Cloudflare Restores Services After Major Outage Disrupts Global Internet Platforms

Cloudflare, one of the world’s most widelly used web infrastructure companies, announced that it has fully restored its services after a significant outage disrupted access to major internet platforms on Tuesday. The issue, which affected thousands of users onworldwide, prevented people from accessing websites and apps such as X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, Canva.

The outage began around 6:30 a.m. ET and quickly drew attention as users started reporting problems across multiple platforms. Cloudflare powers around 20% of global internet traffic, so even small disruptions can lead to large-scale impacts. According to the company, the root cause of the outage was an automatically generated configuration file used to manage potential security risks. This file unexpectedly grew too large, causing the software responsible for processing network traffic to crash.

Cloudflar explaind that the configuaration system is meant to help the network identify and manage suspicious or harmful activity. However, in this instance, thefile’s unexpected size overwhelmed the system, resulting in errors across various services. Once the problem was identified, Cloudflare deployed a fix and began restoring functionality.

Although the company has confirmed that core services are back online, some of theusers may still experience minor delays or disruptions as systems across different regions fully synchronize. Cloudflare’s network is massive, spanning hundreds of cities around the world, so full recovery may take time for all customers.

Cloudflare’s stock reflected the impact of the issue, dropping 2.3% in morning trading following the outage.

Importantly, Cloudflare emphasized in its statement that there was no indication of a cyberattack or any kind of malicious activity. The outage was strictly the result of internal system behavior, not an external threat. This reassiurance came after many users speculated online about possible security breaches due to the widespread nature of the disruptions.

The company is now investigating why the configuration file expanded beyond expected limits and is taking steps to prevent similar issues in the future.

Impact on Major Platforms

The outage affected several well-known platforms, prompting thousands of users to turn to Downdetector—a popular outage-tracking site—to report problems. Platforms impacted included:

X (formerly Twitter)

ChatGPT

Canva

Grindr

Multiple other websites relying on Cloudflare for traffic routing and protection

At the height of the incident, Downdetector recorded over 11,000 outage reports linked to Cloudflare. By 10:20 a.m. ET, this number had dropped to around 2,800 as the company’s fixtook effect.

It’s worth noting that Downdetector collects information from user complaints rather than direct system measurements. This means the number of affected individuals could be higher or lower than reported.

Platforms like X and OpenAI’s ChatGPT did not respond to inquiries about the outage, but user reports suggested widespread difficulty in accessing services.

Context and Recent Outages

This incident follows another major outage just one month earlier, when Amazon Web Services suffered disruptions that took down major apps including Reddit and Snapchat. As cloud providers grow larger and more central to global infrastructure, these outages create significant ripple effects across the internet.

Cloudflare plays a crucial role in helping websites load quickly, managing traffic spikes, and protecting sites from cyberattacks. Any failure in its system can therefore impact millions of users and businesses.

The company continued to monitor the situation throughout the day and assured customers that long-term fixes are being implemented to prevent recurrence.