# Loading animation while fetching OpenAI data

**URL:** <https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083>\
**Category:** Ask for Help\
**Created:** [July 10, 2025, 9:13am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083 "2025-07-10T09:13:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PioneerTown](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/pioneertown/32/78768_2.png) [@PioneerTown](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PioneerTown)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 9:13am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083/1 "2025-07-10T09:13:05Z")

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Hi there!

I want to show the loading spinner whenever I am waiting for a response of OpenAI.  
However, I can’t use the (when empty) visibility condition on the loading spinner because the AI response isn’t actually empty, it’s loading itself in the backend.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/9/8/98895b20a709713bf00788ca3429cf17e1ecfd4d.png)

Any workarounds here?

Thank you!

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**Author:** ![Gideon\_Lahav\_Busines](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gideon_lahav_busines/32/41121_2.png) [@Gideon\_Lahav\_Busines](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Gideon_Lahav_Busines)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 11:10am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083/2 "2025-07-10T11:10:35Z")

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Try this:

> **[Add a Loading Indicator in Glide Apps: 2 Easy Methods - Gideon Lahav](https://gideonlahav.com/glide_blog/add-a-loading-indicator-in-glide-apps-2-easy-methods/)**
>
> Learn how to add a loading indicator in Glide apps with two simple methods: the "Wait" workflow and the "GIF" technique for smoother user experience.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083/3 "2025-07-11T00:24:16Z")

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Yeah this has been a problem many times for me as well. I truly hope there’s a workaround, I haven’t been able to figure it out.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PioneerTown](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/pioneertown/32/78768_2.png) [@PioneerTown](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PioneerTown)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 10:14am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083/4 "2025-07-11T10:14:21Z")

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Yes, standard solutions, such as a waiting gif don’t work because you can’t have ‘is empty’ as visibility condition on the loading animation, given that the OpenAI response is loading (so it isn’t empty).

You can of course add a timestamp and display the loading animation only when the time betwheen the timestamp and now is for example \<5 seconds, but that’s not really ideal given that the real information might load faster, or slower…

Any ideas?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Simon\_Hill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/simon_hill/32/94730_2.png) [@Simon\_Hill](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Simon_Hill)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 11:02am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/loading-animation-while-fetching-openai-data/83083/5 "2025-07-11T11:02:57Z")

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My workaround is to have a binary value that reflects whether or not the AI action is processing (AI Final Report processing).

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/c/1/c1354bfa36088fa09dfcb007561fd961f087baed.png)

* * *

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/5/d/5dff1aed7c1396c84b8dd93285a3e4d5448d700c.png)

You can then have a custom action with 3 key steps.

Step 1: Set the Binary value to true  
Step 2: AI Step  
Step 3: set the Binary value to false.

I then control the visibility of my GIF based on the binary value.

I quite like this GIF:

![8J6k5Zz0f2buFzDEHNqt](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/b/3/b329e0b705249571721fa0d7c59753665fbc613a.gif)