Is Spotify Down?

What our check can see, and what it can’t

Spotify works like a relay. Your phone has to reach your Wi-Fi or carrier, that network has to reach Spotify, Spotify has to hand your app a streaming server, and your account has to say you’re allowed to play. A failure at any link feels identical from the couch: a spinning wheel and silence.

When we pointed our own server at Spotify for this update, the first surprise was the homepage. Requesting spotify.com/us/ didn’t return a page at all. It returned a permanent redirect to the web player. The previous version of this checker treated that redirect as “inconclusive,” which meant it could never report an all-clear. We fixed it by following the redirect’s address and counting any hop that stays inside spotify.com as a live reply.

We also added two checks that sit closer to what the apps do. In our testing, Spotify’s Web API answered an unsigned request with a 401 “missing token” error in under a tenth of a second, which is exactly what a healthy API should say to a stranger. The second, apresolve.spotify.com, is the directory the apps ask for a streaming server; it returned a list of servers in about 80 milliseconds. If either of those stops answering while the web pages load fine, the problem is likely deeper than a website hiccup.

How recent Spotify disruptions actually played out

On April 29, 2026, reports began climbing around 8 a.m. ET and passed 4,000 before most people had finished breakfast; by midday the count had dropped below 100. On May 12, the @SpotifyStatus account acknowledged app problems, and many people couldn’t sign in at all. On May 18, Downdetector logged more than 10,000 reports by late afternoon on the West Coast, most of them about the mobile app. A smaller wave on July 27 hit the web player.

The quieter problems are easier to miss. Spotify’s own Ongoing Issues board logged downloads disappearing after an app relaunch in February, paying subscribers stuck on the free tier in March, Chromecast and other Spotify Connect speakers dropping out in May, and Android playback failures in June. None of those would show up as a global outage, and a checker that only pings Spotify’s homepage would call every one of them “up.”

Fix it in this order

The order matters because the last step costs you something. Work down the list and stop when the music starts.

1. Read the live check. Red on the Web player, Sign-in, or App connections rows means wait. Green means keep going.
2. Look for an official note. Scan @SpotifyStatus and the Ongoing Issues board for your device or feature.
3. Swap one thing at a time. Try the web player, then another device, then cellular instead of Wi-Fi. The first swap that works tells you where the fault is.
4. Restart, then update. Fully close Spotify, restart the device, and install any app or system update.
5. Reinstall only as a last resort. It clears the app’s cache but also deletes every download, so do it on Wi-Fi with time to re-download.
6. Contact Spotify support. Have the time it started, your device model, and a screenshot of any error ready.

What Spotify Premium costs and what you get

Spotify raised U.S. prices in early 2026, its third increase since mid-2023. New subscribers paid the new rates right away and existing ones moved over at their February billing date. Here’s what spotify.com listed for the U.S. when we checked it for this review:

Two details people miss. Duo and Family both require every member to live at the same address. And on Duo and Family, the audiobook hours belong to the plan manager only, not to everyone on the plan.

If you’re weighing a backup service

A second service as a standby rarely makes sense at these prices. Switching does, if outages keep landing on the things you rely on. The biggest difference is on family plans, where Spotify is now among the most expensive.

Run the household math before you move. A family switching from Spotify Family to Apple Music Family saves $2 a month, or $24 a year. A student on Spotify’s $6.99 plan who also watches Hulu is probably already on the best deal in the table.

Refunds, canceling, and your rights

Spotify’s refund policy is short. If you cancel Premium, you keep it until the end of your billing period and then drop to the free tier. It doesn’t list outages as a reason for a refund. It also can’t refund gift cards bought in a store (return those to the store) or Premium billed through a partner such as a phone carrier.

Audiobooks are the exception worth knowing. Spotify says you can ask for a refund on an audiobook purchase made in the last seven days if you’ve heard less than half of it, and its refund page adds that disrupted or lost audiobook listening time may qualify too. If an outage ate hours you paid for, ask.

To cancel, open your account page, choose Manage your plan, then Cancel subscription. On Duo or Family, only the plan manager can cancel; a member who follows the same steps just leaves the plan. If the cancel option isn’t there, your plan is billed by a partner, and you’ll find their contact link under Payment on the same page.

Translate outage times to your clock

News coverage of Spotify outages usually quotes Eastern Time, which gets confusing fast if you’re in Denver or Honolulu and trying to match a report to what happened on your phone. Tap the button and we’ll place you on the U.S. time-zone map and convert the numbers. Your location stays in your browser; nothing is sent to our server.