Pay My Park was unable to be used before coming back online around 1pm.
"If you have parked and are unable to pay due to this fault, your parking is free for the maximum stay allowed.
"Please note, the maximum stay in the area you are parked does still apply," Dunedin City Council customer services said in an email.
In some carparks, such as the one beside the Dunedin Railway Station, the maximum period is all day.
A DCC spokesman said the provider of the PayMyPark app suffered an IT outage and the service was temporarily unavailable nationwide.
"Our parking officers will not be issuing infringement notices for non-payment while the outage continues, but will be chalking tyres and ticketing those which overstay the maximum time limit for their park," the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the app was using a backup server so may be slower to load this afternoon.
