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IsItDown

Is GitHub Down Right Now? How to Check and Verify

Check GitHub status, understand common outage patterns, and learn how to verify if GitHub is down for everyone or just you.

By Editorial Team
  • github
  • status
  • down
  • outage

Is GitHub Down Right Now? How to Check and Verify

GitHub hosts millions of repositories and serves as critical infrastructure for software development. When GitHub goes down, development stops. This guide shows how to check GitHub’s current status and determine whether an outage affects everyone or just your connection.

Official Status Page

GitHub maintains a status page at status.github.com. It displays:

  • Operational status by service (Git Operations, API Requests, Issues, Pull Requests, Actions)
  • Recent incident history
  • Maintenance schedules

Check this first. It is the authoritative source.

Third-Party Status Checkers

Our website status checker queries GitHub from multiple global locations. If GitHub responds from Seattle but not from Frankfurt, the issue is likely regional rather than global.

Is It Just You?

If GitHub loads for others but not for you:

  1. Clear browser cache and cookies.
  2. Try a different browser or incognito mode.
  3. Flush DNS: ipconfig /flushdns (Windows) or sudo dscacheutil -flushcache (Mac)
  4. Change DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1
  5. Check your firewall or corporate proxy. Many workplaces block GitHub.
  6. Disable VPN temporarily. Some VPN endpoints trigger GitHub’s security.

Common GitHub Error Messages

  • 500 Internal Server Error: GitHub’s problem. Wait and retry.
  • 502 Bad Gateway: Usually temporary. Refresh in 1-2 minutes.
  • 404 Not Found: The repository or page does not exist.
  • 429 Too Many Requests: You hit the API rate limit. Authenticate or wait.

What to Do During an Outage

  • Do not panic. Outages are usually resolved within minutes to hours.
  • Work locally. Git is distributed. Commit locally and push later.
  • Check the GitHub status page for updates.
  • Communicate with your team via Slack or email instead of GitHub Issues.

Historical Outage Patterns

GitHub experiences minor outages monthly. Major outages affecting all services occur 2-4 times per year. GitHub Actions and Pages have slightly higher failure rates than core Git operations.

Using Our Tool

Bookmark our status checker and query GitHub anytime you suspect an issue. It is faster than navigating to GitHub’s status page and provides global perspective.

The Bottom Line

GitHub rarely goes down globally. Most “outages” are local network or DNS issues. Verify with multiple sources before assuming the platform is broken.