Is Google Down Right Now?
Google going down feels impossible — until it happens. Because Search, Gmail, YouTube, Drive and Maps share core Google infrastructure, a single auth or networking failure can break them all at once, as the world learned in December 2020.
Test Google's live status below. Unlike most services, Google also publishes an official status dashboard for Workspace products, linked further down.
Checking Google…
Common reasons Google goes down
Authentication system failures
Google's single sign-on underpins nearly everything. The December 2020 outage — about an hour of global disruption — was caused by an authentication system failure.
Networking and load-balancing faults
Misconfigurations in Google's vast network have briefly made Search or Gmail unreachable in whole regions.
Individual product incidents
Sometimes only Gmail or only Drive breaks while Search is fine. Product-level bugs don't always mean “Google is down”.
Local DNS or browser issues
If google.com fails but everything else loads, try another DNS provider — Google's domains are a common casualty of DNS misconfiguration.
What to do when Google isn't working
- Run the live Google check above from our independent server.
- Open Google's Workspace Status Dashboard (linked below) for official per-product status.
- Test in an incognito window to rule out extensions and cached logins.
- Try a different DNS (e.g. 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1) — DNS faults love to break Google first.
- Check whether it's just one product (Gmail down, Search fine) vs. everything.
- Auth-related global outages have historically been fixed within about an hour.
Google — frequently asked questions
Is Google down right now?
The live check at the top tests google.com directly from our server. For Gmail, Drive and other products, also check Google's official status dashboard.
Is Gmail down or is all of Google down?
They can fail independently. A Gmail-only problem is usually product-specific; if Search, YouTube and Gmail all fail together, it's core infrastructure.
Where is Google's official status page?
Google publishes the Workspace Status Dashboard covering Gmail, Drive, Meet, Calendar and more, with incident history.
Why does Google load but search not work?
That pattern points to a Search-specific backend issue or a browser/extension conflict — try incognito mode first.
How long do Google outages last?
Google's scale means most incidents are contained fast; the December 2020 global auth failure lasted roughly an hour.