Revolut down latest: Huge internet outage fixed hours after Google Cloud issues

Banking app Revolut says its services are up and running again, hours after they failed amid a major internet outage.

Thousands of customers were unable to open the app and unable to pay in stores using their cards for much of Tuesday.

Many of the UK’s biggest websites were also hit by the outage, which appeared to be at least partly linked to technical issues at Google Cloud, the search giant’s web services division. It provides internet infrastructure to a wide array of websites – meaning that any issue at the company can become clear across the web.

Online services ranging from Rightmove to UK courts were hit, and an outage in the video system used for trials forced hearings to be delayed.

Google said it would investigate the cause of the disruption to its cloud network.

Key Points

• What services are broken?
• Google says it is still working to fix problem
• Cloud outage is not the central issue, experts suggest
• UK court hearings delayed amid technical problems

Revolut services back up

19:36 , Jane Dalton

Revolut says services have been restored after the problem was rectified.

It said customers’ money and data were safe, and apologised for any inconvenience.

But some customers complained about insufficient communication.

Due to a recent Google Cloud outage, customers may have experienced temporary service disruption on the Revolut app today.

The issue has now been fixed, and services are now restored.

All our customers’ money and data is safe, and has remained safe throughout this incident. We…

— Revolut (@Revolut) October 20, 2026

Google promises to investigate

16:48 , Jane Dalton

Google says it will investigate the major disruption to its cloud network after confirming most services are back up and running.

Businesses that rely on the network experienced problems, including banks and courts.

By 3pm, Google said the issues had been largely resolved and only a very small number of customers were still being affected.

“We will publish an analysis of this incident once we have completed our internal investigation,” the company said on its service health page.

“We thank you for your patience while we’re working on resolving the issue.”

Most services seem to have recovered

15:39 , Andrew Griffin

Almost all of the websites, platforms and companies that were affected by the outage earlier seem to have recovered, according to tracking website Down Detector.

Users of Revolut, however, are still reporting problems. (See below.)

Revolut customers respond with outrage to outage

15:27 , Andrew Griffin

Revolut has not posted on its official X account since just before 9am this morning, about an hour after the outage started.

We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services. We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe. We’ve been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologise to anyone affected and for any inconvenience…

— Revolut (@Revolut) October 20, 2026

In the absence of any updates, the replies to that post have been filled with apparent customers complaining about the outage.

“Money and data are safe,” one writes. “Safest my money has ever been: not even I can spend it.”

That is the central frustration among many users, who say they have been left embarrassed or stuck because they have been unable to pay for things in shops, or for transport.

Others complain that they have not received enough updates from the company, arguing that it should have sent a notification or email to make clear.

Revolut still not working, despite Google update

15:16 , Andrew Griffin

Revolut’s status page still shows that it is “partially unavailable”, and that there are problems with every part of its service, including ATM withdrawals and card payments. That’s despite Google saying the issue is almost entirely fixed (see below).

Some customers however are reporting that they are able to do at least some things, such as opening the app.

Google says it has fixed the problem

15:13 , Andrew Griffin

The outage has now been fixed, Google has said.

An update to its status page indicates that it now considers the issues over.

Google does say that there are problems still affecting “currently a very small number of customers”, so some problems may still persist.

“We will publish an analysis of this incident once we have completed our internal investigation,” Google said. “We thank you for your patience while we're working on resolving the issue.”

Emma budgeting app says it is back online

14:10 , Andrew Griffin

The latest app to recover from the outage, budgeting app Emma says that it is back online.

“We're back,” it wrote. “Emma is up and running again after this morning's Google Cloud power outage in London.

“Your data and money were safe throughout. Some balances may take a little while to refresh. Thanks for your patience.”

Revolut and others still indicate systems are down

14:07 , Andrew Griffin

Revolut’s status page still shows that all of its services – including paying with cards and taking money out at ATMs – are still not working. While others including DPD have indicated that they have recovered, there are still ongoing problems.

Reports on Down Detector appear to be falling. But that tends to be the way, because it relies on user reports and they are often clustered at the beginning of an outage.

Google does say that things should be coming back online, however. (See below.)

Google says 'most services' are recovering

13:46 , Andrew Griffin

Google is “seeing the recovery of services for most workloads” on the affected systems, it said in a new update to its status page. It says it will provide another update by 7am local pacific time, or 3pm UK time.

It once again apologised to “all who are affected by the disruption”.

DPD says services are coming back online

13:44 , Andrew Griffin

Delivery company DPD says that its problems are fixed. (It announced it on its Irish X account – which it also used to post about them earlier – and has not addressed it on the UK one.)

“The connection issues affecting our website have now been resolved,” it wrote. “Thank you for your patience.”

Google said earlier that it had fixed the problem, but that getting through all of the work required to get back up to speed might take a while. You can see the latest update on that below, and it has promised another one within the next 20 minutes.

Keep evidence of what happened to you, Which? advises

13:18 , Andrew Griffin

Anyone affected by the outage should keep evidence of what has happened in case they need to make a claim in the future, says Sam Richardson, Editor of Which? Money.

"Consumers will be rightly concerned by reports of widespread Google Cloud outages, which are impacting a range of third-party businesses including banks and payment platforms. In the worst-case scenarios, these outages could prevent people making essential purchases or even paying their bills.

"Customers should keep evidence of impacted payments in case they need to make a claim against their bank, and in the meantime anyone likely to miss important bill payments should contact the company involved to ensure they waive any late fees.

"Tech and banking outages have become increasingly frequent in recent years, and the impact can be widespread when they happen. It's worth considering having back-ups in place in the event your main provider goes down - for example a card with a different bank, and a small amount of emergency cash to tide you over should you be unable to make card payments. "

Problems may last long after outage is fixed, financial expert warns

13:08 , Andrew Griffin

The outage may soon be fixed (and – see below – Google has suggested that it will be). But the problems could last long after that, one financial services expert has warned, because customers and banks might have to sort out the consequences for their accounts.

“The outage may be temporary, but the chargeback fallout does not have to be. That’s because when a payment appears to fail, customers do exactly what you would expect them to do: they try again. They retry the same card, switch payment methods or make the purchase later, often without knowing whether the first transaction actually went through,” said Monica Eaton, founder and chief executive of financial services firm Chargebacks911.

“That is exactly where the danger starts. A transaction can settle after the customer believed it had failed, two payments can appear for what they see as one purchase, or a charge can show up days later with no obvious explanation. From the customer’s point of view, that can look like an error or even fraud and from the merchant’s point of view, it can become a chargeback.”

“Merchants cannot treat service restoration as the end of the incident. They need to identify interrupted and repeated transactions, reconcile them quickly and communicate with customers before uncertainty turns into disputes. That’s because while the technical outage might last hours, the financial consequences can sit in the chargeback queue for weeks.”

Systems are recovering and should be fixed soon, Google says

13:04 , Andrew Griffin

Google says that its services – and therefore the websites that rely on it – are gradually coming back online.

“We are seeing the recovery of services and are prioritizing the recovery of existing workloads,” it wrote. “Customers may not be able to yet create new workloads.”

It said that it should be fully recovered within the hour. But that estimate was provided “tentatively”, it said.

Google once again apologised to “all who are affected by the disruption”.

The company had earlier blamed a “power event” for the incident. It gave no further update on that, or the cause more generally.

Google says outage is result of 'power event'

12:35 , Andrew Griffin

The outage is caused by a “power event”, Google said in an update to its status page, though it did not say exactly what that was.

It said that it had dealt with the “power event” itself, and that it was fixing its services now. Some services are expected to recover in the next 30 minutes and others will come “after” that, it said.

“Due to a power event we had suffered an outage within europe-west2-b zone,” Google said as part of a longer update.

“The power event is mitigated. Partial mitigation to infrastructure services will be observed within the next 30 minutes and the remaining services will be mitigated there after.”

Too early to say what has happened – but don't panic, says cyber security expert

12:26 , Andrew Griffin

We don’t know what has happened – and similar incidents tend to turn out not to be a dramatic cyber attack but a less spectacular technical failing. Either way, don’t panic, says Pete Membrey, chief research officer at ExpressVPN.

"Right now, a problem in Google Cloud’s London region is having a knock-on effect across banks, government services and retailers, because so many of them run on the same infrastructure underneath. When one part of that goes wrong, a lot of familiar apps and websites stop working at once,” he said.

“It’s too early to say what’s caused it, and people shouldn’t assume it’s a cyberattack. Most outages like this turn out to be technical faults rather than anything malicious.

“The main thing is not to panic. If your banking app isn’t working, it’s very likely the outage, not a problem with your account. There’s no need to reset passwords or reinstall anything. Be wary of any texts or emails claiming to be from your bank and asking you to confirm your details because of today’s disruption. Services should come back once the issue is fixed, so check official updates and give it time.”

Outage could be opportunity for scammers, security expert warns

12:21 , Andrew Griffin

The dangers and problems of the outage are not only limited to the technical problems themselves, warns Karolis Kaciulis, lead system engineer at cyber security company Surfshark. It could also represent an opportunity for scammers – and one that everyone should be vigilant about.

“When major online services go down, scammers can exploit the confusion by sending fraudulent messages impersonating affected companies,” he said. “Consumers must be vigilant of calls and messages claiming to be from banks, businesses or any of the companies or services impacted by the outage. Scammers prey on the disruption and can make possible victims believe that they are at risk if they don’t act now. Communications asking for passwords or to verify accounts via links can easily be scammers trying to gain information, and completely safe accounts could then be vulnerable.

“Scammers are clever and will use real-world events to make their messages appear more credible. Anyone receiving a suspicious message should check for updates directly through the company's official website or app and never share passwords, payment details or verification codes through unsolicited links.”

DPD says it is aware of problems with its website

12:09 , Andrew Griffin

On its Irish social media pages, delivery company DPD says it is aware that its website is not working properly.

“We are aware of current connection issues affecting our website,” it said. “Our team is working to get this resolved as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Court hearings delayed as video system goes down

12:07 , Press Association

The video system used by courts across England and Wales went down on Tuesday in an issue believed to be linked to a wider Google outage.

The Cloud Video Platform (CVP), which is used by defendants, lawyers and other parties to attend court hearings remotely, was not functioning throughout the morning.

Users expecting to attend court on video link were met with a message saying there was an internal server error.

The issue is expected to have left many hearings across the country delayed or unable to go ahead as the system is often used for defendants who are in custody to attend court.

The judge in the Russell Brand trial, Mr Justice Bennathan, decided to press on with proceedings at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday morning despite the link being broken.

Some journalists who would have been watching online were squeezed into extra seats in court, but many were not able to follow the proceedings as the fourth complainant started her evidence.

Staff at the court said there was a national outage and did not know when it would be resolved.

Google updates its customers – to say the problem is ongoing

12:03 , Andrew Griffin

Google had promised that another update on its services would arrive at 4am local pacific time, or midday in the UK. And it has now arrived.

But it is identical to the previous update, posted more than 90 minutes ago. It says that it is aware that “multiple services are experiencing issues” in Western Europe, that its “engineering team continues to investigate the issue”, that it is sorry, and that the only workaround is to move work to other regions, which might not be feasible.

It commits to share another update within the hour.

Outage shows 'how much we depend on infrastructure we never see', expert warns

11:59 , Andrew Griffin

Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, says that the outage means that customers might be hit by problems that they never realised could happen in this way. And – as below – he warns that the response is not so much about avoiding such outages as companies ensuring that they can continue to work when they happen.

“When a cloud outage leaves people unable to make payments or access everyday services, it exposes how much we depend on infrastructure we never see,” he said.

“As Google is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, disruption to its cloud services can also affect businesses whose customers may have no idea they depend on Google at all.

“For everyday Google users, this dependence can mean several services they rely on suddenly being unavailable at the same time. Someone unable to pay through one banking app may find their alternative is affected too. Keeping a second payment option can help, although using a different bank does not guarantee it relies on different technology.

“Banks, retailers and delivery companies may look like separate businesses, but behind the scenes many rely on the same handful of technology providers. A problem at one supplier can quickly spread beyond its own customers.

“For businesses, the lesson is not that the cloud is unreliable, but that using a major provider does not remove the responsibility to prepare for disruption. Critical services need tested arrangements to switch to another system when something goes wrong.

“A backup is only useful if it can operate independently of whatever has failed. Businesses need to check whether their main service and their fallback rely on the same underlying systems, and test how quickly they can switch between them. Having copies of your data does not, on its own, mean customers can carry on making payments or accessing their accounts.”

Problem is not the outage but companies failing to prepare, analyst says

11:53 , Andrew Griffin

Simon Baxter, research director at analyst firm TechMarketView, says that the trouble with today’s outage is not that services have gone down – but that companies were not properly prepared for it.

“This latest disruption is another reminder of how heavily large enterprises now rely on hyperscale infrastructure. But the bigger issue is resilience, which is increasingly driving customer conversations. Whether it’s a cloud outage, a cyber incident, loss of access to an AI model or any other event outside their control, organisations need to be better prepared for disruption,” he said.

“Some disruption is unavoidable, but businesses should be planning for a wider range of scenarios and putting measures in place to limit the impact where they can.

“It’s also why we’re seeing growing calls for sovereign infrastructure and services. That conversation is not just about UK data residency though. It’s increasingly about control and visibility over the infrastructure, applications, data, AI and support services organisations consume.

“Many firms have made some progress on understanding what they have, where it’s run and managed, and what governance, security and resilience controls are in place, but few have the full picture. Fewer still have proactively prepared for when one of those dependencies fails.”

Halifax says it is also having problems

11:51 , Andrew Griffin

UK bank Halifax is also being hit by an outage, it has said.

“We're aware some customers are having issues with our app and online,” it wrote on X. “We're sorry about this and are working hard to fix it. If you need to you can still call us.

“We’ll let you know as soon as it’s back to normal.”

It did not link the problems specifically to Google Cloud.

Outage highlights major problem with today's internet, expert says

11:50 , Andrew Griffin

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at ESET, says that today’s outage shows just how dependent the web is on a very small number of companies. And they could come with even bigger dangers that a morning of outages, he warns.

“Today’s outages highlight just how much dependence we put on a handful of technology giants to keep our digital lives running. With only a small number of major cloud providers to choose from, the knock-on effects can be catastrophic if something goes wrong and can leave millions of people unable to use everyday services,” he said.

“Cloud services are a huge point of failure and will always be a potential weakness in digital infrastructures. They could even become a potential target on such services by cybercriminals. Businesses therefore need to plan for when these services go down and have strict contingencies in place for this unfortunate inevitable event.”

Budgeting app Emma also hit by outage

11:48 , Andrew Griffin

Emma, which allows users to pull together information from across their bank accounts to build a budget, says it is also hit by the problems.

“Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am,” it wrote on X. “This is a technical outage, not a security issue.

“We're monitoring closely and will update here as soon as the app is back. Sorry for the disruption”

Has this happened before?

11:42 , Andrew Griffin

In short, yes. And not just with Google Cloud.

In 2025, for instance, Cloudflare – which offers similar services to Google Cloud – suffered its own technical problems. That took a whole host of websites down, many of them much larger and more global than the ones affected by this outage, including ChatGPT and X.

In the end, that was traced back to one file. You can read Cloudflare’s explanation here.

At the time, that led to all sorts of conversations about whether the internet is too dependent on a small number of service providers. That’s likely to happen again this time around – though there are plenty of good reasons that it has happened.

Revolut's status page confirms everything is broken

11:38 , Andrew Griffin

Revolut said in its statement that the problems are affecting “multiple services”. But its official “system status” page confirms that covers everything it does.

That’s not just the app itself, but ATM withdrawals and card payments.

All of those services have the same message appearing alongside them.

“We are currently experiencing an incident affecting this service,” it reads. “Our team is investigating and working on a fix. We apologise for the inconvenience and will update the status page as soon as the issue is resolved.”

What services are broken?

11:34 , Andrew Griffin

Revolut remains the main service affected by the outage – both in terms of the number of user complaints, as well as the breadth of them, given that customers are not able to use their cards in stores.

But they are far from alone. This morning, tracking website Down Detector is also showing issues at Rightmove, Royal Mail, Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Sky and DPD.

It’s unclear whether all of those are related to the Google Cloud problems, or connected to each other at all. Down Detector only tracks user complaints, and so they can come any time and for any reason.

(Royal Mail, for instance, is very often flagged as having issues by Down Detector, even when everything else is working.)

Google gives update on cloud problems

11:29 , Andrew Griffin

On an update posted to its “service health” page, which is intended to help the people who rely on its tools, Google says that it is still working on the problem. It does not give any indication of what the issue might be, or when it might be fixed.

But it makes clear that it is “experiencing an issue with multiple services” in Western Europe. “Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue,” it says, with an apology to “all who are affected by the disruption”.

A new update suggests that customers – that is, the websites themselves – might be able to relieve the problem by moving their work onto another location, where Google’s services are operating as usual. But it suggests that may not be “feasible”.

What has Revolut said?

11:27 , Andrew Griffin

Here’s the statement from Revolut on its outages.

"We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services,” a spokesperson said. We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe.

“We’ve been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologise to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused."

Why did the internet just break? Google Cloud outage takes down Revolut and others

11:26 , Andrew Griffin

What do Rightmove, Revolut and DPD have in common? At least one thing: Google Cloud.

The current outage highlights the way that many seemingly disconnected websites and services very often rely on a small number of companies behind the scenes. That comes with a range of benefits – but also dangers, of the kind we’re seeing today.

Here’s a more detailed explainer of what Google Cloud is, and why the web has come to work in this way.

The internet just stopped working properly. Here’s why

Hello and welcome...

11:22 , Andrew Griffin

... to The Independent’s live coverage of a widespread outage that has taken down some of the UK’s biggest websites, apps and companies.