[Fix] reCAPTCHA not working in Web Browser

reCAPTCHA is something that you may come across while trying to create a user account, log in or search specific websites on the web, they help computers to know if you are a human or a bot. They are required to prevent systems from being accessed in a malicious way or through automated scripts.

If reCAPTCHA doesn't work on your web browser, or something went wrong with reCAPTCHA when you tried to solve it, you would probably see one of the below messages,

Most Common reCAPTCHA Errors

1. Cannot contact reCAPTCHA. Check your connection and try again.
2. Incorrect response, please try again.
3. Something went wrong with reCAPTCHA
4. Invalid reCAPTCHA
5. Verification expired. Check the checkbox again.
6. Session expired. Please verify again.

Most Common reCAPTCHA Errors for Site Owners

• ERROR for site owner: Invalid domain for site key
• ERROR for site owner: Invalid key type
• Localhost is not in the list of supported domains

Fix reCAPTCHA issues

Try using the Private Window or Incognito Mode

The most quickest and effective solution is to start and new browser session in Private/Incognito mode and try accessing the URL you having problems with CAPTCHA, by doing this it's a fresh session with a clean cache, so this should help.

• Mac Safari: Try File -> New Private Window.
• Google Chrome: Open Incognito Window.
• Micosoft Windows Edge: File -> New InPrivate Window.
• Mozilla Firefox: File -> New Private Window.

Make sure you have a steady internet connection

One other reason why is ReCaptcha not working for you may be that your internet connection is unstable. Try to connect to some other webpages in a new tab to see if your WiFi connection is having internet. You can also try the speed-test website to see if you have good steady internet connectivity.

Try to switch to another Internet connection and try again

This could be an issue with your ISP, so just to test that, try switching to another internet connection option such as your mobile cellular 4G/5G network and another Wifi.

Try accessing the webpage with or without a VPN

This is another option that might help, if you have an option of a Virtual Private Network, try accessing the website with a VPN connection on and see if it fixes the issue. On the other hand, you can also try to turn it off and see if it fixes the ReCaptcha issue. Switching to another new region using VPN servers should help to troubleshoot the issue.

Make sure your browser is up-top-date

It could be that you are using a very old version of the browser, if so please update your browser to the latest version available.

Try to use another web browser

This may sound weird, but you might be using a website that is not supported,

List of Web Browsers supported by reCAPTCHA

Desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac)
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Safari
- Chromium Edge
- IE until 2022 June 15

Mobile
- Chrome
- Safari
- Android native browser

https://support.google.com/recaptcha#6223828

Remove browser Proxy setting

A proxy setting may be blocking access to the server. You can try removing this setting on your web browser or device and check if it helps.

Try another device

If you are using your Desktop/Laptop/Macbook, checking the same URL on your mobile/tablet is not a bad idea!

Disable AdBlocker or other browser extenstions

AdBlockers notoriously blocks JavaScripts on websites that can cause reCAPTCHA not to work, try disabling it and check. If it's not re-captcha, it could be some other extensions on your Chrome, Edge, or an external extension on your Safari for Mac or iOS.

Clear browser cache

If you have tried incognito/private browsing this option might be obsolete, but if you haven't, try clearing your browser cache and check.

Fix reCAPTCHA issues for Developers

Fix: ERROR: Invalid site key

It is most likely that your key has expired or is no longer valid. You will need to register a new key for reCAPTCHA v2 or v3.

Register a new site: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/create

Uncaught SecurityError: blocked a frame with origin https://www.google.com

You might get this error, if the reCAPTCHA widget HTML element is programmatically removed sometime after the user clicks on the reCAPTCHA checkbox, make use of grecaptcha.reset() javascript function to reset the reCAPTCHA widget

Fix: localhost is not in the list of supported domains

As the error message says, localhost is not supported by reCAPTCHA, you can add it to the list of supported domains for development.

Have Questions? Post them here!