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How to check if a website is down (or if it’s just you)

Updated 31 October 2026

When a website won’t load, there are really only two possibilities: the site itself has a problem, or something between you and the site does — your device, your browser, your Wi-Fi or your internet provider. Working out which one it is saves a lot of wasted time.

1. Run a check from outside your network

Type the address into Website Down Now. We request the site from our own server and from locations in the UK, Germany, the United States, Brazil, India, Singapore and Australia at the same time. Because those requests don’t go through your connection, they show whether the site works for other people.

2. Read the verdict

• Up — every location got a response. The site is working, so the problem is almost certainly on your side. Go to our guide Website not loading? 10 fixes to try.
• Mixed — some locations got through and some didn’t. This usually means a regional or network problem, such as one data centre or one internet route having trouble.
• Down — none of our locations got a normal response. The problem is at the site’s end, and there isn’t much you can do except wait.

3. Look at the details

Under the verdict you’ll see the result from each location. Two things are worth noticing:

• The status code. A number like 200 means “OK”. Codes in the 500s mean the server is having trouble. Our guide HTTP error codes explained covers the common ones.
• “Failed” or “Timed out”. The location couldn’t connect at all, or waited too long. If every location says this, the site may be offline — or the address may not exist.

4. Double-check the address

A surprising number of “down” websites are simply typos. If every location says the site couldn’t be reached, check the spelling and the ending (.com, .co.uk, .org and so on).

5. Look for an official status page

Many large services publish a status page, often at an address like status. followed by their domain, or post updates on their official social media accounts. These can tell you whether the company already knows about a problem and when it expects a fix.

6. Know the limits of any checker

An outside check tells you whether a site’s server is answering. It can’t log in for you, so a site can look “Up” while one part of it — such as sign-in, checkout or an app — is broken. Some sites also block automated checks, which can make them look worse than they really are. If our result and your experience disagree, trust both: the site may be partly working.