Early on November 18, 2025 something big went down.
Cloudflare which is the backbone for majority of the internet suddenly went down. Cloudflare down caused widespread disruption across the internet. The outage began around 6:40 a.m. ET and went on about for three hours which caused major disruption.
During that time, many popular sites couldn’t load because Cloudflare was down. The fix came later in the morning, and Cloudflare confirmed the issue was resolved by evening.
When Cloudflare was down, a lot of the internet stopped working, it’s still not clear whether the Cloudflare down moment was caused by a bug, a configuration error, or a cyber-attack.
What exactly did Cloudflare say went wrong?
According to Cloudflare, the outage happened after one of its systems received a sudden rise in strange traffic. This overloaded a key service and caused errors to spread across the network, resulting in Cloudflare down for several hours. The company said it quickly pushed a fix and confirmed that the issue did not appear to be caused by an attack.
Key points from Cloudflare’s statement
- A spike in unusual traffic triggered the problem.
- A large configuration file caused a software crash in a core service.
- The issue disrupted tools that help filter harmful traffic.
- Cloudflare said there was no sign of a cyber-attack.
- A fix was deployed, and the company continued to monitor the network.
This outage highlights how much of the internet depends on Cloudflare. Even a small problem in one service can lead to Cloudflare down, making websites worldwide inaccessible. Cloudflare promised to review its systems and take steps to reduce the chances of Cloudflare down happening again, keeping users and businesses online more reliably in the future.
Which major websites were hit during the outage?
When Cloudflare was down, it hit more than just a few websites. A number of major platforms stopped working, which clearly shows how much of the internet relies on Cloudflare’s network. Millions of users faced interruptions as these services went offline:
- X (formerly Twitter)
- ChatGPT / OpenAI
- Canva
- Spotify
- Perplexity AI
- PayPal
- Letterboxd
- Google Cloud
What is Cloudflare and why does it matter so much?
Cloudflare is a company that helps websites stay fast, secure, and online. It works like a shield and a traffic controller for the internet. When a website uses Cloudflare, it can handle more visitors, block harmful traffic, and load pages quickly.
In a world where so many major websites depend on them, an outage tends to be very problematic. When Cloudflare down happens, services such as ChatGPT, Canva, and X all stop working, showing just how important Cloudflare is for keeping the internet running smoothly.
