Is Vercel Down? Developer's Guide to Handling Deployment & Hosting Outages (2026)

by API Status Check

TLDR: Check if Vercel is down at apistatuscheck.com/api/vercel. Learn how to diagnose Vercel deployment and edge network issues, and set up fallback hosting so your site stays online during platform outages.

TLDR: When Vercel goes down, check vercel-status.com and apistatuscheck.com/api/vercel. Build resilient hosting with multi-region deployments, static fallback pages, and alternative deployment targets (Netlify, Cloudflare Pages) so production stays up even when Vercel's edge network or dashboard fails.

Your site just started returning 500 errors. Deployments are stuck. The Vercel dashboard won't load. If your production app runs on Vercel, an outage means your users see errors, your deploys queue up, and you're stuck refreshing the status page.

Vercel outages are rare but memorable — the October 2025 disruption caused cascading failures across deployments, dashboards, and APIs. Here's how to confirm it's Vercel, respond immediately, and build a hosting strategy that survives platform-level incidents.

Is Vercel Actually Down Right Now?

Before you start debugging your Next.js app, confirm it's a Vercel issue:

  1. API Status Check — Vercel — Independent monitoring with response time history
  2. Is Vercel Down? — Quick status check with 24h timeline
  3. Vercel Official Status — Vercel's Statuspage
  4. Downdetector — Vercel — Community-reported outages

Understanding Vercel's Architecture

Vercel has multiple independent systems. Different components fail differently:

Component What Fails User Impact
Edge Network (CDN) Static assets don't load, 502/504 errors Full site down
Serverless Functions API routes return 500, timeouts Dynamic features break
Build Pipeline Deployments stuck/fail, queue backlog Can't ship updates
Dashboard/API Can't manage projects, view logs Operations blocked
DNS Custom domains don't resolve Complete outage for your domain
Edge Config/KV Feature flags, config reads fail Degraded functionality
Analytics/Speed Insights Tracking stops No user impact

Key insight: Vercel's edge network and build pipeline are separate systems. Your live site can be perfectly fine while deployments are broken (and vice versa). Always check both.

The October 2025 Incident: Lessons Learned

Vercel's most significant outage (October 20, 2025) was a cascade: an AWS us-east-1 disruption triggered a failure in Vercel's feature flag provider, which then took down the control plane — dashboard, APIs, builds, and log processing. Production traffic serving was largely unaffected because it runs on the edge, independent of the control plane.

Takeaway: Vercel's production serving is more resilient than its build/management layer. Your live site is safer than you think during most "outages."

----|---------|-------------| | FUNCTION_INVOCATION_TIMEOUT | Serverless function exceeded time limit | Usually YOUR code | | EDGE_FUNCTION_INVOCATION_FAILED | Edge function crashed | Could be either | | 502 Bad Gateway | Upstream connection failed | Likely Vercel | | 504 Gateway Timeout | Function didn't respond in time | Could be either | | DEPLOYMENT_NOT_FOUND | Domain pointing to deleted deploy | YOUR config | | NO_RESPONSE_FROM_FUNCTION | Function returned nothing | YOUR code | | INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR on all routes | Platform-level issue | Likely Vercel | | Build: Command "next build" exited with 1 | Build failure | YOUR code |

Rule of thumb: If ONE route errors, it's probably your code. If ALL routes error simultaneously, it's probably Vercel.

Resilience Patterns for Vercel-Hosted Apps

1. Static-First Architecture

Vercel's static CDN is the most resilient layer. Maximize what's served statically:

// next.config.js — Push as much to static as possible
module.exports = {
  // Generate pages at build time
  output: 'standalone', // Self-contained output
  
  // ISR: Static pages that revalidate in the background
  // If Vercel's serverless is down, stale-while-revalidate
  // serves the last good version
}

// page.tsx — ISR gives you resilience for free
export const revalidate = 3600 // Revalidate every hour

export default async function ProductPage({ params }) {
  const product = await fetchProduct(params.id)
  return <ProductView product={product} />
}
// If the revalidation fails (Vercel serverless down),
// users still see the last cached version. Zero downtime.

Why this matters: During the October 2025 outage, statically generated pages continued serving normally. Sites with heavy serverless dependencies were more affected.

2. Client-Side Fallbacks for API Routes

Don't let a serverless function outage break your entire UI:

// hooks/useResilientFetch.ts
export function useResilientFetch<T>(url: string, fallback?: T) {
  const [data, setData] = useState<T | null>(fallback ?? null)
  const [error, setError] = useState<Error | null>(null)
  const [isStale, setIsStale] = useState(false)

  useEffect(() => {
    const controller = new AbortController()
    const cacheKey = `fetch_cache:${url}`

    async function fetchData() {
      try {
        const res = await fetch(url, {
          signal: controller.signal,
          // Short timeout — fail fast if Vercel functions are down
          signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000),
        })
        
        if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`)
        
        const json = await res.json()
        setData(json)
        setError(null)
        setIsStale(false)
        
        // Cache successful responses
        sessionStorage.setItem(cacheKey, JSON.stringify({
          data: json,
          timestamp: Date.now()
        }))
      } catch (err) {
        setError(err as Error)
        
        // Serve cached data on failure
        const cached = sessionStorage.getItem(cacheKey)
        if (cached) {
          const { data: cachedData } = JSON.parse(cached)
          setData(cachedData)
          setIsStale(true)
        }
      }
    }

    fetchData()
    return () => controller.abort()
  }, [url])

  return { data, error, isStale }
}

// Usage
function Dashboard() {
  const { data, error, isStale } = useResilientFetch('/api/stats', { visits: 0 })
  
  return (
    <div>
      {isStale && <Banner>Showing cached data — live updates temporarily unavailable</Banner>}
      <StatsView data={data} />
    </div>
  )
}

3. Multi-Region Deployment Strategy

Vercel automatically deploys to the edge, but your serverless functions run in one region by default:

// vercel.json — Spread functions across regions
{
  "regions": ["iad1", "sfo1", "cdg1"],
  "functions": {
    "api/critical/*.ts": {
      "maxDuration": 10,
      "memory": 1024
    }
  }
}

4. Health Check Endpoint

Monitor your own deployment:

// app/api/health/route.ts
export async function GET() {
  const checks: Record<string, boolean> = {
    serverless: true, // If this runs, serverless is working
    timestamp: true,
  }
  
  // Test database connectivity
  try {
    await db.query('SELECT 1')
    checks.database = true
  } catch {
    checks.database = false
  }
  
  // Test external dependencies
  try {
    const res = await fetch('https://api.stripe.com/v1', {
      method: 'HEAD',
      signal: AbortSignal.timeout(3000),
    })
    checks.stripe = res.status !== 503
  } catch {
    checks.stripe = false
  }
  
  const healthy = Object.values(checks).every(Boolean)
  
  return Response.json(
    { status: healthy ? 'healthy' : 'degraded', checks },
    { status: healthy ? 200 : 503 }
  )
}

When Deployments Are Stuck

Build pipeline outages are the most common Vercel issue. Your live site works fine, but you can't ship updates:

Emergency Deploy Alternatives

# If Vercel's build pipeline is down but edge is fine:

# 1. Build locally and deploy the output
npx next build
npx vercel deploy --prebuilt

# 2. Use a previous working deployment
npx vercel rollback [deployment-url]

# 3. Promote a preview deployment to production
npx vercel promote [preview-deployment-url]

Deployment Queue Management

# Check deployment status
npx vercel ls --limit 10

# Cancel stuck deployments
npx vercel rm [deployment-url]

# Force a fresh deploy (skip cache)
npx vercel --force

The "Vercel Is Down" Checklist

  1. Check apistatuscheck.com/api/vercel — confirm the outage
  2. Check vercel-status.com — which components are affected?
  3. Test your live site directly — static pages may still work
  4. Check if it's regional — test from different locations
  5. If builds are stuck:
    • Don't queue more deploys (they'll pile up)
    • Use vercel rollback if you need to revert
    • Build locally with vercel deploy --prebuilt as escape hatch
  6. If production is down:
    • Check if it's YOUR code or Vercel (one route vs all routes)
    • Enable maintenance mode if you have one
    • Communicate with users via a different channel (Twitter, status page)
  7. After recovery:
    • Clear the deployment queue
    • Verify webhooks/integrations reconnected
    • Check edge config / environment variables propagated

Alternatives During Extended Outages

For critical applications, have a warm standby:

Fallback Setup Switchover Time
Cloudflare Pages Deploy same repo ~5 min (if pre-configured)
Netlify Connect same Git repo ~10 min
AWS Amplify Pre-configured pipeline ~15 min
Self-hosted Docker container on Fly.io/Railway ~20 min

The practical move: Deploy your static export to a second provider as a read-only fallback. next export + Cloudflare Pages = free insurance.

Get Notified Before Your Users Do

Don't find out about Vercel outages from your error tracking:

  1. Bookmark apistatuscheck.com/api/vercel for real-time status
  2. Set up Discord/Slack alerts via API Status Check integrations
  3. Subscribe to vercel-status.com for official updates
  4. Monitor your /api/health endpoint — your own signal is always fastest

Vercel's edge network is remarkably stable. Most "Vercel is down" situations are actually build pipeline issues or serverless cold starts. Architect your app to lean on the static layer, and outages become deployment inconveniences instead of production emergencies.

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