Snapchat is currently experiencing widespread outages due to a major disruption at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which hosts much of Snapchat’s backend infrastructure.
Cause of the Outage
The problem began early on October 20, 2025, when AWS reported “increased error rates and latencies” in its US-EAST-1 region (Northern Virginia). This region is a critical hub for many global online platforms, including Snapchat. The issue has been traced to a problem with AWS’s EC2 internal networking system and DNS resolution for the DynamoDB API endpoint.
Extent of the Impact
Millions of Snapchat users across the United States, the United Kingdom, and other regions reported being unable to log in, send Snaps, or load chats. Downdetector showed over 20,000 outage reports at the height of the disruption. Other major platforms relying on the same AWS services—including Roblox, Fortnite, Coinbase, Venmo, and even Ring—were also affected.
Current Status
As of late October 20, Amazon has reported that its systems are “functioning normally again,” though some residual connectivity problems are still being observed across the network. Snapchat services are gradually recovering but remain unstable for some users.
In short, Snapchat is down because of a large-scale AWS failure that temporarily disrupted cloud services for a wide range of internet platforms worldwide.