
ChatGPT was revolutionary when it launched. But OpenAI has squandered that lead through neglect, cost-cutting, and prioritizing growth over quality. In 2026, there's no longer a compelling reason to put up with ChatGPT's problems when better alternatives exist.
The AI that amazed us is becoming the AI that frustrates us. And users are voting with their feet.