Paypal and Venmo recovering after major outage — live updates
Users struggled to use the payment apps, and some were downright scared, but it's slowly coming back
And we're back!
According to PayPal's status page, all systems are back to normal. The Down Detector reports agree, with PayPal hovering around 900 reports and Venmo down to around 1,000.
Generally, when there's an outage like this, we see some straggler reports keep coming in for a while, but it's safe to say that this outage is just about over.
The worst is over
Both major payment services seem to be coming back to normal, which is great for those who were struggling to send payments or access their money. If you were locked out of either app, this is a good time to try again and see if it works.
And now PayPal acknowledges it...
Just as the outage appears to be coming to a close for most users, PayPal finally updated its status page with a "Production Service Disruption."
The status page shows issues with the homepage, Account and Venmo portions of the service, though they me be resolved at this point based on the Down Detector report numbers.
"We are experiencing a system issue that may be impacting Homepage, Account, Braintree, Venmo in our Production Environment," reads the status page. "Our technical teams are actively working towards resolving the issue."
Better late than never.
Huge drop
PayPal has seen a sudden drop in reports, getting down to less than half of its 9,000+ peak. As of this post, Down Detector is showing about 4,000 reports.
With how quickly it's dropping, it's likely that this is the end of this massive PayPal and Venmo outage that negatively impacted thousands of users.
Is it over?
Lots of users are taking to the Down Detector comments section to report they were able to login to PayPal and Venmo again, which means the outage is over, at least for them.
It's unclear at this time whether everything is fully restored or if it's just some users getting lucky, so we'll continue to monitor the situation.
A small but notable PayPal drop
Finally, after what feels like hours, PayPal has finally seen its first drop in reports. Sure, the number is still incredibly high, but at least we're seeing a slight decrease.
In case you missed it...
We ran a poll to see if PayPal or Venmo were working for anyone on the live blog and more than 2,000 people voted that it wasn't while only seven were having success using either service.
The poll is still going and can be seen above, so feel free to let us know what's happening on your end.
Get those coins soon
Not all problems are life-ruining, thankfully. Some users, like the one in the screenshot above, just want to play their games and get some coins with the money in the Venmo account.
Venmo seeing a small drop, not PayPal
The first small downturn has happened in the PayPal and Venmo outage. Sure, there are still thousands of reports coming in, but at least the graph is dropping a bit.
Definitely not operational
While the PayPal status page shows all systems operational, user reports clearly differ (as does the company's own customer service on social media).
User distress
As always, users are having serious reactions to this outage. And in this case, it makes more sense than others, as people with money sitting in their PayPal and Venmo accounts are unable to access it, which can be scary.
"PayPal needs to figure this out, it's BS quite literally manipulating people's money and their lives," said a user on Down Detector.
Based on previous outages like this, PayPal and Venmo are almost assuredly working hard to get it back up and running as soon as possible. Hold tight if you can!
PayPal alternatives
If you need to send money right now and can't wait for PayPal and Venmo to come back, check out some alternatives:
- Apple Pay: great for Apple users with iPhones and iPads. Very easy to use.
- Cash App: popular service that functions a lot like Venmo for sending payments.
- Zelle: built into many banks and very easy to use
PayPal also answered
Thank you for reaching out to us. We understand the inconvenience you are facing at the moment. Please be assured that our team is working on the ongoing issue and will try to resolve it at the earliest.October 16, 2025
"We understand the inconvenience you are facing at the moment. Please be assured that our team is working on the ongoing issue and will try to resolve it at the earliest," said PayPal on X.
Venmo response on X
Hi there! Thank you for reaching out to Venmo. We understand the inconvenience you are facing at the moment. Please be assured that our team is working on the ongoing issue and will try to resolve it at the earliestOctober 16, 2025
A user complained about the outage to @VenmoSupport, and the company responded saying: "Please be assured that our team is working on the ongoing issue and will try to resolve it at the earliest."
Still on the rise
Those report numbers are positively massive for PayPal.
'We're sorry'
A user in the Down Detector comments quoted the error message they've received:
"We're sorry.
We're having some trouble completing your request right now. Please try again shortly, and if it persists, let us know."
If you're seeing this or a similar error message when trying to get into PayPal or Venmo, now that you're not alone!
Reached out to PayPal
I've emailed PayPal to see if they have a comment on the issue and will come back with a new post if/when the company gets back to me. Hopefully they answer (or update the status page) so we can get a better idea of what's happening.
Are either working for you?
Are you able to access either payment platform? Let us know in the poll above.
The reports keep going up!
When we started noticing that something was wrong with PayPal and Venmo, the reports were around 3,000. Now they're in the 5,000 to 6,000 range, which is among the highest we've seen.
No official status
PayPal hasn't reported any official issues with its services yet on its status page, so we'll have to wait and see when more information comes from PayPal or Venmo.
Either way, based on the thousands of reports from Down Detector, we're confident that something is wrong.
