Poe is an aggregator app from Quora that lets you chat with many different AI assistants and bots in one place, plus build and share your own custom bots. Because it sits on top of multiple third-party model providers, Poe can fail in ways a single chatbot cannot: the Poe app itself may be healthy while one underlying provider is degraded, or the reverse. If you landed here, start with the live verdict and recent user reports at the top of this page to see whether others are hitting the same wall right now.
Common reasons Poe stops working
- An upstream provider is degraded. Poe routes your message to an external model. If that provider is having problems, the bot you picked may time out or error while the rest of Poe works fine.
- Message or compute limits. Free and subscription tiers have usage caps. When you hit a limit, replies stop or specific bots lock until your allowance resets.
- Login and account sync issues. Expired sessions, email or single sign-on hiccups, and subscription status not syncing can lock you out or hide your chat history.
- Slow or failed responses. Long prompts, large file uploads, or heavy traffic can cause spinning, partial answers, or “something went wrong” messages.
- App versus web mismatches. An outdated iOS, Android, macOS, or Windows app can break while poe.com in a browser keeps working.
- Network blocks. Corporate firewalls, school networks, VPNs, or regional restrictions can block Poe or its providers.
- Custom bot or prompt errors. A user-built bot pointing at a misconfigured base model or a broken server bot can fail even when Poe is up.
How to fix Poe when it is not working
- Check the verdict above first. If reports are spiking for everyone, it is an outage and waiting is the fix. If not, the problem is likely local.
- Switch bots. Try the same prompt with a different assistant in Poe. If others answer, one provider is the issue, not Poe.
- Reload and retry. Refresh the page or restart the app, then resend a shorter version of your prompt.
- Confirm your usage. Look at your message or compute balance. If you are capped, wait for the reset or upgrade your plan.
- Re-authenticate. Sign out and back in to refresh your session and resync subscription status.
- Clear cache or update. Clear browser cache, try a private window, or update the Poe app to the current version.
- Change networks. Toggle off your VPN, switch from office Wi-Fi to mobile data, or try another connection to rule out blocks.
- Simplify the request. Remove large attachments and break long prompts into smaller pieces to avoid timeouts.
If none of that helps, our guide on what to do when an AI tool is down walks through saving your work and finding a backup.
Is Poe down, or is it just you?
Two clues separate a real outage from a local glitch. First, the reports above: a sharp rise across many users points to a platform-wide problem. Second, the scope of the failure. If every bot fails, the issue is more likely Poe itself or your connection. If only one assistant misbehaves while others respond normally, that points to a single upstream provider rather than Poe. Trying the same prompt on a second bot is the fastest way to tell the difference.
How we check Poe
We combine two independent signals so you are not relying on a single source. First, we read Poe’s official status page to capture what the company itself is reporting about its systems. Second, we run our own independent reachability check from outside Poe’s network, probing the service the way a normal user would and timing the response. When both signals agree, the verdict is clear. When they disagree, for example the status page looks green but our external check cannot reach the service, we weigh both and the user reports above to give you a realistic picture. Full details are in our methodology.
Alternatives to Poe during an outage
If Poe is down and you need to keep working, you can move to another assistant. Good peers include ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Because Poe bundles several providers, picking a standalone tool often sidesteps whatever upstream issue is affecting Poe. Before you switch, confirm your chosen backup is healthy on its own status page, since AI tools sometimes share infrastructure and can have overlapping problems. Keep a copy of your active prompt so you can paste it straight into the alternative and pick up where you left off with minimal lost time.
One bot down or all of Poe?
Poe by Quora is an aggregator: it hosts a single chat interface across web, desktop, and mobile apps that routes to many underlying bots, including ones built by third parties. That design creates a distinctive failure mode where a single bot is broken or unresponsive while the rest of Poe works fine. Before assuming Poe is down, try a different bot; if others respond, the issue is with that specific bot or its upstream provider, not the platform.
Poe meters usage with a points system tied to your subscription, and heavier bots consume more points per message. Running out of points stops responses with a limit notice, which is not an outage. Platform-wide problems instead show up as the app failing to load conversations, messages stuck sending across every bot, or sign-in not completing.
- A single bot erroring or timing out while others reply
- Subscription points exhausted, blocking further messages
- Conversations or message history failing to load on all bots
- Sign-in or subscription status not syncing across apps