How to find out whether AWS is actually down right now

AWS (Amazon Web Services) does not have a single status page you can call or text. Instead, you check the AWS Service Health Dashboard, which is the official place AWS posts outages and maintenance windows. Go to status.aws.amazon.com in your browser — this page shows every AWS region and service, with a green checkmark if it is running normally or a yellow or red indicator if something is wrong.

The dashboard updates in real time as AWS engineers work on problems. If you see red on a service you use, that is the authoritative answer: that service is down in that region. AWS also posts updates to the same page explaining what went wrong and when they expect it to be fixed, though the timeline is often "we are investigating" for the first hour or two.

If you cannot reach status.aws.amazon.com itself, AWS infrastructure may be so severely damaged that even their status page is down. In that case, check Twitter or AWS's official blog — AWS posts major outages there when the dashboard is unreachable.

Key Takeaways

  • The AWS Service Health Dashboard at status.aws.amazon.com is the official source for outage information and shows which services are down in which regions.
  • AWS outages vary by region and by service, so a problem in us-east-1 does not mean your application in eu-west-1 is affected.
  • During an outage, AWS updates the dashboard with status changes and estimated repair times, though early estimates often change as engineers learn more.
  • If the dashboard itself is unreachable, check AWS's Twitter account (@AWSstatus) or their official blog for updates on major incidents.
  • Most AWS outages last between 30 minutes and 2 hours, though rare events can take longer.

Understanding AWS regions and why your service might work while others do not

AWS runs data centers in multiple regions around the world — us-east-1 (Northern Virginia), eu-west-1 (Ireland), ap-southeast-1 (Singapore), and many others. When AWS has an outage, it usually affects only one region or one service within a region, not the entire company.

This matters because if you built your application to run only in us-east-1 and that region goes down, your application is offline. But if you built it to run in both us-east-1 and us-west-2, and only us-east-1 fails, your application keeps running on us-west-2. The dashboard shows you which regions are affected, so you can tell whether your specific setup is down.

When you check the dashboard, look for the region where you deployed your application, then look for the specific service you use — EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, or whatever it is. A green checkmark means that service is working in that region. A yellow or red indicator means it is not.

What to do while you wait for AWS to come back

If AWS is down and you run a business or website on it, your first move is to tell your customers what is happening. Post on social media, send an email, or put a message on your website saying "We are experiencing an outage due to AWS infrastructure issues. We are monitoring the situation and will update you when service is restored." This prevents customers from thinking your company is broken.

Your second move is to check the dashboard every 5 to 10 minutes. AWS updates it as they make progress, and you want to know the moment service starts coming back. Some services recover before others — you might see S3 come back online while EC2 is still down, for example.

Do not restart your application or try to "fix" it yourself during an AWS outage. The problem is not on your end. Restarting will only waste time and might make things worse if AWS is in the middle of recovering. Wait for the dashboard to show green, then restart if you need to.

How AWS communicates about outages and maintenance

AWS sends outage notifications through the AWS Personal Health Dashboard, which is different from the Service Health Dashboard. The Personal Health Dashboard shows only events that affect your specific account and services. You can turn on email notifications so AWS emails you when something affecting your account starts or ends.

To set this up, log into your AWS account, go to the Personal Health Dashboard, and enable notifications. AWS will then email you when an outage begins and when it is resolved. This is useful if you want to know immediately rather than checking the dashboard yourself.

For planned maintenance, AWS usually announces it weeks in advance on the Service Health Dashboard. Planned maintenance is scheduled during low-traffic windows and usually lasts less than an hour. AWS tries to do this during times when fewer customers are using the service, but if you run something 24/7, you will still be affected.

Why AWS outages happen and how often they occur

AWS outages fall into two categories: planned maintenance and unexpected failures. Planned maintenance is when AWS updates hardware, patches software, or upgrades infrastructure. These are announced ahead of time and usually last 30 minutes to 2 hours. Unexpected failures happen when hardware fails, a software bug causes a cascade, or a misconfiguration takes down part of the system.

Major AWS outages that affect many customers are rare — they happen a few times a year across all of AWS globally. Smaller outages that affect one region or one service happen more often, maybe once a month or once every few months depending on the region. Most outages last under an hour. A few last several hours, and very rare ones last longer.

AWS publishes a post-incident report after major outages, explaining what went wrong and what they are doing to prevent it next time. These reports are worth reading if you want to understand how AWS infrastructure works and what kinds of failures are possible.

What to do if you think AWS is down but the dashboard says it is not

Sometimes your application is offline but the AWS dashboard shows green. This usually means the problem is not with AWS infrastructure itself — it is with your application, your configuration, or your network connection.

Check these things in order: First, verify you can reach the dashboard itself. If you can, AWS infrastructure is working. Second, check whether your application is running in a region that is actually affected. Third, look at your application logs to see what error message it is throwing. Fourth, check whether you have hit a quota or rate limit on your AWS account — AWS will silently reject requests if you exceed your limits.

If the dashboard is completely unreachable and you cannot reach any AWS service, then AWS infrastructure may be so severely damaged that even their status page is down. In that case, wait 15 to 30 minutes and try again. This almost never happens, but when it does, there is nothing you can do except wait.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if AWS is down in my region specifically?

Go to status.aws.amazon.com and look for your region in the list. Each region shows the status of all services running there. If you see a yellow or red indicator next to your region, something is wrong there. If your region shows all green, AWS is working normally in that location.

Will AWS notify me automatically when an outage starts?

Only if you set up the Personal Health Dashboard and enable email notifications in your AWS account. The Service Health Dashboard does not send notifications — you have to check it yourself. Setting up the Personal Health Dashboard takes five minutes and is worth doing if you run anything important on AWS.

What is the difference between the Service Health Dashboard and the Personal Health Dashboard?

The Service Health Dashboard shows all AWS outages and maintenance for all customers. The Personal Health Dashboard shows only events that affect your specific account and the services you use. Personal Health Dashboard is more useful if you want to know whether an outage actually impacts you.

How long do AWS outages usually last?

Most outages last between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Planned maintenance is usually on the shorter end. Unexpected failures vary — some are fixed in 15 minutes, others take 4 to 6 hours. Very rare outages have lasted a full day, but this is uncommon.

Can I do anything to prevent AWS outages from taking down my application?

Yes — run your application across multiple AWS regions so that if one region goes down, another region keeps it running. This requires more setup and costs more money, but it makes your application resilient to regional outages. Most businesses that cannot afford downtime use this approach.