Cash App and Square down? Payment services are 'steadily' recovering after hours-long outages

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands Cash App and Square customers were unable to access their accounts or send money Thursday and early Friday due to system outages impacting both payment services.

Outage reports for both platforms picked up around the same time Thursday afternoon, according to data from outage tracker Downdetector. In the hours following, numerous customers took to social media to share error messages and frustrations about not being able to access their money.

“Since around noon PT (3pm ET) on Thursday, sellers have been unable to access accounts or process payments due to a systems outage within Square,” Square wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, shortly before 7am ET Friday. “We know you trust us with your business, and these situations add challenges to running your operations. For that, we are truly sorry.”

In a later update to its online status portal, Square said that its services were “steadily regaining their functionality” Friday morning.

Cash App similarly reported some service recovery Friday. As of around 7:30 a.m. ET, Cash App said that customers could once again add cash, make purchases with their Cash Card and buy Bitcoin. But not all services had fully returned yet.

“We're continuing to get the ability to send payments and cash out back up and running,” Cash App wrote on its status page Friday morning. On Thursday night, the payment service urged those experiencing issues to “not reattempt any actions such as sending and receiving payments.”

Block Inc., a San Francisco-based tech company formerly known as Square Inc., is the parent of both Cash App and Square. The payment services are widely used by small businesses, donation drives and everyday payments between consumers.