Dev Tools
AWS Cognito
AWS's user authentication and identity management service for adding sign-up, sign-in, and access control to web and mobile apps.
What is AWS Cognito?
AWS Cognito is Amazon's fully managed user identity service, launched in 2014 to give developers a way to add sign-up, sign-in, and access control to web and mobile applications without building authentication infrastructure from scratch. It manages two distinct concepts: User Pools, which handle authentication and user management directly, and Identity Pools (formerly Federated Identities), which exchange authentication tokens — from Cognito User Pools or third-party providers like Google and Apple — for temporary AWS credentials that grant access to other AWS services. That credential vending function makes Identity Pools critical infrastructure in many mobile application architectures.
Because Cognito is a foundational AWS service, it is woven into the authentication layer of an enormous number of production applications across every industry. Many of the mobile apps, SaaS products, and serverless applications running on AWS use Cognito as their user management layer, often without their end users knowing the name. When Cognito has a regional service degradation, it can simultaneously affect thousands of independent applications across that region — users trying to log into unrelated apps all hit authentication errors at the same time, with no single application operator having control over the root cause.
Cognito outages are characterised by authentication failures that cascade immediately to end-user experience. User Pool sign-in returning 5xx errors prevents users from logging in to any app using that pool. Token refresh failures sign users out mid-session on mobile apps. Identity Pool credential exchanges failing break any application that grants users direct access to S3, DynamoDB, or other AWS services through temporary credentials. Triggers — Lambda functions attached to Cognito events for custom authentication logic — can also fail independently, causing sign-up or sign-in flows to hang.
Outage.gg monitors AWS Cognito service status with real-time community reports. If authentication is broken across your application, the live status page will show whether it is a regional AWS incident.
Common AWS Cognito Problems
Issues users most frequently report when AWS Cognito is having problems.
Login failures
Players are unable to sign in, receiving authentication errors or being stuck on loading screens.
Matchmaking problems
Unable to find or join matches, long queue times, or errors when trying to connect to game servers.
Disconnections mid-session
Getting unexpectedly kicked from active sessions, losing in-game progress or items.
In-game store & purchases
Cannot load the in-game store, complete purchases, or received items are not appearing in inventory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about AWS Cognito outages and server status.
You can check the live AWS Cognito server status at outage.gg/services/aws-cognito. The page shows real-time community-submitted outage reports, an hourly trend chart, and the current health status.
AWS Cognito can stop working for a number of reasons including scheduled maintenance windows, unexpected server failures, network infrastructure problems, or DDoS attacks. Check the live status page on Outage.gg for the latest community reports to see if others are experiencing the same issue.
Go to outage.gg/services/aws-cognito and click the "Report an Issue" button. Your report is counted immediately and helps confirm whether a problem is widespread. Reports from multiple users trigger a status change visible to everyone watching the page.
Click the "Notify Me" bell button on the AWS Cognito status page at outage.gg/services/aws-cognito. Create a free account and we will send you an email the moment AWS Cognito comes back online — no app download required.
Many services maintain official status pages with planned maintenance notices. Outage.gg aggregates real-time community-reported outages which often surface faster than official channels.
Related Services
Other services you might be tracking alongside AWS Cognito.
