Meaning & use
go live
Last updated
Meanings
phrasephrasal verbcomputing
To become available for real use or public access, such as a website, system or service starting to operate.
Grammar: No object; the thing that starts is the subject: the site goes live.
Patterns
- something goes live
- something goes live on a date
The new booking site will go live at midnight on Friday.
Our online shop went live last week, and orders came in within minutes.
The team tested the app for a month before letting it go live.
phraseidiom
To start broadcasting or streaming to an audience as events happen, rather than sharing a recording.
Grammar: No object; often followed by a time or platform: go live at eight.
Patterns
- go live on something
- go live at a time
The singer will go live on social media after the concert.
We go live in thirty seconds, so please be quiet.
She went live from the festival to show fans the crowd.
Word forms
| third person singular | goes live |
|---|---|
| past tense | went live |
| past participle | gone live |
| -ing form | going live |
Common combinations
- go live on
- The update goes live on Tuesday.
- about to go live
- The channel is about to go live with a cooking show.
- go live worldwide
- The game will go live worldwide next month.
- go live with
- The bank plans to go live with its new system in spring.
- ready to go live
- Is the website ready to go live yet?
Synonyms and how they differ
- launch
- Launch stresses the deliberate act of starting something, while go live describes the moment it becomes active for users.
- start up
- Start up is broader and can mean beginning any operation, but go live implies public or real use after preparation.
- come online
- Come online focuses on a system connecting to a network, while go live also covers broadcasts and product releases.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: go live or live?
go live vs live
As a verb, live /lɪv/ means to have your home somewhere, but in go live the word is the adjective /laɪv/.
Practice
The engineers fixed the last bug, so the payment system can finally ___ tomorrow.
Choose one answer.
Go live means start real operation, which fits a finished payment system; go over and go through mean review, and go home does not suit a system.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “go live”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.