Quickstart: Migrating from reCAPTCHA

This quickstart shows you how to migrate from reCAPTCHA (non-Enterprise version) to reCAPTCHA Enterprise by using an active site key. The migration process takes approximately 5-10 minutes to complete and requires no code changes.

If you currently access the reCAPTCHA Admin console, then you are using the non-Enterprise version of reCAPTCHA, which has limited functionality and strict limits on monthly usage. For more information about the features comparison, see Comparison of features between reCAPTCHA versions.

After the migration, you become a user of reCAPTCHA Enterprise and you are charged when you exceed 1,000,000 requests per month. For more information, see reCAPTCHA Enterprise pricing.

To migrate, you must have an active site key. If you do not have an active site key, you cannot migrate using this method. You can set up reCAPTCHA Enterprise by choosing an appropriate setup method.

Before you begin

  1. In the Google Cloud Console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to project selector

  2. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to confirm that billing is enabled for your project.

    reCAPTCHA Enterprise requires billing to be linked and enabled on the project to access the API. You can enable billing by using either a credit card or an existing Google Cloud project billing ID. If you require assistance with billing, contact the Cloud Billing Support.

  3. Install and initialize the Cloud SDK.

Enabling the reCAPTCHA Enterprise API

  1. In the Cloud Console, go to the reCAPTCHA Enterprise API page.

    Go to reCAPTCHA Enterprise API

  2. Verify that the name of your project appears in the project selector at the top of the page.

    If you don't see the name of your project, click the project selector, then select your project.

  3. Click Enable.

Migrating to reCAPTCHA Enterprise

Migrating from a non-Enterprise version of reCAPTCHA to reCAPTCHA Enterprise involves choosing an active site key from the reCAPTCHA Admin console and migrating the site key. You can migrate one or more active site keys. However, you can migrate only one site key at a time.

To execute the migration process, you must have a reCAPTCHA user account that satisfies the following requirements:

  • In the reCAPTCHA Admin console, the user account is listed as an owner for the site key you want to migrate.
  • The user account has the reCAPTCHA Enterprise Admin (roles/recaptchaenterprise.admin) IAM role for the Google Cloud project for which the reCAPTCHA Enterprise API is enabled. If your user account doesn't have this role, ask your administrator to grant the role, or follow the instructions on Granting, changing, and revoking access.

To migrate an active site key to reCAPTCHA Enterprise, do the following:

  1. To configure authentication, run the following gcloud command:

      gcloud auth login

    Log in with the reCAPTCHA user account that owns the chosen site key and has the reCAPTCHA Enterprise Admin role.

  2. Choose and copy an active site key that you have used to integrate reCAPTCHA with your web pages:

    1. Go to the reCAPTCHA Admin console and click .

    2. Choose a site key. The following reCAPTCHA site keys are supported for migration: reCAPTCHA v2 Checkbox, reCAPTCHA v2 Invisible, and reCAPTCHA v3.

    3. To copy the site key, click Copy site key.

  3. Migrate the site key by using the reCAPTCHA Enterprise API.

    Before using any of the request data below, make the following replacements:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the Google Cloud project for which the reCAPTCHA Enterprise API is enabled.
    • SITE_KEY: the active site key that you copied from the reCAPTCHA Admin console.

    HTTP method and URL: 

    POST https://recaptchaenterprise.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/keys/SITE_KEY:migrate

    To send your request, choose one of these options:

    curl

    Execute the following command: 

    curl -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer "$(gcloud auth print-access-token) \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
    -d "" \
    https://recaptchaenterprise.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/keys/SITE_KEY:migrate

    PowerShell

    Execute the following command: 

    $cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
    $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

    Invoke-WebRequest `
      -Method POST `
      -Headers $headers `
      -Uri "https://recaptchaenterprise.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/keys/SITE_KEY:migrate" | Select-Object -Expand Content

    You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

    {
  "name": "projects/PROJECT-ID/keys/6Ldqgs0UAAAAAIn4k7YxEB-LwEh5S9-Gv6IIWB8m",
  "displayName": "My site key",
  "webSettings": {
    "allowAllDomains": false,
    "allowedDomains": [
      recaptcha.net
    ],
    "allowAmpTraffic": false,
    "integrationType": "SCORE",
    "challengeSecurityPreference": "CHALLENGE_SECURITY_PREFERENCE_UNSPECIFIED"
  }
}

  4. To verify that the site key is migrated, go to the reCAPTCHA Enterprise page and find the migrated site key in the list of keys.

    Go to reCAPTCHA Enterprise

After migrating to reCAPTCHA Enterprise, you can continue to use the siteverify method to assess a user's reCAPTCHA response token.

Clean up

You can revoke the reCAPTCHA Enterprise Admin (roles/recaptchaenterprise.admin) IAM role from your reCAPTCHA user account. You can either ask your administrator to revoke the access, or follow the instructions on Granting, changing, and revoking access.

What's next