Updated 18 November 2025 at 20:35 IST
What is Cloudfare and Why its Outage Disrupted Major Websites
A major Cloudflare outage disrupted access to sites like X and ChatGPT after a traffic surge overwhelmed parts of its network. Since millions of websites rely on Cloudflare for speed and security, the failure caused widespread errors. The company said the issue was internal and not a cyberattack.
A major internet disruption on Tuesday made platforms like X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and several other services temporarily inaccessible. The issue wasn’t with each individual website but with Cloudflare, a company that quietly powers a large part of the global internet. Here’s a simple breakdown of what happened and why it mattered.
What Is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a behind-the-scenes internet infrastructure provider. Most users never interact with it directly, but millions of websites depend on it every day. Its network helps websites load faster, stay protected from attacks, and manage heavy traffic without slowing down.
Some of its key functions include:
a) Speeding up websites by storing content on servers across the world
b) Protecting sites from cyberattacks and malicious traffic
c) Routing user requests through its own network for better performance
d) Providing DNS services, which help websites load by converting names into IP addresses
Because of this reach, Cloudflare sits at a critical point in the flow of global internet traffic.
What Caused the Outage?
On Tuesday, Cloudflare faced an internal technical issue that affected multiple parts of its network. This caused websites that rely on its services to show errors, load slowly or fail to open entirely. Many users saw “500” errors or messages saying a site was temporarily unavailable.
Cloudflare later said the disruption was triggered by an unexpected spike in traffic that overwhelmed one of its systems. Importantly, the company clarified that the incident was not the result of a cyberattack.
Why Did It Affect So Many Sites?
When Cloudflare has a problem, the impact spreads quickly. This is because:
a) A huge number of websites run through its network
b) It handles both performance and security functions
c) If its systems fail, user requests cannot reach the actual website servers
The outage shows how dependent the internet has become on a few large infrastructure providers.
Published By : Avishek Banerjee
Published On: 18 November 2025 at 20:35 IST