New Delhi, November 13, 2026: A major technical outage affecting Microsoft 365 services has disrupted access for users worldwide. The disruption, which began on November 12, has affected Outlook, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams and several other services across more than 70 countries. Meanwhile, Google's artificial intelligence platform Gemini has not reported any comparable widespread outage.

According to international media reports, the disruption began on Thursday afternoon, November 12, US Eastern Time, corresponding to late Thursday evening in India. The initial problems were primarily linked to Exchange Online, with several other Microsoft services experiencing difficulties because of their dependence on the email infrastructure.

Which Microsoft Services Are Affected?

Outlook and Exchange Online have been among the hardest-hit services. Users have reported difficulties accessing their mailboxes, sending and receiving emails, and signing into their accounts. These problems have affected web browsers, desktop applications and mobile devices.

Microsoft Teams has also experienced disruptions, particularly with calendar functions and meeting scheduling. However, basic messaging and video meetings have continued to work for many users.

Other services reportedly affected include SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot, OneDrive, OneNote, Microsoft To Do, Planner, Intune, Defender XDR, Defender for Office 365 and certain Microsoft Purview services.

According to reports, Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure has largely remained operational. The outage has affected both personal and business users of Microsoft 365, although the extent of disruption varies between services.

Nearly 140,000 Outlook Complaints Recorded

Outage-monitoring website Downdetector recorded a sharp increase in complaints related to Outlook, with reports reaching approximately 130,000 to 140,000 at one point. This was thousands of times higher than normal reporting levels.

Although complaint volumes declined by Friday, thousands of users continued reporting problems with Microsoft services.

Microsoft 365 serves hundreds of millions of users worldwide. The disruption has reportedly affected businesses, government departments, educational institutions, banks and courts that depend on Microsoft's communication and productivity tools.

Some services and integrations involving OpenAI and Anthropic have also reportedly experienced related difficulties because of their connections with Microsoft systems.

What Caused the Microsoft 365 Outage?

Microsoft said the disruption began when a large number of servers unexpectedly became unavailable. This shifted additional workloads onto the remaining infrastructure, placing those systems under increased pressure and affecting their ability to respond to users.

The company explained that a process responsible for handling secure connections became overwhelmed on affected servers. The problem was not caused by an overall increase in normal internet traffic.

Microsoft has stated that there is no indication of a cyberattack or malicious activity behind the outage.

The company has attributed the disruption to technical problems affecting its server infrastructure.

Microsoft Working to Restore Services

Microsoft has been taking several steps to restore affected services, including restarting servers, redirecting traffic through alternative routes and improving infrastructure capacity.

The company has also introduced alternative server health checks to identify and address problems affecting its systems.

According to reports available on November 13, some regions have experienced partial recovery. However, the improvements have not been consistent, as certain servers have become unresponsive again after being restored and placed under increased workloads.

Microsoft has not announced a confirmed timeline for complete restoration of all affected services.

Users may continue experiencing delayed emails, login failures, intermittent connectivity and temporary service interruptions while recovery work continues.

Is Google Gemini Also Down?

Unlike Microsoft 365, Google's artificial intelligence platform Gemini has not experienced any confirmed widespread global outage of a similar scale.

According to service-monitoring platforms, the Google Gemini application and its API have generally remained operational.

Some individual users have reported slower responses, temporary errors and occasional difficulties accessing the service during the past 24 hours. However, the number of complaints has remained relatively low and does not indicate a major global disruption.

Based on the available reports, Google Gemini continues to operate normally for most users.

How to Check the Latest Microsoft 365 Service Status

Microsoft 365 users can check the company's official Service Health page for information about ongoing disruptions and recovery efforts.

Updates are also available through the Microsoft 365 Status account on X, formerly Twitter.

Incident references EX1550543 and MO1550821 have appeared in reports concerning the disruption.

Microsoft continues working to restore affected services. As the situation remains subject to change, users are advised to follow official company updates for the latest information about service availability.