X was briefly down for thousands — here's how the outage unfolded

A major spike

As described above, we've just seen a dramatic influx of users reporting issues with X.com, with over 14000 registered around 11 a.m. ET (3 p.m. UK time, as shown in the graph above).

Tom's Guide staff experiencing X.com issues

While I'm getting up to speed on the potential X.com outage, I asked my TG colleagues to check if they were experiencing issues, and the first one to jump in with an answer was Computing Managing Editor Jason England, who supplied the below screenshot showing he's not able to access his feed:

StatusGator reports potential outage, too

Alongside DownDetector, I also checked StatusGator, and, likewise, it also indicates that there are potential problems with the platform, too, with user reports indicating issues like the app not loading or receiving error messages.

Looks like there are X.com issues across the US

Turning back to DownDetector once again, I pulled up their heat map, which indicates they're receiving reports from users across the US, with particular hotspots in major cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Over 25,000 reports now

Reports continue to pour in; last time DownDetector's data refreshed, it was displaying over 26,000 reports of issues with the platforms. Seems like this must be a widespread issue.

Dropping rapidly already

Almost as quickly as that spike started, it's dropped significantly; we're already back down around 14,600 user reports.

Just a blip?

Looks like whatever potential issue there may have been (if there was one) could be dealt with. I'm continuing to see the spike trending back down: we're already under 1000 reports once again, and colleagues are telling me they are seeing their X.com feeds once more. Just a blip?

Anecdotally, I did see other users asking whether there were issues with the platform on Reddit, too.

Almost back to normal

With Down Detector now showing fewer than 500 reported issues with X, it's safe to call today's outage resolved. That said, we'll continue to monitor the numbers and update you if things take a sudden turn in the opposite direction.

Happy tweeting!

All clear

Thanks for following our live coverage of today's X/Twitter outage. With reported issues remaining well under 1,000 for the past ~30 minutes, things seem to be largely back to normal.

Feel free to stop by the gift shop on your way out to pickup a limited edition "I survived the great X/Twitter outage of March 18, 2026" t-shirt and other accessories.