Cloudflare faced a major outage on Tuesday that disrupted access to many global websites and apps. Users saw error messages, stalled pages, and login failures across several regions. The issue spread quickly because a large share of online platforms route their traffic through Cloudflare’s network.
The company said a “latent bug” inside a core system was triggered by a routine configuration change. This caused failures in services linked to bot protection and then spread to other parts of the network. Cloudflare’s chief technology officer, Dane Knecht, said the company “failed our customers” and confirmed that the outage was not an attack.
What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a large internet infrastructure and security provider used by millions of websites and online apps. It sits between you and the server that hosts the site you want to visit. It moves traffic, protects sites from unwanted traffic spikes, and helps pages load faster.
This middle layer plays a critical role. When Cloudflare faces a technical fault, websites that depend on it cannot load even if their own servers are working. The outage can also affect Cloudflare’s own website and status pages, which happened during this incident.
This setup explains why a single error at Cloudflare can block access to many unrelated platforms at the same time. The issues appear to be separate for users, but they often come from the same point of failure inside the network.
Why Cloudflare Is Down
Cloudflare first reported an internal service problem at 11:48 UTC. The message said some services would be “intermittently impacted” as teams investigated. As the outage spread, users saw widespread “500” errors and failures in the dashboard and API.
Knecht later said a latent bug in a system used for bot mitigation began to crash after a configuration change. This created a chain that caused errors across the network. To speed up recovery, the company disabled some features, including WARP access for users in London.
By 14:42 UTC, Cloudflare said a fix had been deployed and that systems were recovering. Teams continued to monitor error levels and restore features region by region. Knecht said the company would release a full breakdown of the root cause.
Why did Cloudflare outage happen?
The company linked the problem to the bug in its bot mitigation service. This bug remained unnoticed until a routine update triggered it. Once the system began to crash, traffic moving through Cloudflare’s network started to fail, producing internal server errors for users.
Cloudflare said the outage was not caused by an attack or any malicious activity. The failures came from inside the network as the bug spread across linked systems. The company said the quick escalation surprised teams and led to a wider impact than expected.
Cloudflare engineers deployed fixes across several data centers and re-routed traffic where needed. Services tied to Access and WARP recovered first. The company said it would continue improving controls to detect hidden bugs before they escalate.
Which Websites Are Affected?
The outage hit several major platforms, including ChatGPT, X, Spotify, Canva, Perplexity, Grindr, League of Legends, Valorant, and Truth Social. Many of these sites use Cloudflare for traffic routing, security, or content delivery.
| Platform | Reported Issues |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Access errors |
| X | Feeds not loading |
| Spotify | Playback failures |
| Canva | Pages not loading |
| Perplexity | Connection errors |
| Grindr | App failures |
| League of Legends | Matchmaking issues |
| Valorant | Login errors |
| Truth Social | Site errors |
Is there any way to avoid such major outages?
Online services depend heavily on a small number of global traffic networks. Cloudflare is one of them, and its reach means many companies rely on it for performance and protection. When this single layer fails, the effects spread fast. That risk is built into the structure of the modern web.
Companies can reduce exposure by splitting traffic between multiple providers or building small backup systems. But these steps are costly and may offer lower performance. Many businesses choose to stay with large networks because they provide scale, global reach, and strong security tools.
Key Events
| Time / Order | Event |
|---|---|
| 8 mins ago | “Latent bug” behind outage, says CTO |
| 40 mins ago | Shares fell 2.3 percent in morning trading |
| 54 mins ago | ChatGPT and X back online as services recover |
| 1 hr 17 mins ago | Why the outage hit so many platforms |
| 1 hr 33 mins ago | 2022 outage disrupted sites for 90 minutes |
| 1 hr 34 mins ago | Bug also caused a 2019 Cloudflare outage |
| 1 hr 52 mins ago | User asked about resolution; CTO said “it is resolved” |
| 1 hr 55 mins ago | More details on outage expected soon |
| 8:33 PM IST | Company said outage was not an attack |
| 8:28 PM IST | CTO revealed cause behind outage |
| 8:09 PM IST | ChatGPT users saw access blocks |
| 8:02 PM IST | Cloudflare said services may be intermittently impacted |
| 7:55 PM IST | League of Legends and Valorant were hit |
| 7:45 PM IST | Spokesperson reported unusual traffic spike |
| 7:43 PM IST | Elevated errors seen across Cloudflare platforms |
| 7:31 PM IST | Truth Social affected |
| 7:27 PM IST | Services disabled briefly for UK users |
| 7:18 PM IST | Expanded list of affected sites |
| 7:11 PM IST | Cloudflare posted a new update |
| 7:02 PM IST | Canva confirmed downtime |
| 6:59 PM IST | Dashboard and API failures |
| 6:55 PM IST | Impact reported in India |
| 6:48 PM IST | Spotify, Perplexity, Grindr affected |
| 6:45 PM IST | Company said it was investigating the cause |
| 6:40 PM IST | X users reported issues |
The company said services have recovered and that a detailed report will follow.
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