Google reCaptcha won't be free anymore

#1

Just received an email from Google saying they’ll change a few things around and that there will be a usage limit on their free tier.

It’s unclear if we’ll be able to just have it “break” when we reach that limit or if Google will require us to add payment information and only let us know “how much we used” at the end of each term.

It feels a bit like those AWS services you never know how much will cost because it depends on usage and you can’t prepay and make it stop when reaching a target.

The ones amongst us using their service on our forms and elsewhere might have to adjust a few things, depending on traffic (not my case, but when something becomes chargeable, a few metrics tend to change, like clicks on ads vs organic ones and their conversion likelihood :smirk:).

Be prepared to shell out some money if that feature is important to you and you have enough traffic (or “potential”, you know what I mean…).

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#2

It will remain “Free up to 10,000 assessments per month”

https://cloud.google.com/recaptcha/docs/compare-tiers

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#3

Thanks! I was checking that. The problem is that if we can’t make it stop working instead of being charged when we pass their limits, we might be surprised with “millions of views” out of nowhere, for any given reason. Being that from Google or malicious third parties, which is why the Captcha is there on the first place.

I wonder if that “Essentials” plan means the system just stops working when you reach that limit and you receive a message, or if there’s other consequences. :thinking:

I hope Cloudflare doesn’t start doing the same. :grimacing:

And other mega corporations…

#IDontNeedHeatedSeats :grin:

I might consider upgrading, though (if I can set a maximum per month). :wink:

#5

TBH recaptcha has never ever been 100% free, they just change the uses/tiers occasionally. There are alternatives to recaptcha now and google need to respond to them, lowering prices and free uses, usually.

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#6

Nice. I didn’t know.

I tried Cloudflare’s “silent” version but it did not work so I rolled back to Google.

I didn’t see settings to store cookies to bypass verification for a certain number of days or any method to only show the challenges when really necessary. There’s always a test or, at least, a checkbox to click.

I guess I won’t be able to make my users not have to go through that for now. :slightly_smiling_face:

#7

yes, but I don’t know about this. We need to try another test.

#8

I partially get around this by only loading my recaptcha using [s2Member-Pro-Stripe-Form] sign-up forms if the $_GET variable s2p-option is present. Its easy to implement and only loads a recaptcha if the free membership option is clicked on, rather then every time the page is viewed. This cut down the number of times the recaptcha library is loaded, let alone used, by approximately 85%.

https://www.sciencefictionbookclub.org/join/

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#9

What happens if the usage goes above the limit? Are they able to just send a huge bill later?

#10

https://docs.cloud.google.com/recaptcha/docs/billing-information#how-it-works

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#11

You’re always four steps ahead! Thanks!!!

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Happy to know they’ll message us and that the price isn’t insane if we need it.

I have low traffic but lots of bots / fake registrations retries etc. My security plugins block most, as well as Cloudflare (I think).

How are things going on your own website?

:slightly_smiling_face:

#12

It is useful for me.

#13

TBH if my own site got so busy as to need to pay for recaptcha I’d probably disable sign-ups. And I’ve recently tweaked the signup flow to forward to the mailing list instead of wp member level 0 signup as almost no level 0 members every upgrade. Better to just pop them on the mailing list.

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#14

Don’t you use your level 0 users as your mailing list? I use that database as core and I have multiple categories of users, depending on their history, including demoted etc.

That way I can customize what I write as well.

:thinking:

#15

yeah I did that but almost everyone was joining at the free level 0 just to see the reading list and then not upgrading, so I’ve tweaked the join page’s “:zap: Free HyperMail Newsletter Subscriber (Non-attending)” option to point to the mailing list instead. We’ll see in a few months which one prompts the greatest number of people to join.

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#16

Why not restrict the content visible to Level 1 and above and put a disclaimer for free users?

You can also use s2member to show offers to user depending on how many logins etc.

If people are mostly happy with the book list and not upgrading, maybe moving the list behind your subscription is a valid strategy.