Help

Obtaining Technical Support

Gaussian provides technical support for customers who are not on maintenance through email only: help@gaussian.com. Observing the following guidelines will ensure that your request can be answered in as timely a fashion as possible:

  • Include your name, organization name and address, your email address and a fax number (if available) at the beginning of your message.

  • Try make your subject line as descriptive as possible. If yours is an installation question, the placing "INSTALL:" at the beginning of your subject line will make it easier to expedite your question.

  • Include your version of Gaussian, including the minor rev (e.g., Gaussian 16W Rev A.03).

  • Include your computer type (vendor and architecture), and operating system name and version.

  • Include your complete input file. If you choose to attach the file to your message, then rename it if its extension is .COM. Our ISP rejects attachments with this extension without exception. Try using .GJF as an alternative.

  • Include the first 150 lines of the log file and the final 150 lines preceding the quotation. Sending the complete file is not usually necessary. If you do decide to send a large output file, please compress it and send it as an attachment to the message.

Click here for a form which guides you through some of these items.

Expected Response Times from Gaussian Technical Support

Gaussian’s Technical Support staff responds to inquiries as quickly as possible, in the following priority order:

  1. Requests from Maintenance Customers. If you require very rapid response times to your questions, consider going on Maintenance. Note that Maintenance is now available to Academic customers as well as Commercial customers.
  2. Installation Problems
  3. Non-installation Questions from Academic Users
  4. Non-installation Questions from Commercial Users

Many factors influence response time for groups 2 through 4, such as the number of questions we have received recently, whether one of our technical support scientists is traveling (response times always go up during ACS meetings, for example) or ill, and so on.

We appreciate your patience when waiting for a response. In addition, you can be quite certain that repeatedly sending your message within the same 24-48 hour period of time will not have any positive effect on your wait time.

Last updated on: 2 December 2021.