"Cloudflare suffered a major outage on November 18, 2025, disrupting X, ChatGPT, Spotify, and thousands of other services. Here’s what happened and why it matters."
The internet had a rough day on November 18, 2025, when a major Cloudflare outage caused thousands of websites and apps to go down. Platforms like X (Twitter), ChatGPT, League of Legends, Spotify, and many others became partially or fully inaccessible. This event exposed how dependent the modern web is on a few infrastructure providers.
What exactly happened during the Cloudflare outage?
According to Cloudflare, the issue started between 11:20 and 11:48 UTC due to a sudden spike in unusual traffic hitting its network. The company quickly clarified that this was not a cyberattack but an internal technical problem that affected parts of its edge network.
The outage made several Cloudflare services unstable, including:
- Dashboard login and access
- API response handling
- Bot management tools
- CDN performance and caching
As CDN caches failed, many websites had to fetch data directly from their origin servers, causing slow loading times and higher server costs.
How long did the outage last?
Cloudflare engineers started rolling out fixes within an hour, and by 14:42 UTC, key systems began to recover. Full service normalization happened around 17:14 UTC. Even after restoration, minor errors and latency issues continued while the system was monitored.
Which major platforms were affected?
The outage was global, hitting users in the US, UK, India, and other regions. DownDetector logged over 10,000+ reports during peak disruption.
Some of the most affected platforms included:
- X (Twitter)
- ChatGPT
- League of Legends
- Spotify
- Letterboxd
- Truth Social
- Vinted
- Grindr
Even DownDetector itself went down because it also uses Cloudflare.
Why does a Cloudflare outage affect the whole internet?
Cloudflare powers a huge part of the global internet. It handles traffic, security, caching, and DNS for millions of websites and apps. When Cloudflare has issues, it creates a chain reaction across the web.
Businesses experienced failed payments, missing analytics, slow customer dashboards, and increased server errors. This outage showed how dependence on a single infrastructure provider can cause massive ripple effects.
This is the second big infrastructure incident in just a few weeks, following a major AWS outage earlier in the month.
Cloudflare referral and partner program: Is there an affiliate link?
Many users searched for Cloudflare referral links after the incident, but here’s the truth:
| Program Type | Available? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Public Affiliate Program | No | No direct commission program for individuals |
| Agency/Reseller Program | Yes | Available via Cloudflare PowerUP partner network |
The Cloudflare PowerUP Partner Program is designed for agencies and technical providers who want to resell or bundle Cloudflare services.
For individuals, directories like APDB list related opportunities, but there is no official Cloudflare affiliate link.
FAQs
Why did Cloudflare go down?
The outage was caused by an unexpected traffic spike leading to internal service degradation, not a cyberattack.
Which websites depend on Cloudflare?
Millions of websites use Cloudflare, including major social platforms, e-commerce sites, API services, and gaming platforms.
Does Cloudflare offer an affiliate program?
No direct public affiliate program exists. Only the PowerUP partner program is available for agencies.
