How to check if a website is down for everyone
To check if a website is down for everyone or just for you, open the service’s official status page first, then compare with a crowd-report site such as Downdetector, and finally test from a different network, like your phone on mobile data. If the site loads on another network but not on yours, the problem is on your side, and clearing your DNS cache or turning off a VPN usually fixes it.
This guide lists the official status pages for the services people check most, explains what crowd reports can and can’t tell you, and walks through the tests that separate an outage from a local problem.
Before you start
- Status page addresses and steps were checked on October 21, 2026 and rechecked October 26. Sources are at the end.
- Write down the exact error message or code you see. It’s the fastest clue to where the failure is.
- The commands below work on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS. You don’t need admin rights to run ping or nslookup.
Why this keeps happening
Many sites run on a small number of cloud providers, so one data center problem can take down services that seem unrelated. On October 20, 2026, a “power event” in one zone of Google Cloud’s London region (europe-west2-b) started at about 06:08 UTC and wasn’t mostly mitigated until 14:03 UTC, according to The Register. Revolut, Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Royal Mail, Rightmove and DPD were among the services reported as affected. If you were trying to pay or track a parcel that morning, no setting on your phone would have helped. Our article on the Revolut outage covers what account holders should check afterwards. Store sites go down too: in October, Stop & Shop and Food Lion’s websites were out for days.
Step 1: Check the official status page
The company’s own status page is the only source that confirms an outage. Search for “[service name] status”, or use one of these:
| Service | Official status page |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT and OpenAI API | status.openai.com |
| Gmail, Google Drive, Meet and other Workspace apps | google.com/appsstatus/dashboard |
| Google Cloud | status.cloud.google.com |
| Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams) | status.cloud.microsoft |
| Amazon Web Services | health.aws.amazon.com/health/status |
| Cloudflare | cloudflarestatus.com |
| GitHub | githubstatus.com |
| Discord | discordstatus.com |
Two caveats. Status pages often update after users notice the problem, so “All systems operational” in the first few minutes doesn’t rule out an outage. And they can be narrow: OpenAI lists ChatGPT, login, the API and other parts separately, so check the component you’re using. Some big services, including Steam, don’t run an official public status page; sites such as steamstat.us are unofficial. If it’s ChatGPT that won’t load and its status page is green, the problem is usually on your side; see our fix for ChatGPT’s “Something went wrong” error.
For Microsoft 365 at work, your IT admin sees more detail in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Health > Service health. Microsoft also posts updates on X at @MSFT365Status.
Step 2: Compare with crowd reports
Downdetector and similar sites collect problem reports from users and chart them over time. A sharp spike in reports, especially with a map showing many locations, is a strong sign of a wide outage before the company admits it.
Read crowd reports with care:
- A spike shows that many people say they have a problem. It doesn’t show the cause. When a cloud provider fails, reports can pile up under several brands at once.
- Small sites have too few users to produce a meaningful chart.
- Reports drift for a while after a fix, because people report late.
Searching the service’s name on X, Bluesky or Reddit with words like “down” also helps. Sort by latest and look for posts from the last few minutes.
Step 3: Test from a different network and device
This is the quickest way to tell whether the problem is yours:
- Turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and load the site over mobile data.
- If it works there, the site is up and the problem is your home or office connection, router, DNS or VPN.
- If it fails on mobile data too, try a second device. Failing everywhere points to an outage. Failing only on one device points to that device’s browser or app.
Also try a private or incognito window. If the site works there, a browser extension or stale cookies are the cause.
Step 4: Run two quick network checks
Open Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on a Mac and try:
- nslookup example.com: replace example.com with the site’s address. If it returns an IP address, DNS is working. An error such as “Non-existent domain” for a site that exists points to a DNS problem on your network or with the site’s DNS provider.
- ping example.com: replies mean your computer can reach the server. No replies don’t prove much, because many servers block ping. Treat a failed ping as a hint, not a verdict.
The error message in your browser helps too:
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| “This site can’t be reached” or DNS_PROBE errors | Your device couldn’t look up or connect to the address. Often local: DNS, VPN or network. |
| 500 Internal Server Error | The site’s server failed. Wait; nothing to fix on your end. |
| 502 Bad Gateway or 503 Service Unavailable | The site, or a service in front of it, is overloaded or down. |
| Cloudflare error page naming your browser, Cloudflare and the host | The page shows which hop failed. If it says the host, the site’s own server is down. |
| Loads, but login or payments fail | Partial outage. Check the status page for that component. |
Step 5: Fix it if the problem is on your side
If the site works elsewhere, try these in order:
- Restart the router and the device.
- Turn off any VPN, proxy or ad-blocking DNS app and try again.
- Clear the DNS cache. On Windows, run ipconfig /flushdns in Command Prompt. On a Mac, run sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder in Terminal and enter your password.
- Clear the site’s cookies and cached data in your browser, or sign out and back in.
- Update the app, or reinstall it if only the app fails while the website works.
On Windows PCs, a recent update can also break networking. If Wi-Fi or VPN connections stopped after installing October’s patches, see our guide to the NTLMv1 Wi-Fi and VPN fix.
FAQ
How do I know if a website is down or blocked?
If the site fails on your home network but works on mobile data, it may be blocked by your router, network filter or internet provider rather than down. Workplace and school networks often filter sites. A site that fails on every network is down.
Is Downdetector accurate?
It reflects what users report, which makes it fast but not authoritative. Use it to spot a likely outage, then confirm on the official status page.
Why does a site work for my friend but not for me?
You might be on a different network, region or cloud server. Large services route users to different data centers, so an outage can hit one region while another works. It can also be a local DNS or cookie problem on your device.
How long do outages usually last?
There’s no typical length. The October 20 Google Cloud incident in London lasted about eight hours before Google said it was mostly mitigated, while many outages end within an hour. The status page usually posts the next update time.
Next step
Bookmark the status pages for the three or four services you depend on most, and make “try it on mobile data” your first move. Most of the time, those two checks tell you in under a minute whether to wait or start fixing. When a shop or bank site goes down, the outage isn’t the only risk: scammers send fake “service restored” or refund texts, so check any link against our guide to fake package delivery texts before you tap.
Related guides
Sources
- The Register: Google Cloud says a “power event” caused today’s outage (October 20, 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: How to check Microsoft 365 service health
- OpenAI status page
- Google Workspace Status Dashboard
- Google Cloud Service Health
- Microsoft 365 service status
