On 18 November 2025 a major Cloudflare outage swept across the internet affecting multiple high‑profile services. Cloudflare confirmed that its network was experiencing “widespread 500 errors” and that both its dashboard and API systems were failing, leading to significant internet disruption.

Simultaneously, hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of users reported issues with AWS outage services, platforms relying on AWS, and sites powered by Cloudflare. In practical terms: users on platforms like X platform down (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT not working (by OpenAI), and other popular apps and websites encountered loading failures, internal server error messages, or complete unavailability.

To give you specifics: Cloudflare outage impacts global users, Cloudflare said it was investigating an issue “which potentially impacts multiple customers.”

Reports suggest the issue began with an “unusual traffic spike” at around 6:20 a.m. ET, which Cloudflare outage linked to internal service degradation.

People were affected across the globe, with reports coming in from cities in India like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Mumbai, as well as from the UK, the US, and Australia. The incident was a clear global service outage.

 

Why It Matters – The Infrastructure Behind the Outage

Here’s what you need to understand about the underlying backbone of this event.

• Role of Cloudflare: Cloudflare provides infrastructure services that many websites and apps rely on: content delivery, DNS resolution, security (DDoS protection), and routing of web traffic. When Cloudflare outage occurs, it creates a cascade effect: any site relying on those services can become unreachable or unstable, causing significant internet disruption.

Because of this dependency, when Cloudflare reported platform problems the consequences were felt across a wide span of services and platforms, even if those services themselves had no internal fault.

• AWS in the picture: AWS outage is a major cloud‑services provider. This incident follows other recent Cloudflare and AWS outage today The implication is that large parts of the internet are highly dependent on a small number of infrastructure providers. When one of those providers falters, many downstream services are affected.
• The domino effect: What this really means is: a failure in one “layer” of the internet (like Cloudflare outage) doesn’t just hit one company. It hits many, because a single infrastructure provider supports multiple websites and platforms. That amplifies risk: one fault becomes many outages, contributing to a broader global service outage.

 

Who’s Affected – Services and Users

Several popular services ran into problems during the outage.

On X platform down (formerly Twitter), lots of users could not load posts or send messages. ChatGPT not working was reported widely, with users facing error messages more often than usual. Other platforms, including Spotify, Canva, League of Legends, and Perplexity, were also disrupted. Location‑wise: In India alone, thousands of users reported Cloudflare outage impacts global users. For example, 2,915 Indian users reported problems with Cloudflare outage, 1,413 with X platform down.

 

Cause and Current Status

So what caused this? And where do we stand now?

• Probable trigger: Cloudflare outage pointed to an “unusual traffic spike” which triggered internal service degradation. The exact nature of that spike (whether malicious, internal routing error, mis‑configuration, or something else) has not been fully disclosed.
• What’s been done: Cloudflare has acknowledged the incident, is investigating, and says some services (like its Access and WARP tools) have been restored. However, users might still experience elevated error rates as platform recovery continues.
• Broader warning: Analysts and tech experts point out the risk: when major infrastructure players go down, the ripple effect is large. The incident is another example of AWS and Cloudflare service disruption November 2025, echoing past disruptions at large cloud or network service providers.

 

What this Means Going Forward

• For businesses & platforms: If your service depends on just one major infrastructure provider, you’re exposed. Redundancy, diversification of infrastructure, and contingency planning matter more than ever.
• For users: These kinds of outages impact you even if you do not realize the underlying provider. Awareness helps in interpreting the disruption rather than assuming the end service is solely to blame. Internet disruption can arise far upstream from where you experience it.
• For internet architecture: This event underscores that a few “gatekeepers” (cloud providers, CDNs, DNS services) hold a lot of power in how the internet behaves globally. Cloudflare outage impacts global users and AWS outage reveal the vulnerabilities in centralized infrastructure, highlighting the importance of resilience and decentralisation.
• For timing: Since the outage followed only about a month after another AWS outage, it suggests a phase of increased risk for large‑scale internet infrastructure failures. Preparedness will matter.

 

Final Summary

In short, a major Cloudflare outage hit today, disrupting hundreds of users and thousands more around the world across platforms like X platform down, ChatGPT not working, and others. The likely cause was a sudden traffic spike that overwhelmed internal systems. Because Cloudflare and AWS outage today are so central to the modern internet, this incident underscores how vulnerable the system can be. Both users and businesses should monitor updates on restoration and carefully consider reliance on a few major providers. The incident represents a significant AWS and Cloudflare service disruption November 2025, contributing to ongoing global service outage concerns.