Cloudflare Outage Hits: X, ChatGPT and Many Major Sites Go Down
A widespread internet outage on Tuesday left millions of users unable to access some of the world’s most popular platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Spotify, and Canva. The outage was traced back to Cloudflare, the content delivery and security giant that sits at the heart of much of the modern web.
The disruption began around 6:00 AM ET (4:30 PM IST), according to Downdetector, when an issue surfaced within Cloudflare’s support portal system. What started as a localized technical glitch quickly spiraled into a global slowdown, affecting websites, apps, APIs, and even popular online games like League of Legends.
Users trying to reach these sites encountered error pages or a generic warning: “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed.” This message hinted at a malfunction within Cloudflare’s challenge and security layers, the very systems that verify safe access to supported websites. While many of the affected sites were still technically running, Cloudflare’s breakdown blocked users from reaching them.
“Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which impacts multiple customers: Widespread 500 errors, Cloudflare Dashboard and API also failing. We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem. More updates to follow shortly.”
A few hours later, the company shared that systems were beginning to recover but warned of lingering errors as remediation continued:
“We are seeing services recover, but customers may continue to observe higher-than-normal error rates as we continue remediation efforts. We are continuing to investigate this issue.”
Given Cloudflare’s massive footprint, powering content delivery, DNS, and protection from cyberattacks for thousands of companies, the incident had a domino effect across the internet. Many unrelated sites appeared to go down simultaneously, echoing the scale of last month's AWS outage.
These platforms either loaded partially, threw errors, or became completely inaccessible for many users.
As Cloudflare continues to restore normal operations, most services are gradually coming back online. But for millions of users, the sudden blackout was a reminder that even the biggest platforms depend on fragile, deeply interconnected systems behind the scenes.
The disruption began around 6:00 AM ET (4:30 PM IST), according to Downdetector, when an issue surfaced within Cloudflare’s support portal system. What started as a localized technical glitch quickly spiraled into a global slowdown, affecting websites, apps, APIs, and even popular online games like League of Legends.
Users trying to reach these sites encountered error pages or a generic warning: “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed.” This message hinted at a malfunction within Cloudflare’s challenge and security layers, the very systems that verify safe access to supported websites. While many of the affected sites were still technically running, Cloudflare’s breakdown blocked users from reaching them.
Cloudflare’s Response
On its official status page, Cloudflare acknowledged the outage early on:“Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which impacts multiple customers: Widespread 500 errors, Cloudflare Dashboard and API also failing. We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem. More updates to follow shortly.”
A few hours later, the company shared that systems were beginning to recover but warned of lingering errors as remediation continued:
“We are seeing services recover, but customers may continue to observe higher-than-normal error rates as we continue remediation efforts. We are continuing to investigate this issue.”
Given Cloudflare’s massive footprint, powering content delivery, DNS, and protection from cyberattacks for thousands of companies, the incident had a domino effect across the internet. Many unrelated sites appeared to go down simultaneously, echoing the scale of last month's AWS outage.
Major Services Affected
Because Cloudflare supports everything from small business sites to global tech giants, the outage briefly disrupted access to:- X (Twitter)
- Spotify
- Canva
- Shopify
- OpenAI
- Garmin
- Claude
- Verizon
- Discord
- T-Mobile
- AT&T
- League of Legends
These platforms either loaded partially, threw errors, or became completely inaccessible for many users.
Why the Outage Matters
Cloudflare provides the backbone for content delivery, traffic management, and website security across the internet. When its systems falter, the impact spreads quickly and widely, and today’s outage was a perfect example. The failure of a single service provider temporarily shook parts of the global internet, highlighting just how interconnected online platforms have become.As Cloudflare continues to restore normal operations, most services are gradually coming back online. But for millions of users, the sudden blackout was a reminder that even the biggest platforms depend on fragile, deeply interconnected systems behind the scenes.
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