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PayPal and Venmo were down — Live updates on the resolved outage

Users trying to send and receive funds had problems

What is Venmo
(Image: © Venmo)

Two of the most popular online payment platforms in PayPal and Venmo, were down.

Both services are owned by the same parent company, so having both down at the same time made a lot of sense.

The outage started at around 8:45 a.m. ET with Down Detector reports quickly jumping to around 1,000 and then dropping from there, with some small spikes along the way.

On the PayPal status page, a Service Disruption ran for a few hours in the Retail Checkout and Reporting portions of the service.

Venmo doesn't have an official status page, but a section for Venmo is listed on the main PayPal status page, and it was marked as Operational throughout the whole outage.

Venmo and PayPal were down — live outage updates

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PayPal's official statement

PayPal reached out with a statement. It doesn't tell us much, but is the first official acknowledgement of Venmo being down that we've received.

"PayPal and Venmo experienced a temporary interruption this morning that has since been resolved," said a PayPal spokesperson.

Finally over

Cash in hand

The Venmo reports have finally reached a level low enough where we can consider the outage done. Anything could change if things go sideways, but it appears that PayPal and Venmo have resolved the situation. Payments should process normally, allowing you to pay your rent.

Oddly, Venmo reports still up

Down Detector reports

(Image credit: Down Detector)

Interestingly, Venmo is still showing a relatively high number of reports on Down Detector despite PayPal never officially acknowledging it. It peaked at 920 reports and is currently at 544, which is a decent amount for an unacknowledged outage that's supposed to be over.

Everything except Reporting is back

PayPal status

(Image credit: PayPal)

According to PayPal's status page, everything is Operational except reporting, which is listed as under a Service Disruption.

Both still showing signs of an outage

Down Detector reports

(Image credit: Down Detector)

Down Detector is showing a steady decline in reports; however, some users are still experiencing issues with PayPal and Venmo.

PayPal and Venmo alternatives

money

If you're one of the people experiencing issues with PayPal and Venmo today, there are alternative payment services you can use to make your rent payment (or any other necessary payments). I will say that Venmo appears to be working fine for me, so you may have different experiences depending on luck, it would seem.

If you want to try the alternatives, here's a rundown of the best online payment tools to try:

  • 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

No news from PayPal

PayPal status

(Image credit: PayPal)

PayPal's status page last updated at 9:39 a.m. ET, which is an hour ago. Hopefully, the company will post something soon, allowing users of the popular payment platforms to have a better idea of when to expect the service to be fully operational.

On rent day!

Down Detector comments

(Image credit: Down Detector)

It's the first of the month, which means a lot of users are trying to pay and receive rent through PayPal and Venmo, as noted in the comment from a user on Down Detector. If you're trying to pay rent (or are a landlord trying to collect), perhaps wait a few hours for this outage to slow down.

Nothing on Venmo social media

Venmo hasn't posted anything on social media regarding the outage, with the company's last post being about astrology (there's nothing new in the Replies section, either). The same goes for Venmo's support X account.

Staying steady

Down Detector

(Image credit: Down Detector)

Venmo is hanging steady with around 792 reports as of this writing.

PayPal with an update

PayPal logo on a smartphone against a blurred background

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

PayPal posted a small update about the outage, though it doesn't really reveal much:

"We are still observing impact to Retail Checkout, Online Checkout and Braintree in our production Environment.

Our Technical teams are actively investigating and working to mitigate the impact as quickly as possible. We will continue to provide updates as the situation progresses."

Interestingly, Venmo is nowhere to be found in the update.

An uptick

Down Detector reports for PayPal

(Image credit: Down Detector)

PayPal reports were dropping fast, but they've since seen a small uptick again, leading us to believe that this outage could last for a bit.

Users left with questions

An X post

(Image credit: @emperorrachel_ on X)

Some users have started taking to X if something is wrong with Venmo. While the official status page still shows Venmo as working fine, the number of Down Detector reports and user complaints says otherwise.

Reports dropping a little

Down Detector reports

(Image credit: Down Detector)

The Venmo user reports are starting to drop slightly, but not enough for us to say the problem is resolved just yet, especially with PayPal's status page still showing an outage.

Venmo still showing operational

PayPal status page for Venmo

(Image credit: PayPal)

Venmo hit higher outage reports on Down Detector than but it isn't being acknowledged by PayPal, with its status still listed as "Operational" on the status page.

A system issue...

PayPal status page

(Image credit: PayPal)

On its status page, PayPal says it's experiencing an issue with Retail Checkout and Braintree.

"We are experiencing a system issue that may be affecting PayPal Online Checkout in our production environment," reads the page.

The Venmo and PayPal outage begins

Down Detector outage for Venmo

(Image credit: Down Detector)

Venmo and PayPal are used by thousands of individuals and businesses to send and receive money, so being down can cause significant issues.

As of this post, Venmo currently has 921 users reporting issues on Down Detector, and PayPal has 742.