DeepSeek outage: China’s AI chatbot down for hours, longest since debut

China’s DeepSeek faced its biggest outage since its debut, with the AI chatbot doing down for several hours overnight. The disruption affected users across China, with many reporting issues accessing the service.

According to user reports tracked on website health tracking platform Downdetector, problems began on Sunday (March 29) evening. DeepSeek later confirmed the issue on its status page, saying it detected a fault at around 9:35 p.m. The company initially marked the issue as resolved within two hours, but further updates showed continued performance problems before a fix was rolled out the next morning.

DeepSeek outage lasted several hours, users report disruptions

DeepSeek said it implemented a fix around 9:13 a.m. on Monday and is monitoring the situation.

The company did not share details about the cause of the outage. According to its official status page, all systems are now operational. The extended downtime is unusual for DeepSeek, which has maintained a high uptime record since the launch of its R1 model in January 2025. The platform has been seen as a key player in China’s AI space.

DeepSeek outage comes amid expectations of new update

The outage comes as speculation grows about a possible major update from DeepSeek. The company has not confirmed any timeline, but rivals such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have recently launched new AI models. Expectations remain high for DeepSeek’s next move, even as it stays silent on future plans.

Here’s a timeline of DeepSeek outage

Mar 30, 2026DeepSeek/APP （[Resolved]DeepSeek Web/APP Service Performance Agnormal）Resolved - This incident has been resolved.Mar 30, 10:33 CSTUpdate - We are continuing to monitor for any further issues.Mar 30, 10:33 CSTMonitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.Mar 30, 09:13 CSTInvestigating - We are currently investigating this issue.Mar 30, 02:16 CSTMonitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.Mar 30, 01:24 CSTUpdate - We are continuing to investigate this issue.Mar 30, 00:36 CSTInvestigating - We are currently investigating this issue.Mar 30, 00:20 CSTMar 29, 2026DeepSeek/APP（[Resolved]DeepSeek Web/APP Service Abnormal）Resolved - This incident has been resolved.Mar 29, 23:23 CSTMonitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.Mar 29, 23:08 CSTIdentified - The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.Mar 29, 22:28 CSTInvestigating - We are currently investigating this issue.