Large parts of the internet experienced disruptions after a major technical issue at Cloudflare, the infrastructure company that underpins many online services.
Users trying to access platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and film-review site Letterboxd were met with error messages indicating that Cloudflare’s systems were preventing pages from loading.
Cloudflare provides essential internet infrastructure, including protection from cyberattacks and tools that keep websites stable during heavy traffic.
In an update, the company said: “Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers. Further detail will be provided as more information becomes available.”
Outage-tracking service Down Detector, which itself was affected by the disruption, showed a sharp spike in reported issues once it managed to load. Many users saw an “internal server error on Cloudflare’s network” and were told to try again later.
According to Cloudflare’s status page, the company has resolved issues affecting its Access and WARP tools. However, these are relatively technical services, meaning major sites may still experience problems. Cloudflare says it is “continuing to work towards restoring other services.”
Bet365
Betting platform bet365 was also affected, displaying a message stating users were “blocked” from accessing the site—accompanied by warnings that implied a security threat.
However, as with ChatGPT, these alarming notices appear only because Cloudflare’s usual security systems are malfunctioning.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT users were met with a recurring error message: “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed.”
No action from users is needed; the failure stems from Cloudflare’s ongoing outage.
Problems re-emerge
Despite earlier signs of improvement, many websites began failing again. Cloudflare posted a new status update saying it was “continuing to investigate this issue,” indicating the earlier fix was not complete.
Services gradually returning
Cloudflare later reported that systems were starting to recover, though some users might still see elevated error rates as remediation continues.
“We are seeing services recover, but customers may continue to observe higher-than-normal error rates,” the company said.
Down Detector shows widespread issues
Down Detector’s data shows outages at various major services, including OpenAI, bet365, League of Legends, and payment firm Sage.
Although Amazon Web Services also appeared on the list, this may simply be due to increased conversation about last month’s AWS outage.
What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare typically operates behind the scenes, quietly supporting the functioning of countless websites. Today’s outage, however, made its role far more visible.
Some sites returning online
X, which had previously been inaccessible, began loading again for some users, suggesting Cloudflare’s mitigation efforts are taking effect. The company has not yet confirmed a full resolution.
Cloudflare posts updated status
After initially acknowledging the problem without details, Cloudflare later shared more context:
“Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which impacts multiple customers: widespread 500 errors, Cloudflare Dashboard and API also failing. We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem. More updates to follow shortly.”
Echoes of last month’s AWS outage
Because Cloudflare supports thousands of companies worldwide, a wide range of unrelated websites were taken offline—similar to the widespread disruption caused by the AWS outage a month ago.
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