The disruption occurred around this Monday, October 20, 2025, with a peak of complaints recorded on Downdetector. The issue was concentrated in the us-east-1 region in the United States, affecting platforms reliant on Amazon Web Services infrastructure. AWS engineers identified network connectivity issues impacting services like DynamoDB and SQS.
A series of AWS updates indicated that initial mitigations were applied shortly after the reports began. Gradual recovery started within two hours, with most services restored by late afternoon. Users in Brazil faced direct impacts on financial tools, leading to reports of interrupted transactions. The incident underscores the global reliance on centralized cloud providers.
Regions most affected by the outage
The us-east-1 region accounted for 57% of reported issues, followed by us-west-1 with 22% and us-west-2 with 21%. These data centers, located in the eastern and western United States, handle a significant portion of global internet traffic.
AWS staff monitored the volume of complaints in real time to prioritize resolution. Downdetector noted that the peak exceeded the usual volume for that time, confirming a significant event.
Services impacted in daily life
Payment platforms like Mercado Pago experienced failures in supermarket and online transactions. Users reported issues with Pix, Brazil’s instant transfer system, during the peak period.
Messaging apps and social networks, including Snapchat, saw disruptions in access and content delivery. Online games like Fortnite and Roblox faced server interruptions, affecting millions of active sessions.
Smart devices, such as Alexa, stopped responding to basic commands like alarms and smart home controls. Productivity tools, like Canva, experienced delays in collaborative editing and saving.
User and company responses
Social media posts highlighted frustrations with digital banking systems reliant on AWS. Companies like United Airlines and Delta reported impacts on check-in and flight tracking apps.
- Mercado Pago confirmed the instability and advised using offline alternatives.
- Snapchat posted updates about awareness of the issue and ongoing monitoring.
- Epic Games, Fortnite’s developer, notified players about the external source of the failure.
AWS issued regular updates on the investigation’s progress. Infrastructure experts noted that such events occur sporadically due to network complexity.
Recovery efforts and updates
Amazon engineers applied parallel fixes to speed up the restoration of affected endpoints. By 4:00 PM, signs of recovery were observed in over 80% of impacted services in the main region.
The company emphasized a focus on complete resolution, with no initial estimates of prolonged downtime. Corporate clients received alerts via the AWS status dashboard for temporary configuration adjustments.
Cloud dependency in numbers
AWS serves about 30% of the global cloud computing market, supporting over one million active businesses. In the first half of 2025, the service generated 60% of Amazon’s operating profit, totaling billions in revenue.
Previous incidents, like the 2024 outage caused by a software update, lasted up to a full day and disrupted digital supply chains. Internal reports indicate that multi-region redundancies mitigate risks, though localized failures cause cascading effects. Today’s event highlighted the need for diversification in cloud providers for greater operational resilience. Final updates confirmed full normalization by 6:00 PM, with ongoing monitoring to prevent recurrences.
Financial platforms in Brazil
Mercado Pago, widely used for daily payments, saw a peak of complaints at 4:48 PM. Users at supermarkets faced rejections of virtual cards linked to the platform.
Digital banks reported similar instabilities, with account access disrupted for an average of 30 minutes. Pix, managed by Brazil’s Central Bank, experienced delays in transfers, though the core system was not directly affected.
AWS partner companies in Brazil activated contingency plans to process transactions manually. Reports indicate that the local economic impact was limited to a few hours, with no widespread losses reported.
