Cloudflare Outage Eases After Global Disruption Hits X, ChatGPT, Canva and More

A widespread Cloudflare outage that briefly plunged major sections of the internet into chaos began easing on Tuesday, after impacting thousands of users worldwide. The web-infrastructure giant — responsible for powering roughly 20% of global internet traffic — confirmed that the disruption was caused by a sudden spike in unusual traffic that overwhelmed parts of its network.

The outage, which began around 6:40 a.m. ET, affected popular platforms including X, ChatGPT, Canva, Grindr, and numerous corporate and e-commerce sites. Many users turned to Downdetector to report problems, with outage reports peaking at nearly 5,000 before steadily dropping to around 600 as Cloudflare rolled out fixes.

A Surge of Unusual Traffic Triggered the Breakdown

In a statement, Cloudflare said it detected a “spike in unusual traffic” at 11:20 UTC, which caused certain services to generate errors for traffic passing through its vast global network.

“We are all hands on deck to make sure all traffic is served without errors,” the company said, adding that systems are gradually stabilizing but some customers may still experience intermittent issues during recovery.

The nature of the unusual traffic was not immediately disclosed, but Cloudflare’s role in filtering malicious requests suggests the surge could have been related to an attempted attack or a misconfigured automated system.

Either way, the fallout was immediate. Apps and websites reliant on Cloudflare’s infrastructure experienced timeouts, loading failures, and service lag — leaving users across social media frustrated and confused.

Shares Drop as Cloudflare Scrambles to Restore Stability

Cloudflare’s stock reflected investor concerns, dropping about 5% in premarket trading following news of the disruption.

This incident adds to a growing trend of outages hitting critical internet services. Just last month, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) failure caused hours of global disruption, temporarily knocking out apps like Reddit and Snapchat. As dependency on cloud-based systems grows, even small service failures ripple across the entire digital ecosystem.

Major Platforms Impacted — X and OpenAI Yet to Respond

The outage blocked access to key platforms, including:

• X (formerly Twitter)

• ChatGPT, operated by OpenAI

• Canva

• Grindr

• Various business, gaming, and shopping websites

Representatives for X and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Downdetector clarified that its user-submitted reports do not represent the full scale of affected users, meaning the actual number could be much higher.

Cloudflare’s Critical Role Means Outages Have Global Impact

Cloudflare operates one of the world’s largest and most essential content delivery and security networks. Its systems keep websites online, protect them from cyberattacks, and ensure fast loading speeds.

When Cloudflare experiences issues, the effects are felt almost instantly across the internet.

As Cloudflare continues its recovery efforts, users are advised to expect lingering instability — but the worst appears to be over.