recaptcha

Hi @govisola,

Thank you for reaching out and for clearly outlining what you are experiencing. I can see how receiving repeated emails from Google about reCAPTCHA not being active, even though the badge is visible on your site, would be confusing. Let’s walk through this together.

You are correct that, as outlined in our guide here, https://woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-paypal-payments/fraud-and-disputes/#section-4 seeing the reCAPTCHA badge on your live site typically indicates that it has been implemented correctly on the frontend.

That said, Google’s “not active” emails are usually triggered when there is little or no traffic being processed through the key, or when reCAPTCHA is not being executed on protected forms in a way that generates verification requests in Google’s console. Simply displaying the badge does not always guarantee that Google is detecting active verification events.

Here are a few things you can check:

1. Log in to your Google reCAPTCHA Admin Console and confirm that:
   • The correct domain is added
   • There are recent requests showing under the analytics section
2. Make sure reCAPTCHA is enabled on the specific forms you want to protect, for example checkout or payment forms, and that test submissions are successfully triggering verification.
3. Clear any site or server cache and test again using an incognito browser window to ensure it is actively firing.

If you would like us to take a closer look, please share your System Status Report via https://pastebin.com or https://gist.github.com so we can confirm your configuration. You can find it via WooCommerce, Status, Get system report, then copy and paste it to one of those services. We will be happy to review it and guide you further from there.

Hi there!

Thank you for sharing the details and the System Status Report.

I’ve checked your site and I can confirm that Google reCAPTCHA is enabled and properly displaying on your pages, including the product and checkout pages. Everything appears to be configured correctly from the front end.

To help you further, could you please share a screenshot of the email you received from Google? That will help us better understand exactly what the notification is referring to and whether it’s related to configuration, traffic, verification issues, or something else.

Once we can see the exact message, we’ll be in a better position to guide you accurately.

Hi there!

Thank you for sharing the screenshot.

Although reCAPTCHA is visible on your product and checkout pages, the message from Google indicates that your server is not sending the token verification request back to Google after the form is submitted. This backend verification step is required for reCAPTCHA to function properly.

Since the display part is working correctly, the issue is likely related to how the reCAPTCHA plugin is handling server-side validation.

At this point, I would recommend contacting the support team of the reCAPTCHA plugin you are using. They will be in a better position to check whether the verification request is being triggered correctly and help you resolve the issue.

Please note that in this forum, we only provide support for WooCommerce core features.

Thank you for cooperation and understanding.

Before you go, If you found WooCommerce helpful in setting up your store, we would really appreciate it if you could leave a five-star review:https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/plugin/woocommerce/reviews/#new-post. Your feedback helps us improve and lets other users know how WooCommerce can support their business.

Hi @govisola,

Yes, the Google support forum one.

Just to clarify, could you confirm how you’re using the reCaptcha? Is it via a payment method settings or by another plugin? That way, we can point you in the right direction.

Hi there!

I can understand your concern. I’ve checked the list of plugins you shared, and I’m not able to see any separate plugin that clearly provides Google reCAPTCHA. So at the moment, it’s difficult to determine which plugin is actually handling it.

Could you please provide more details about the exact steps you followed to enable Google reCAPTCHA? For example, was this option available inside a specific plugin’s settings? If so, which one?

Also, could you please try disabling reCAPTCHA and then enabling it again, and monitor whether you still receive the email from Google afterward?

This information will help us better identify where the issue might be coming from.

Hi there!

Thanks for the clarification and for letting us know where you enabled reCAPTCHA.

The option you are using is the WooCommerce PayPal Payments reCAPTCHA integration, which is specifically tied to the PayPal Payments gateway and its related flows (for example, PayPal Smart Buttons and certain checkout actions), rather than a global reCAPTCHA protection for the entire site or all forms. This means:​

• The badge can appear on the page, but Google may still report “not protecting your website” if the verification token is not being sent back to Google on the server side or if it only runs on specific PayPal-related actions.​
• This CAPTCHA feature is built into the PayPal Payments plugin and protects PayPal-specific payment endpoints only. It protects PayPal’s payment endpoints including Advanced Card Processing, so coverage is precise, lightweight, and tailored to PayPal merchants. It works across Classic checkout, Checkout Blocks, and PayPal express buttons.

If reCAPTCHA is legally required for broader site protection (login, checkout, forms, etc.), you may want to use a dedicated reCAPTCHA plugin that protects:

• WooCommerce login
• Registration
• Checkout
• Contact forms

That would generate consistent backend verification requests and stop Google from sending warnings.

Hi there!

Thank you for the update. Since the Google reCAPTCHA feature is provided by the WooCommerce PayPal Payments plugin, could you please create a support ticket with their team here:
https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/plugin/woocommerce-paypal-payments/#new-topic-0

Please include the link to this thread in the ticket so you don’t need to provide all the details again.

Thank you!

Hi there!

You’re very welcome 🙂

Thank you for the update, and that sounds perfect.

In the meantime, if you need any help related to WooCommerce core functionality, please don’t hesitate to let us know we’ll be happy to assist.