A major global outage on November 18, 2025, disrupted Cloudflare’s services, leaving millions unable to access popular websites like ChatGPT, X, and Spotify, underscoring the internet’s vulnerability to a few key providers.
The incident was caused by a spike in unusual traffic and a latent bug from a routine configuration change, leading to widespread 500 Internal Server Errors reported by users around the world.
Experts have labeled the outage a critical wake-up call about the dangers of centralizing web infrastructure, as the reliance on Cloudflare for many key services highlighted systemic risks.
As digital banking and transit systems grappled with disruptions, businesses and users experienced the cascading effects of the outage, reflecting how interconnected the online landscape is.
Cloudflare asserted that no malicious activity caused the disruption and quickly mobilized to resolve the issues, restoring access within hours while committing to ongoing monitoring of its network.
The event marked a significant moment for tech analysts to call for greater diversification in internet services, emphasizing the need for resilience against future outages that can cripple entire sectors.