The popular graphic design platform Canva faced a major worldwide disruption on Monday, October 20, 2025, leaving millions of users—especially marketers, social media managers, and small business owners—unable to access their projects, download finished designs, or utilise the platform’s core features.
The outage, confirmed by Canva, was part of a much wider-reaching incident traced to a massive failure at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The downtime struck at a critical time for many businesses, turning everyday digital workflows into a full-blown crisis for professionals reliant on Canva’s ease of use for their daily content needs.
The Global Design Freeze
Reports of issues with Canva surged on outage trackers like DownDetector starting in the early hours of the day (US Pacific Time/Morning GMT), coinciding with the broader AWS infrastructure problems. Users reported a range of critical failures, including:
- Inability to Access the Platform: Many users were greeted with a “503 – Server error” message, completely locking them out of the website and apps.
- Failed Downloads and Edits: For those who could briefly access the platform, core functions like saving edits or downloading final images and videos were often unsuccessful, preventing the delivery of time-sensitive content.
- Widespread Panic: Social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) were flooded with posts from frustrated users, with many light-heartedly—and seriously—lamenting the halt of their marketing campaigns and content schedules.
The AWS Ripple Effect
Canva’s troubles were quickly identified as a casualty of the ongoing, mass-scale service degradation within the Amazon Web Services US-EAST-1 Region (North Virginia).
As the backbone for a huge portion of the internet, a technical glitch in AWS’s core services, like its key database and computing services, caused a ripple effect that destabilized all cloud-dependent platforms, including Snapchat, Duolingo, and Canva.
Canva acknowledged the situation on social media, posting a statement to users: “Not the ideal situation right now, but we’re working on it. You can check [Canva’s status page] for updates. We’ll keep you posted!” The official status page confirmed the team was actively investigating and working to restore full access.
The Reliability Question
For a platform valued in the billions and used by over 220 million people worldwide, the outage has sparked renewed debate among the creative community regarding server stability and the risks of relying on a single, powerful cloud tool.
The incident highlights a growing vulnerability in the modern digital ecosystem: when a single large cloud provider, like AWS, experiences an internal fault, the disruption can immediately halt global digital activity across a myriad of seemingly unrelated apps.
As AWS engineers continue to work on stabilizing their core services, Canva users are advised to monitor the official status page for updates on when full functionality will be restored.
For many digital creators, this downtime serves as a powerful and inconvenient reminder to have backup strategies for their critical design workflows.
