Partial Google Outage Hits Gmail, Drive & Gemini—What’s Going On?

July 18, 2025: A widespread partial outage is affecting multiple Google services, including Gmail, Google Drive, Gemini, and other Workspace tools, with disruptions reported globally since around 11:15 a.m. ET on July 18.

According to outage-tracking site Downdetector, thousands of users began experiencing problems simultaneously. Of those affected, 44% reported services stuck on endless loading screens, 30% were unable to log into Gmail, and 26% couldn’t perform basic Google searches.

Ripple Effect Hits Third-Party Platforms

The outage appears to be linked to issues within Google Cloud, which powers a wide range of services beyond Google’s own. As a result, other major platforms relying on Google Cloud — including Zoom, Discord, Shopify, Spotify, and Pokémon Go — have also reported performance problems or downtime.

Affected Google Services

In addition to Gmail and Drive, users reported disruptions in:

• Google Docs
• Google Meet
• Google Nest devices
• Gemini AI assistant, which experienced instability and service interruptions

Google Responds

Google has acknowledged the outage and confirmed that its engineering teams are actively investigating the root cause. However, no estimated time for a full restoration has been provided as of this update.

Frustrated users have taken to X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and other platforms to express concern over how the outage is impacting productivity, communication, and entertainment.

This marks one of the more significant cross-service Google disruptions in recent memory, particularly due to its impact on widely used third-party services.