When was cloudflare down

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Last updated: April 17, 2026

Quick Answer: Cloudflare experienced a major global outage on June 24, 2020, lasting approximately 27 minutes, starting at 14:52 UTC. The disruption affected over 1.5 million websites relying on its services, including major platforms like Discord, Shopify, and Hulu.

Key Facts

The major Cloudflare outage occurred on June 24, 2020, at 14:52 UTC
The disruption lasted approximately 27 minutes
Over 1.5 million websites were impacted during the outage
The cause was a configuration error in Cloudflare’s edge routing systems
Major sites like Discord, Hulu, and Shopify were temporarily unreachable

Overview

On June 24, 2020, Cloudflare, a leading internet performance and security company, suffered a significant global outage that disrupted services for millions of websites. The incident began at 14:52 UTC and lasted about 27 minutes, making it one of the most widespread disruptions in the company’s history.

The outage stemmed from an internal configuration error during a routine network maintenance update. This error triggered a cascade of routing issues across Cloudflare’s global network, affecting services in every region. Below are key details about the event and its immediate impact.

Start time: The outage began precisely at 14:52 UTC, as confirmed by Cloudflare’s post-mortem report.
Duration: The disruption lasted 27 minutes, with most services restored by 15:19 UTC.
Scope: The issue affected all 200+ Cloudflare data centers worldwide, causing global service degradation.
Root cause: A software bug in the edge router configuration system caused a misrouting of traffic across the network.
Resolution: Engineers manually rolled back the faulty configuration, restoring normal operations within half an hour.

How It Works

Cloudflare operates as a reverse proxy, sitting between website visitors and origin servers to provide DDoS protection, CDN services, and DNS resolution. Understanding key technical terms helps explain how a small error led to a massive outage.

Edge Network: Cloudflare operates over 200 data centers globally, routing traffic through the closest location to reduce latency and improve security.
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): This protocol directs traffic between networks; a misconfigured BGP update during maintenance caused routing failures.
Reverse Proxy: Cloudflare acts as a middleman, meaning all traffic to protected sites must pass through its systems, making outages highly impactful.
DDoS Protection: By absorbing malicious traffic, Cloudflare shields websites; however, outages disable this protection globally.
CDN (Content Delivery Network): Cloudflare caches content to speed delivery; during the outage, cached assets became unreachable for many sites.
DNS Resolution: Cloudflare provides DNS services for millions; the failure meant domain names couldn’t be translated to IP addresses, blocking access.

Comparison at a Glance

Here’s how the 2020 Cloudflare outage compares to other major internet disruptions:

Event	Date	Duration	Services Affected	Root Cause
Cloudflare Outage	June 24, 2020	27 minutes	1.5M+ websites	Configuration error
Fastly Outage	June 8, 2021	1 hour	News, e-commerce sites	Software bug
Amazon Web Services Outage	December 7, 2021	~8 hours	Netflix, Slack, AWS services	Network equipment failure
Facebook Global Shutdown	October 4, 2021	6 hours	Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp	BGP misconfiguration
Google Cloud Outage	December 2022	3+ hours	Gmail, YouTube, Google Workspace	Load balancer failure

While Cloudflare’s 2020 outage was shorter than some, its global reach and rapid onset made it particularly disruptive. Unlike regional outages, this event affected users across continents simultaneously, highlighting the fragility of centralized internet infrastructure. The comparison shows that even brief configuration errors can have massive ripple effects across the web.

Why It Matters

Cloudflare’s 2020 outage underscores the risks of relying on a small number of providers for critical internet infrastructure. When one major service fails, the impact is felt across countless websites and services, disrupting commerce, communication, and access to information.

Business impact: E-commerce sites like Shopify stores lost sales during peak traffic hours due to inaccessibility.
User experience: Millions of users encountered 502 Bad Gateway errors when trying to access Cloudflare-protected sites.
Security implications: The outage temporarily disabled DDoS protection, leaving websites vulnerable to attacks.
Dependency risks: The event highlighted how over-reliance on a single provider can create systemic vulnerabilities.
Operational transparency: Cloudflare’s detailed post-mortem improved trust and demonstrated commitment to accountability.
Industry response: The incident prompted other CDN providers to review failover and configuration safeguards to prevent similar issues.

Ultimately, the June 24, 2020, Cloudflare outage serves as a cautionary tale about the interconnected nature of the modern web. As more services depend on centralized platforms, ensuring redundancy, robust configuration management, and rapid response protocols becomes essential for maintaining internet stability.