Google has announced the end of their free and unlimited reCAPTCHA.
This useful and annoying widget has been used for years on many sites to protect against bots. It has helped Google train AI, digitize books and probably gather information on billions of users. Overall a valuable tool and a small price to pay to prevent endless bot spam.
By the end of 2025 all reCAPTCHA keys will have to be migrated into a Google Cloud project. There is still a free tier if you are using less than 10,000 assessments per month otherwise you will be charged. The 10,000 free assessments are counted across all of your projects so unfortunately new projects for different sites/purposes cannot be setup. Side note – as with any Google Cloud project you require a valid credit card on file should you exceed the free tier and incur a charge.
We have always set these up for our clients at no additional charge but now we may have to ask our clients set up in their own Google Cloud accounts, move to a different solution or pay a bit extra to keep using reCAPTCHA on their sites. We will ensure all reCAPTCHA services will keep functioning and notify you if you site is consuming a significant number of assessments.
Read More from GoogleCloudCommunity.com
I predict that in 2026 there will be an explosion of bot spam entering folks websites who don’t update their reCAPTCHAs.
