Cloudflare, the global cloud network supporting various websites, experienced an outage that impacted numerous platforms, including social media site X, ChatGPT, Uber, and others.
Reports began to surface on Down Detector around 6:30 AM Eastern, but this initial spike quickly faded. Serious issues emerged around 8:30 AM and persisted until nearly noon.
Many affected platforms were inaccessible. Similar to a recent AWS outage, this disruption caused problems across multiple sites on the internet. Cloudflare announced it was “investigating an issue affecting multiple customers, including widespread 500 errors, along with failures in the Cloudflare Dashboard and API.” If you encountered errors while trying to access websites, you were not alone.
As of approximately 11:30 AM GMT, Cloudflare was still facing significant issues, impacting various sites including X, ChatGPT, and even Downdetector.
Cloudflare is working on the issue
(Image credit: Cloudfare)
According to the offical Cloudfare status page, the global cloud network is “continuing to investigate the issue.
As of November 18 at 12:03 UTC, Cloudfare states:
“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.”
It appears we’ll see most websites affected during the outage, and so far, that includes X, OpenAI and more. We’ll keep you posted!
Is X still down?
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According to Downdetector (which was also experiencing its own issues thanks to Cloudflare!), websites like X are experiencing a major outage where users can’t access these sites. For X, it topped out at a whopping 9,706 reports, but this now appears to be dropping.
Although since Cloudflare is still working through the issues, we may see more problems with these sites. We’ll keep you up to date.
Even Downdetector is…down!
(Image credit: Downdetector)
Since Downdetector relies on Cloudflare to monitor website statuses, it is also currently down—ironic, isn’t it? Our team has noticed that it comes back intermittently, but we’re still facing issues.
The same goes for StatusGator, which also utilizes cloud monitoring; however, its website is currently accessible.
If you’re encountering errors while trying to access X, you’re not alone
(Image credit: Downdetector)
Visit X.com, and you might encounter an ‘Internal server error’ page. This issue is affecting several team members at Tom’s Guide, so if you’re experiencing it as well, don’t worry—it’s likely widespread.
Breaking: Cloudflare is experiencing service recovery, but some errors are still occurring.
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
According to the Cloudflare status page, the global network outage is “seeing services recover.” That’s a good sign, but the cloud network platform still states that customers may continue to experience higher-than-normal error rates.
So far, Cloudflare is continuing to investigate the issue.
Cloudfare status is going up and down…
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There have been signs of recovery since Cloudflare’s servers went down at 11:48 AM UTC, as reflected on Downdetector (when accessible). The site peaked with 4,582 reports, indicating many users faced issues.
Currently, reports have sharply decreased to 1,600. While Cloudflare continues to show some problems, we hope this situation improves quickly.
Update: Cloudflare investigation continues
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
Open AI is still experiencing issues
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OpenAI is also experiencing issues, resulting in downtime for ChatGPT, Sora, and other services for many users. The OpenAI status page indicates that these problems have persisted for the past 50 minutes, coinciding with the Cloudflare outage.
At this time, both OpenAI and Cloudflare are addressing the issues. In the meantime, it’s best to avoid relying on ChatGPT or Sora.”
Breaking: Cloudflare has identified the issue
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As of 1.09pm UTC, Cloudflare has stated that it has identified the issue and is now implementing a fix. Fingers crossed this means that we’ll see services like X, ChatGPT and more come back soon!
Ongoing issues for ChatGPT and Sora
(Image credit: OpenAI)
Although the issue has been identified and a fix is expected soon, OpenAI’s services have been down for over an hour, impacting many users of ChatGPT and Sora.
Cloudflare has indicated that they are actively working to restore other services, so we hope to see our favorite sites back online shortly.
Yes, Claude AI is also down
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Visit the Claude status page, and you’ll see that Claude AI is also experiencing a ‘major outage’—not surprising given the situation. This highlights how many platforms depend on Cloudflare for their operation, much like the recent AWS outage.
With Cloudflare down, much of the internet is disrupted. However, there is hope as efforts are underway to resolve these issues
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
Downdetector looks to be back online
(Image credit: Downdetector)
Downdetector seems to be back online, and it’s displaying a flurry of reports across multiple services. This could indicate that Cloudflare, which Downdetector relies on, is starting to recover. However, the platform still shows that it is actively addressing the ongoing issues.
Services affected by the Cloudflare outage according to Downdetector
Cloudflare continues to impact a range of sites, and while the platform works on restoring services for its customers, here’s a list of sites and services currently affected by the outage, according to Downdetector. Additional sites may also be experiencing issues, varying in severity
- X
- ChatGPT
- Sora
- Claude AI
- Spotify
- Uber
- Canva
- Quizlet
- Indeed
- DoorDash
- Varo
- NJ Transit
- Zoom
- UPS
- Dayforce
X is still going through its problems
(Image credit: Downdetector)
Now that Downdetector is up and running (in the U.S., at least), we can see a massive spike return for X, and it’s peaked at a whopping 12,374 users. There’s currently no sign of this slowing down, and issues with Cloudflare may be showing incorrect information, as many on the Tom’s Guide team are able to access X as of writing.
This has changed pretty frequently over the past couple of hours, so hopefully, those who are on it won’t see any more problems.
Update: Cloudflare is still working on the issue
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
It’s been a while! But Cloudflare is back with another update. The only real news is that the web service provider is still working on fixing the issue. That means we’ll still be experiencing problems accessing our favorite sites, although many are already seeing some problems be fixed (as with some us being able to use X).
Hopefully the next update will be a bit more promising!
Big service outages spell doom for the rest
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
Following the AWS outage last month and now with Cloudflare impacting major sites, it’s clear how heavily the internet relies on these services. Here’s what Benjamin Schilz, CEO of Wire, had to say about the situation:
‘The recent Cloudflare outage, which happened just weeks after the last major cloud disruption, highlights the fragility of our digital reliance. Significant cloud outages aren’t new; similar large-scale incidents occurred in 2017 and 2021, and regional outages happen regularly, with more likely to follow.
‘The issue is systemic: the three primary hyper-scalers—AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure—provide around two-thirds of the infrastructure on which the digital world operates. Their APIs connect everything from banking systems and smart homes to e-commerce, meaning the operational failure of just one creates a massive “single point of failure.”
‘This high dependency on predominantly US-based providers, with few comparable non-US alternatives, necessitates a fundamental reevaluation of our dependencies and risk access within our internal tech infrastructures.
‘The key takeaway is that resilience, diversity, and redundancy must always be considered alongside convenience when building and deploying digital services. True resilience goes beyond preparing for redundancy; it requires maintaining control over your data. This means organizations should operate securely and independently without relying on a single platform, while having robust fallback and alternative solutions in place.”
Breaking: Cloudflare implements fix
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
As of now, Cloudflare has implemented a fix and believes “the incident is now resolved.” We should see serivces come back to normal, if this is the case, but it may take some time.
Cloudflare is still monitoring for errors to make sure all services come back online, so stay tuned as we see them all return!
How’s OpenAI and Claude doing?
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So, with a fix being implemented by Cloudflare, how are some of the most-used AI services doing? Well, not great, according to OpenAI and Claude’s status pages, as they are still experiencing a major outage.
At the very least, “a fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the recovery,” as Claude says, and OpenAI is following suit. That means we should see all of these services return to normal at some point soon (well, sooner rather than later, hopefully).
Update: Some issues still persist
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
As it turns out, the Cloudflare Global Network issue is still showing a sign or two of problems, as the service provider now states:
“Some customers may still be experiencing issues logging into or using the Cloudflare dashboard. We are working on a fix to resolve this and continuing to monitor for any further issues.”
This shouldn’t affect most users as far as breaking a huge chunk of the internet goes, but it shows that some problems persist. But Cloudflare will be on the case.
Update: OpenAI, Claude are fully operational
(Image credit: OpenAI)
And we’re back! OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Sora, along with Claude AI, are back up and running, with no problems in sight. So, you can test out all your prompts once again, and hope for the best that this doesn’t happen anytime soon.
Update: Cloudflare continues to restore services
Cloudflare is still working on restoring services, which is a good sign that even more platforms will start to return to normal. The internet is being restored!
“The team is continuing to focus on restoring service post-fix. We are mitigating several issues that remain post-deployment.”
Services returning to normal
(Image credit: Downdetector)
Cloudflare outage estimated to cost up $15 billion every hour
(Image credit: Cheng Xin / Getty Images)
When an internet infrastructure service experiences downtime, numerous websites are impacted. With Cloudflare powering about 19% of all websites, this inevitably leads to significant issues for major platforms like X and Spotify.
According to Tom’s Guide and the website maintenance service SupportMy.website, the estimated loss due to the outage ranges from $5 billion to $15 billion for each hour it persists. Given that the disruptions began around 12 PM UTC, the total potential loss could reach up to $60 billion.
This is a substantial amount, particularly affecting the roughly 35% of Fortune 500 companies that depend on Cloudflare services. Even a brief outage can inflict considerable damage.
Jason Long, founder of SupportMy.website, noted, ‘From reputation to revenue, Cloudflare is a system that businesses often overlook until it’s down. When that happens, the impact is felt immediately.
Update: Errors and latency improve, but still some problems
Services are improving all around, but Cloudflare states there are still some “intermittent errors,” so keep an eye out for anything that takes a drop from time to time.
“We continue to see errors and latency improve but still have reports of intermittent errors. The team continues to monitor the situation as it improves, and looking for ways to accelerate full recovery.”
Cloudflare update
(Image credit: Cloudflare)
Cloudflare says the system is in recovery.
“We continue to monitor the system through recovery and we are seeing errors and latency return to normal levels. A full post-incident investigation and details about the incident will be made available asap.”
Update from Cloudflare
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Cloudflare latest update says the service is fully back to normal.
“Cloudflare services are now functioning normally, and we are no longer experiencing elevated errors or latency across the network.
Our engineering teams are continuing to monitor the platform closely and conduct a thorough investigation into the earlier disruption. However, no configuration changes are being implemented at this time.
It is now safe to re-enable any Cloudflare services that were temporarily disabled during the incident. We will provide a final update once our investigation concludes.
Source: tomsguide Edited by Bernie.
