Frequently asked questions

Type the address into Website Down Now. We check the site from several locations around the world at the same time. If they can reach it, it’s probably just you — see 10 fixes to try. If they can’t, the site itself is having problems.

We send a request to the site’s home page from our own server and from test locations in the UK, Germany, the United States, Brazil, India, Singapore and Australia, then show you what each one got back and how long it took.

Up: every location got a response. Mixed: some did and some didn’t, which usually points to a regional or network problem. Down: none of our locations got a normal response.

Some websites block or slow down automated checkers, are only available in certain countries, or were briefly unavailable at the moment we checked. Try another check in a minute or two.

The problem is most likely on your side — your browser, device, Wi-Fi, VPN or broadband provider. Our guide Website not loading? 10 fixes to try walks you through it.

A 403 (“Forbidden”) means the server is online and answering — it just refuses automated requests. Many large sites do this to block bots while loading normally for people. See HTTP error codes explained.

Not at the moment. We check whether the website’s server responds at its main address. A site can respond and still have problems with sign-in, checkout or an app.

Only when someone asks. If the same site was checked in the last 60 seconds, we show that result again rather than running a new check. Each site’s page shows its recent check history.

To keep the list useful and appropriate, we leave out addresses that don’t seem to exist and addresses containing offensive or adult terms. You still get the result.

It’s free. We save the address that was checked, the result and the time, but never who ran the check or your IP address. See our privacy notice.