If you’ve been struggling to access your favorite websites or apps today, you’re not alone. A massive AWS (Amazon Web Services) outage has caused widespread internet disruption, affecting everything from streaming platforms and financial services to gaming and e-commerce websites.
As reports continue to pour in from across the United States, users are asking a common question: what websites are down — and why is half the internet breaking at once? The answer lies deep in the infrastructure that powers much of the web: AWS’s cloud network.
What’s Happening Right Now
Earlier today, Amazon Web Services confirmed that one of its most critical regions — US-EAST-1, located in Northern Virginia — experienced significant service degradation. This region is a backbone for thousands of websites and apps, and when it goes down, the ripple effects can be massive.
AWS’s cloud infrastructure powers websites and digital services across multiple industries. When its servers slow down or stop responding, the outage cascades across platforms that depend on it.
As of this hour, millions of users across North America are facing slow loading times, failed logins, and total downtime on multiple sites.
Major Websites and Apps Currently Affected
The AWS outage has impacted a wide range of popular platforms. While some are back online intermittently, others remain partially down or lagging.
Here’s a snapshot of the major websites affected by the ongoing disruption:
- Amazon.com – Checkout, search, and order tracking are showing errors for some users.
- Prime Video – Playback and login issues continue due to AWS streaming server failures.
- Venmo – Users face transaction delays and app freezing during payments.
- Robinhood – Trading functionality disrupted, with login and order-processing errors.
- Snapchat – App login and messaging features partially down.
- Ring – Smart home devices are struggling to connect to the cloud.
- Spotify – Brief streaming interruptions and playlist syncing issues.
- Netflix (indirect impact) – Some regional CDN nodes showing slower content delivery.
- Fortnite and Epic Games services – Matchmaking and logins facing connectivity issues.
- Chime and PayPal – Payment and authentication slowdowns linked to AWS routing errors.
- DoorDash and Uber Eats – Users reporting failed orders and delayed driver matching.
- Twitch – Live streaming feeds buffering or cutting out intermittently.
These aren’t isolated outages. All of them share one common link — AWS. When the cloud stumbles, so does the digital world built upon it.
Why AWS Is at the Center of the Internet’s Outage
AWS is the largest cloud computing provider in the world, powering roughly one-third of global internet infrastructure. Thousands of companies — from tech giants to startups — rely on AWS for storage, databases, and content delivery.
When AWS’s systems experience network congestion, database lag, or DNS failures, every connected platform suffers.
Here’s what’s happening in technical terms:
- DNS Resolution Failures: AWS’s internal systems are struggling to route domain requests, meaning apps can’t connect to their data.
- Database Latency: Delays in AWS’s storage systems (like DynamoDB and S3) are preventing websites from loading assets or authenticating users.
- Content Delivery Breakdown: AWS’s CDN network (CloudFront) is under stress, causing video streams, images, and files to fail.
- Regional Overload: Because US-EAST-1 handles a massive share of traffic, failures there ripple into other global AWS regions.
This single-point dependency highlights the dominance — and vulnerability — of cloud infrastructure in the modern internet ecosystem.
Industries Hit Hardest by the Outage
The AWS outage hasn’t just hit consumer apps — it’s also affected critical services across multiple sectors:
- Finance: Trading platforms like Robinhood and digital banks like Chime saw transaction and data sync failures.
- Entertainment: Streaming services like Prime Video, Spotify, and Twitch struggled to serve millions of users simultaneously.
- E-commerce: Amazon’s own website faced intermittent order-processing errors and search delays.
- Smart Home Tech: Devices like Ring and Alexa lost real-time cloud connectivity.
- Social Media: Snapchat and smaller social apps suffered partial outages due to cloud communication errors.
Essentially, if a platform uses AWS — and most major ones do — it’s likely been affected.
What You Can Do Right Now
If a website or app you use isn’t working today, it’s probably not your fault. Still, here’s what you can do to stay informed and minimize frustration:
- Avoid repetitive logins or refreshes. The issue is server-side, so retrying won’t help and could log you out entirely.
- Check for updates from official channels. Many affected companies will post updates on social media once AWS restores connectivity.
- Be patient with transactions. If you use financial apps like Venmo or Robinhood, avoid resubmitting payments or trades until confirmed working.
- Switch devices or networks. Occasionally, some AWS regional issues affect mobile users differently than desktop ones.
- Use alternative platforms. For urgent needs — such as sending payments or emails — switch to services not dependent on AWS, if available.
Why This Keeps Happening
This isn’t the first time AWS has caused a wave of internet outages — and it won’t be the last. Major outages in 2020, 2021, and 2023 similarly took down popular platforms for hours.
The reason? The centralization of the web. AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure host much of today’s internet. While these systems are built for reliability, their interconnectivity means a single regional glitch can affect millions of users instantly.
In AWS’s case, the US-EAST-1 region is the hub for countless American companies — and when it fails, the results can feel like half the web just vanished.
When Will Services Be Back?
AWS engineers are actively restoring systems. Based on past incidents, most services typically return within a few hours, though smaller apps may experience residual slowdowns for the rest of the day as caches refresh and systems resync.
Users should expect staggered recoveries:
- Streaming services like Prime Video and Spotify may recover first.
- Financial apps like Robinhood and Chime could take longer as transactions reprocess.
- Smart home devices may need manual resets once AWS connectivity returns.
Final Thoughts
So, what websites are down today?
In short — a lot of them. From entertainment and finance to e-commerce and communication, much of the internet is feeling the impact of a major AWS outage.
This event serves as a stark reminder of how interconnected the online world is — and how dependent it has become on a few massive cloud providers. When AWS sneezes, the entire internet catches a cold.
For now, patience is key. AWS recovery teams are already rolling out fixes, and most users should see normal service restored soon. Until then, sit tight — the digital world is rebooting.