On June 12, 2025, a major internet outage disrupted a wide array of online services globally. The incident was primarily traced to a failure within Google Cloud, which had a cascading effect on Cloudflare and numerous high-profile platforms and applications.
Timeline and Scope
Google Cloud first acknowledged issues at 11:46 AM PDT (2:46 PM ET), citing problems across over 40 locations and 26 services, specifically due to an Identity and Access Management (IAM) service issue. Cloudflare began reporting service disruptions at 11:19 AM PDT, before Google’s public acknowledgment, indicating the interconnectedness of their platforms.
By 2 PM ET, DownDetector registered over 10,000 Google Cloud outage reports and more than 44,000 reports for Spotify, highlighting the widespread impact. By early afternoon Pacific Time, both Google and Cloudflare reported that most services were recovering, with full restoration expected within the hour for most regions except Google’s us-central1 (Iowa).
Root Cause and Technical Details
The root cause was identified as a failure in Google Cloud’s IAM service, which disrupted authentication and access across numerous Google Cloud products and services. Cloudflare’s outage was directly linked to its reliance on Google Cloud for critical backend infrastructure, particularly the Workers KV service, which is essential for configuration, authentication, and asset delivery for several Cloudflare products.
Services affected included Workers KV, WARP, Access, Gateway, Images, Stream, Workers AI, Turnstile and Challenges, AutoRAG, Zaraz, and parts of the Cloudflare Dashboard. Approximately 90% of Workers KV requests failed during the incident. Both companies confirmed that no data was lost and there was no evidence of a security incident or attack.
Affected Services and Platforms
A broad range of consumer and enterprise services experienced outages, including:
• Google Services: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Tasks, Google Voice, Google Cloud Console, Vertex AI, Cloud SQL, BigQuery, Cloud DNS, and Cloud Storage.
• Cloudflare Products: Workers KV, WARP, Access, Gateway, Images, Stream, Workers AI, Turnstile, AutoRAG, Zaraz, and dashboard components.
• Third-Party Platforms: Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, Twitch, Character.AI, Rocket League, Amazon Web Services (AWS) (user reports, not confirmed by AWS), Shopify, Etsy, Nintendo Switch Online, GitLab, Calendly, Bluesky, Fortnite, Apple Music, Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime Video, and more.
• AI and Developer Tools: Google Vertex AI Online Prediction, Dialogflow CX, Agent Assist, Contact Center AI, Cursor, and Replit.
