Liputan6.com, Jakarta On Thursday, October 16, 2025, millions of users in the United States and several other regions were affected by a significant service disruption on the digital payment platforms PayPal and Venmo.
The disruption began around 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) and lasted for over an hour, sparking concern among users.
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According to data from Down Detector, a service outage monitoring platform, problem reports for PayPal peaked at nearly 10,000, while Venmo recorded over 8,000 reports at the same time.
The majority of users reported difficulty logging into their accounts, making purchases, or experiencing app errors.
However, PayPal has recently acknowledged a "brief service disruption" that has now been resolved.
What really causes the outage?
Impact on PayPal and Venmo Users
The PayPal and Venmo service outage on October 16, 2025, directly affected millions of users, creating significant disruptions to their financial activities.
85% of reported issues related to difficulties logging into their accounts, while another 7% experienced problems making purchases.
Similar figures were also seen for app errors, which accounted for 7% of the total reports.
Many users were unable to check their balances, view recent transaction history, or even send or request money.
The situation was exacerbated by error messages such as "We're sorry. We're having some trouble completing your request right now. Please try again shortly, and if it persists, let us know."
A heat map released by DownDetector shows that the outage was widespread in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and San Francisco, indicating a large-scale system failure.
PayPal and Venmo Service Resolution
PayPal officially announced that "PayPal and Venmo experienced a brief service outage that has been resolved."
According to Downdetector, the number of problem reports began to decrease significantly around 12:30 PM ET, indicating that service was underway.
At around 1:00 PM ET, the outage appeared to have ended, and most users were able to access their accounts again.
However, some users continued to report access issues and transaction delays for several hours after the official announcement of the restoration.
However, as the outage grew, PayPal eventually updated its status page with a "Production Service Disruption" notification as the outage neared its end, acknowledging issues with the homepage, accounts, Braintree, and Venmo sections.
Interestingly, the PayPal Venmo outage occurred just a day after YouTube also experienced a major outage.
The Outage Isn't the First Time This Year
PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013, making it an integral part of its digital payments ecosystem.
In July 2025, PayPal announced an ambitious plan that PayPal and Venmo users would be able to send money to each other starting in 2026.
This is not the first service disruption experienced by PayPal and Venmo in recent months.
A similar large-scale disruption was also recorded in August 2025, where thousands of users reported failed transactions and delayed fund transfers.