Using reCAPTCHA on localhost

Update

The original answer is no longer correct. The developer's guide now states:

"If you would like to use "localhost" for development, you must add it to the list of domains."

This will only work if you access localhost using 127.0.0.1/... rather than localhost/....

The original answer is preserved below.

According to the reCAPTCHA Developer's Guide:

"localhost domains are no longer supported by default. If you wish to continue supporting them for development you can add them to the list of supported domains for your site key. Go to the admin console to update your list of supported domains. We advise to use a separate key for development and production and to not allow localhost on your production site key."

In other words, simply use the same key.

When you add domains in Google reCAPTCHA:

Add new domain:

Localhost, not localhost

"L" is a capital letter.

As of January 2nd, 2021, Google posted these two keys for testing in this article.

I'd like to run automated tests with reCAPTCHA. What should I do? For reCAPTCHA v3, create a separate key for testing environments. Scores may not be accurate as reCAPTCHA v3 relies on seeing real traffic.

For reCAPTCHA v2, use the following test keys. You will always get No CAPTCHA and all verification requests will pass.

Site key: 6LeIxAcTAAAAAJcZVRqyHh71UMIEGNQ_MXjiZKhI
Secret key: 6LeIxAcTAAAAAGG-vFI1TnRWxMZNFuojJ4WifJWe

The reCAPTCHA widget will show a warning message to ensure it's not used for production traffic.

The generated emails went into spam the first time I used the keys.

Remove the current reCAPTCHA key, register the new key, and set your key settings with these domains:

127.0.0.1
localhost

reCAPTCHA will not work on localhost/.

Use 127.0.0.1/ instead of localhost/.

To your domains list of Google reCAPTCHA websites (https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/site/{siteid}/settings), add LOCALHOST.

If the above doesn't work, try adding 127.0.0.1 too.

1. Register your website at https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin

2. Add the JavaScript plugin

3. Add the class and your site key provided by Google

   

localhost works now. However, remember that after adding localhost to list of domain names, it takes up to 30 minutes to take effect (according to the help tip shown against the domain names list).

I was recently working on creating a website involving reCAPTCHA v2 and I had a need to do test automation on my localhost. I did not add any IP address or localhost into the reCAPTCHA administration portal.

Follow the below steps

1. Log in to the reCAPTCHA administration site. Screenshot

2. Locate Key Settings

3. Click on advanced settings

4. Under Domain Name Validation, uncheck Verify the origin of reCAPTCHA solutions checkbox. This option is used to verifying requests coming from one of the above listed domains.

   Please note that, if disabled, you are required to check the hostname on your server when verifying a solution.

I created a new key, disabled this, and used this key for testing in localhost.

This is a sample page which implements reCAPTCHA for comments.

As of today in 2021, the Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise version console includes a validation check that does not allow addition of localhost to the list of allowed domains. To get around this (obviously only for development/testing purposes) doing the following works for me:

1. Create an entry in your hosts file that resolves your domain to your localhost

   127.0.0.1    whatever-your-domain-will-be.com
   

2. Test your application not by navigating to localhost, but rather by navigating to your domain.

My local server/app would normally run at http://localhost:4000, so navigating to http://whatever-your-domain-will-be.com:4000 did the trick.

Once deployed or testing is complete it's easy enough to remove the hosts file entry and there is no lingering trash in the reCAPTCHA allowed domains list.

For testing purposes, if you want to test your web page which includes reCAPTCHA on localhost, then add localhost in the domain list by the Admin Console 2: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin. *It is advised to create a separate site key for localhost.

Admin Console Screenshot

CAPTCHA Output

The way that worked for me, was to use my external IP address.

If you don't know what it is, just google "What's my IP"

Then use your IP address and set this in your domains for the captcha and it should start working OK.

If you are using Laravel then you should restart your server and run the following two commands:

php artisan config:clear

php artisan cache:clear

I got an error related to reCAPTCHA on a Laravel website. I resolved it by using some commands and with an env file and previous answers will also help in this problem.

First of all, check the env file (in your case, the file which has the Google reCAPTCHA key) for the Google reCAPTCHA key.

Second, run these commands:

1. php artisan config:clear
2. php artisan cache:clear
3. composer dump-autoload
4. php artisan view:clear
5. php artisan route:clear

It will solve your problem.

For me, it worked deleting my actual configuration and creating a new one, adding domains like this:

Quick answer

Do get requests on Recaptcha in your backend rather than frontend