Gmail, YouTube down as Google suffers outage

Google users around the world have been unable to access their Gmail accounts, watch YouTube videos or get to their online documents during an outage overnight.

Tens of thousands of complaints popped up about 11pm AEDT, majority from the US, Europe and India.

The vast majority of those people, about 90 per cent, could not log in, according to the site Downdetector.

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The inability to sign in prevented users accessing other platforms through Google, including mobile video games.

The disruption was an early jolt on the East Coast of the US for parents who were waking children up for school Monday.

Millions of students are relying on Google for online instruction during the pandemic, including platforms like Google Docs.

The problem appeared to have been cleared up just before 8am local time (midnight AEDT).

"The problem with Gmail should be resolved for the vast majority of affected users," said Google's parent company, Alphabet, at 7.52am.

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"We will continue to work towards restoring service for the remaining affected users."

Downdetector, which tracks website outages, reported the problem affected users across the world, but appeared especially widespread in the northeastern US, Britain and other parts of Europe. Japan, Malaysia and India also looked to be more affected.