diff --git a/src/service/server_backoff.rs b/src/service/server_backoff.rs
index aa1f3857..0cfe39a7 100644
--- a/src/service/server_backoff.rs
+++ b/src/service/server_backoff.rs
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ use std::{
 
 use rand::{thread_rng, Rng};
 use ruma::{OwnedServerName, ServerName};
-use tracing::{debug, instrument};
+use tracing::{debug, info, instrument};
 
 use crate::{services, Error, Result};
 
@@ -169,6 +169,12 @@ impl BackoffState {
         let delay = Duration::from_secs_f64(delay_secs);
         delay.checked_sub(last_failure.elapsed())
     }
+
+    /// Returns whether this server is marked as online (no backoff delay).
+    fn is_online(&self) -> bool {
+        let config = &services().globals.config.federation.backoff;
+        self.failure_count <= config.failure_threshold
+    }
 }
 
 impl BackoffGuard {
@@ -176,6 +182,7 @@ impl BackoffGuard {
     #[instrument(skip(self))]
     pub(crate) fn success(self) {
         let mut state = self.backoff.write().unwrap();
+        let was_online = state.is_online();
 
         if state.failure_count != 0 {
             debug!(
@@ -185,6 +192,11 @@ impl BackoffGuard {
         }
 
         state.failure_count = 0;
+
+        if state.is_online() != was_online {
+            let server_name = &state.server_name;
+            info!(%server_name, "server transitioned from offline to online");
+        }
     }
 
     /// Record a failed request indicating that the server may be unavailable.
@@ -196,6 +208,7 @@ impl BackoffGuard {
         let config = &services().globals.config.federation.backoff;
 
         let mut state = self.backoff.write().unwrap();
+        let was_online = state.is_online();
 
         if state.last_failure == self.last_failure {
             state.failure_count = state.failure_count.saturating_add(1);
@@ -208,6 +221,11 @@ impl BackoffGuard {
                 failure_count = state.failure_count,
                 "hard failure sending request to server, incrementing failure count"
             );
+
+            if state.is_online() != was_online {
+                let server_name = &state.server_name;
+                info!(%server_name, "server transitioned from online to offline");
+            }
         }
     }