SSL Certificate Lifecycles Are Shortening: What You Should Know

Shorten period? New Industry changes from March 12

SSL certificates will be limited to a maximum validity of 199 days, regardless of the original order. Existing certificates will remain valid until their expiration. For any reissues, new certificates will also be issued for a maximum of 199 days

SSL/TLS certificates once lasted upwards of five years; now, they have 398-day lifespans. But that’s going down--they are on track to expire every 47-days by 2029. While having to update SSL/TLS certificates more often seems like a pain, the industry is making this change to improve security. As the industry moves toward shorter SSL certificate lifecycles, the pressure mounts on organizations to manage certificates efficiently while facing existing challenges like reliance on legacy systems and resource constraints. Adopting SSL/TLS certificate automation, such as through the ACME protocol, provides an option for companies of any size or budget to reduce administrative burdens associated with manual SSL management while improving their overall security.

Why Are SSL Certificates Getting Shorter?

The push for 47-day certificates is driven by security and agility. Shorter certificate lifetimes limit the risk from compromised keys or mis-issued certs. If a certificate (or its private key) falls into the wrong hands, a shorter validity window means the rogue certificate won’t be useful for long. As a byproduct, this move pushes organizations to adopt automation.

Frequent renewals also ensure domain ownership remains accurate. As companies change or abandon domains, revalidating domain ownership information more often helps prevent misuse by unauthorized parties. Apple's phased plan gradually reduces both certificate validity and domain control validation reuse, tightening security at every stage.

Will I Need to Buy SSL Certificates More Frequently?

No, you won’t have to buy a new SSL certificate every 47 days. It’s important to clarify that shorter certificate validity does not mean you’ll need to purchase SSL certificates more frequently. Whether you buy a one-year or multi-year SSL certificate, it remains valid for the full term. The reduced validity period means you’ll need to reissue and reinstall the certificate as often as monthly, but reissuing a certificate is free—there's no additional cost required.

There’s no additional financial cost for these reissues—but it does introduce more manual work, greater complexity, and the potential for human error. That’s where automation comes in.