Claude down: Anthropic’s chatbot outage impacting thousands of users on mobile and web

Anthropic’s fast-rising Claude AI chatbot has gone offline across regions after a massive spike in user traffic pushed the app to the No 1 position on Apple’s US App Store over the weekend. Thousands of users reported issues with the Claude web platform, mobile app, and API tools on Tuesday, making it the company’s second major outage in less than 24 hours.

Outage tracker Downdetector recorded over 3,500 complaints within hours, with users in the US, India, and Europe struggling to access Claude’s services. Many were unable to send prompts or receive responses, effectively bringing their work to a halt. Anthropic acknowledged the disruption, stating on its official status page that there were “elevated errors in claude.ai, cowork, platform, and claude code,” and confirmed that engineers were investigating the cause.

The outage follows an unprecedented weekend for the company, which saw Claude’s user base surge after weeks of rapid growth. Anthropic said that free users have increased by over 60 per cent since January, while daily sign-ups tripled since November. Paid subscriptions have also more than doubled in 2026, setting record highs. But that explosive expansion now appears to be testing the platform’s infrastructure.

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Traffic surge, political backlash and Claude’s meteoric rise

Claude’s record-breaking growth coincided with intense political controversy in the US. Just a day before the outage, the Trump administration sought to restrict federal agencies from using Anthropic’s AI models, citing national security concerns. The move came after the company publicly refused to allow its systems to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, a decision that quickly drew political fire.

President Donald Trump lashed out at the company on Truth Social, accusing Anthropic of trying to dictate terms to the Department of Defense. Following that, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for Anthropic to be designated a supply-chain risk, which would prevent US defence contractors from deploying Claude.

Responding to the criticism, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the Department had the right to work with companies aligned with its mission but urged officials to reconsider, highlighting the value of Anthropic’s AI for military efficiency and safety.

Despite the political friction, users flocked to Claude in record numbers. According to Sensor Tower, the app climbed from No 131 on January 30 to No 1 by early March, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The surge reflects growing public interest in Anthropic’s AI assistant, fuelled in part by its ethical stance and transparent approach to AI deployment.

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Uncertain recovery timeline

As of Tuesday evening, Claude’s services remained partially down in several regions. Anthropic has not shared an official timeline for restoration, but users continue to report issues accessing the chatbot hours after the first disruptions began.