Status check: Go to *workspace.google.com/status** for Google's official status. For a quick user-report check, try downdetector.com/status/google-gemini.*
Gemini's not responding. Or it loaded the interface but every message returns "something went wrong." Or you're a developer and the API is throwing errors your app didn't expect.
Before digging into troubleshooting, it's worth understanding that "Gemini" refers to a few different things that can fail independently. Getting clear on which one you're using changes how you check status.
Understanding What "Gemini" Actually Means
This is more relevant for Gemini than most other AI tools because Google's ecosystem is complicated.
Gemini (gemini.google.com) — The consumer chat interface. What most regular users are accessing when they say "Gemini is down."
Google AI Studio (aistudio.google.com) — The developer-facing interface for testing prompts and prototyping with Gemini models.
Gemini API (via Google Cloud) — The API endpoint used by developers in production applications. Accessible through Google Cloud Console or the Google AI Studio API key system.
Gemini in Google Workspace — Gemini features embedded in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and other Workspace products. These are separate from gemini.google.com and can have independent issues.
These components can go down independently. The consumer chat might work while the API is degraded. Workspace features can have issues while standalone Gemini works fine. Identifying which surface you're using is step one.
Where to Check Google's Official Status
Google's status information is spread across a few places, which is a known frustration.
For Gemini web app and Google AI Studio:
workspace.google.com/status — This is Google's official service health dashboard. It covers most Google consumer and workspace services.
For the Gemini API specifically:
The Google Cloud Status Dashboard (status.cloud.google.com) tracks API infrastructure. For the Gemini API specifically, you can also check the service status in your Google Cloud Console under the AI/ML services section.
For Gemini in Workspace (Gmail, Docs, etc.):
Go to workspace.google.com/status and look at the relevant Workspace products. Gemini features within these apps are tied to the underlying app's status.
The status pages are accurate, but they have a known lag problem — Google is sometimes slow to officially acknowledge incidents that users are already reporting in volume. Which brings us to the second check.
Third-Party Status Checks
Downdetector.com/status/google-gemini aggregates user-submitted reports. The chart shows report volume over time; a sudden spike means a lot of people are experiencing problems simultaneously. This often surfaces before Google's official status page has caught up.
Searching "Gemini down" on X/Twitter is fast and useful — Google's AI products get heavy professional use, and outages generate immediate public commentary.
Gemini API vs. Web App Outages — Why the Distinction Matters
This matters most if you're a developer or if you're using Gemini through a third-party app.
When the Gemini API has issues, it affects:
- Developers calling the API in their own applications
- Third-party tools built on Gemini (there are many — apps that use Google's AI features via the API)
- Google AI Studio (which uses the same API infrastructure)
- Your users, if your product is built on Gemini
When the web interface (gemini.google.com) has issues, it affects:
- People chatting directly on the website
- Gemini app users on mobile
These can fail independently. An API incident might not show up in the consumer chat interface, and a web app deployment issue might not affect the API. If you're debugging an API integration, check Cloud Console status rather than just trying the chat UI.
The March 2026 API Incident — Context for Developers
In March 2026, the Gemini API experienced a notable degradation period affecting developer access and third-party applications. The incident highlighted the dependency chain: applications built on Gemini's API inherit its availability profile, which means API stability matters significantly for anything built on top of it.
Google's incident post-mortems are available in their Cloud Console and status history. Worth reviewing if you're making architectural decisions about how much to depend on the Gemini API for production workloads.
This isn't a reason to avoid Gemini — it's a reason to understand the reliability profile and have a fallback if you're building something that needs high availability.
Is Gemini Down — or Is It Just You?
Signs it's a Gemini outage:
- Status page shows an active incident
- Downdetector spike in reports
- Multiple people across your team or network affected
- HTTP 500 or 503 responses from the API
- Issues started at the same time for many users
Signs it's a local or account issue:
- Status pages show green
- Others can access Gemini fine
- You're getting 401 (auth error) or 429 (quota exceeded) from the API
- Problem appeared after a Google account change or password reset
- Only specific Workspace apps are affected, not gemini.google.com
Common local causes: Google account session issues (try signing out and back in), browser extension interference, VPN blocking Google's endpoints, or quota limits on your API key.
What to Do While Gemini Is Down
The practical fallbacks, depending on your use case:
For general AI chat tasks:
Claude (claude.ai) and ChatGPT (chat.openai.com) both have free tiers that cover most use cases Gemini handles. If you have accounts on either, those are the fastest paths.
For Google Workspace users:
This is the painful scenario — if you rely on Gemini in Docs, Gmail, or Sheets, there's no equivalent embedded tool to switch to during an outage. The workaround is opening Claude or ChatGPT in a separate browser tab and manually copying/pasting content. Clunky but functional.
For developers:
Anthropic's API (Claude models) and OpenAI's API are the most direct substitutes. Both have robust documentation and SDKs. Switching providers for a temporary outage is a bigger lift, which is why a fallback provider is worth setting up in advance if Gemini availability is critical to your app.
How to Get Notified of Future Outages
Google's status pages have email subscription options:
- workspace.google.com/status — click "Subscribe" for email alerts
- status.cloud.google.com — for API/Cloud infrastructure alerts
For API users in production: setting up monitoring and alerting on your own error rates (rather than relying on Google's status page alone) is the reliable approach. A spike in 5xx responses from the API is a more sensitive and faster signal than waiting for official acknowledgment.
Note: This article is about status-checking and outage response. If Gemini is technically operational but not working correctly for you — wrong answers, context issues, prompt failures — that's a different problem. See the Google Gemini troubleshooting guide for those scenarios. And for a direct capability comparison with Claude, the Claude vs. Gemini breakdown goes through the specific differences.
