A Authorize.net outage is not something you can fix, but how you respond in the first 15 minutes decides how much it costs you. This guide covers confirming the outage, limiting the damage, and keeping customers informed.
How do I confirm Authorize.net is actually down?
Check two independent sources before changing anything in your store. First, StatusBird's live Authorize.net status page, which is based on independent checks every 2 minutes. Second, Authorize.net's own status page at status.authorize.net. If the official page still shows green, do not assume you are wrong: vendors often acknowledge incidents well after they start. If both look clean, the problem is more likely your store's configuration or a specific integration.
What does a Authorize.net outage look like?
- Checkout returns gateway error or transaction could not be processed messages
- Payment step hangs and times out after customers submit card details
- Completed orders drop sharply while traffic remains normal
- Merchant Interface login or virtual terminal unavailable
- Recurring billing charges failing or reporting errors
What breaks in your store
An Authorize.net outage stops payment authorization at your checkout: customers get gateway errors or timeouts when submitting card details, and orders cannot complete. Recurring billing charges scheduled during the outage may fail or be delayed, and stored-profile payments through CIM stop working. If you take phone or mail orders through the virtual terminal, those halt too. Any payment method routed through a different provider, such as PayPal Standard, keeps working.
For context, Authorize.net has had no major incidents in the last 90 days of StatusBird's independent monitoring (100.0% availability), so a real outage is unusual. That makes it easy to mistake one for a problem on your end, which is why confirming first matters.
What to do during the outage
- Check status.authorize.net to confirm the outage and its scope.
- Enable an alternate payment method not routed through Authorize.net, such as PayPal, so some customers can still complete orders.
- Post a notice at checkout that card processing is temporarily down and to retry shortly or use the alternate method.
- Log failed-checkout customers so you can send a recovery email with a checkout link once processing resumes.
- After recovery, reconcile gateway transactions against store orders to catch charges that succeeded without an order record.
Frequently asked questions
Does an Authorize.net outage take down my entire checkout?
It takes down the card payment step, which for most stores is the whole checkout unless you offer another provider. Cart, shipping, and tax steps still load; the failure happens when the customer submits payment. A separately integrated method like PayPal continues to work.
Were my customers double charged from retries during the outage?
Failed authorizations do not create settled charges, but repeated attempts can leave temporary pending holds on customers' cards that drop off within days. After recovery, review the Merchant Interface for any duplicate approved transactions from retries and void or refund them before settlement.
After the outage
Once Authorize.net recovers, verify the affected workflows end to end rather than trusting the status page. Note the start and end times while they are fresh: if you are on a paid Authorize.net plan with an SLA, documented downtime is what a service credit claim is built on. See how to claim SLA credits for the process.
How this data is measured
StatusBird checks Authorize.net's status every 2 minutes, around the clock, independently of the vendor. The availability figure counts major and critical outages only; minor degradation is excluded so numbers are not skewed by vendors that report small blips near-continuously. Grades run from A+ to F. See the live numbers on the Authorize.net reliability page and current status on the Authorize.net status page, or browse all 84 service grades.
Know before your customers do
StatusBird monitors Authorize.net and 83 other services online stores depend on, plus your own storefront, every 2 minutes. When something goes down you get an SMS, email, or Slack alert with plain-English context, usually before the official status page catches up. Start monitoring free, no card required for the free plan.