The reCAPTCHA box is not showing
Updated September 13, 2026
If the reCAPTCHA box does not appear on a form you have enabled, work through the checks below in order. The cause is almost always one of the first three.
Check both keys are saved
The plugin renders nothing at all unless Site Key / ID and Secret Key are both filled in at Settings › reCAPTCHA WooCommerce. A missing or half-saved key pair produces no widget and no error, which makes this easy to overlook.
Check you are not exempt from your own rules
Several settings deliberately hide the box from certain visitors, and an administrator testing their own store usually matches at least one of them:
- Guest Checkout Only hides it at checkout for anyone logged in.
- Whitelist logged-in users skips the check for every logged-in visitor on every form.
- Whitelisted IP Addresses may include the address you are browsing from.
Always test in a private browsing window so you are treated as a genuine guest.
Check the scripts are loading
If the form is somewhere other than the login screen, My Account or Checkout, tick Load scripts on all pages? under Advanced Settings. Without it the widget has no JavaScript to render with.
Open your browser’s developer console on the affected page and look for errors mentioning reCAPTCHA. A blocked, deferred or missing api.js points straight at a caching or optimisation plugin.
Check the domain matches your key
If the widget renders as a box containing an error rather than a checkbox, the site key is not valid for the domain you are on. Add the domain to that key in the Google reCAPTCHA admin console. This is common after moving a site to a new domain or testing on a staging URL.
Check for a second CAPTCHA plugin
Two plugins loading Google’s API script on the same page can interfere with each other, and one may render while the other does not. Deactivate any other CAPTCHA or anti-spam plugin that hooks the same forms and retest.
Check the block checkout layout
On the Checkout block, the widget attaches to a specific block depending on your Widget Location on Checkout setting. If that block has been removed from your checkout page, the widget has nothing to attach to. Switching the setting to Before Payment is the most reliable option.