Cloudflare outage takes down part of global internet

Spotify, X and Chat GPT all affected

A Cloudflare outage is showing us in real time how frail the global internet is.

Parts of the global internet appear to have stopped working, with visitors to numerous websites (including Computing at one point) being greeted with an error message from Cloudflare.

The outage began just after 11.30am. Tracking website Down Detector, which monitors outages, was hit itself by the outage, but when it loaded showed a dramatic spike in reports of problems.

Affected users saw a message indicating there was an “internal server error on Cloudflare’s network”. It asked users to “please try again in a few minutes”

Cloudflare is one of the world’s largest network providers, and acts as an intermediary to ensure websites remain online and can manage high volumes of traffic, and see off DDoS attacks.

“Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,” the company said in a new update. “Further detail will be provided as more information becomes available.”

Reports of outages began to drop at around 3pm, and by around 4pm most sites were functioning normally.

Graeme Stewart, Head of Public Sector at Check Point Software, said, “Cloudflare going down today sits in the same pattern we saw with the recent AWS and Azure outages. These platforms are vast, efficient, and used by almost every part of modern life.

“The upside is obvious. Their scale keeps costs low, makes security tools more accessible, and gives even small organisations the kind of performance that would once have been impossible. The downside is just as clear. When a platform of this size slips, the impact spreads far and fast, and everyone feels it at once.”

A spike in unusual traffic

Cloudflare observed “a spike in unusual traffic” just before the outage, but there is no understanding yet as to whether this spoke was the result of malicious activity.

A spokesperson for Cloudflare said in a statement, "We do not yet know the cause" of the spike.

"We are all hands-on deck to make sure all traffic is served without errors," the spokesperson said. "After that, we will turn our attention to investigating the cause of the unusual spike in traffic."

Rowan O'Donoghue, Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder at Origina was on the same page, commenting:

“The digital world is tethered to a handful of hyperscalers and infrastructure giants. When one goes down, businesses everywhere suffer – and today’s Cloudflare outage proves it.

“This isn’t just about inconvenience; it’s about systemic risk. Vendor lock-in and forced upgrade cycles have created fragile ecosystems that prioritise scale over resilience.

“The future shouldn’t be ‘cloud-first’ – it should be choice-first. Businesses need strategies that reduce dependency, retain control, and balance innovation with stability. “