Starting Feb 24, 2026, GeoTrust SSL certificates will be limited to a maximum validity period of 199 days. This is the first phase of the industry-wide reduction of SSL/TLS certificate validity mandated by the CA/B Forum—with the goal of reducing certificates to a maximum of 47 days by 2029.
What This Change Means for Your Organization
- All publicly trusted GeoTrust server certificates issued on or after Feb. 24 will be valid for no more than 199 days.
- This change impacts all SSL/TLS certificates:
- domain validation (DV)
- organization validation (OV)
- extended validation (EV)
- You can keep buying the same products, but you must reissue each SSL/TLS certificate twice as often.
- Employing SSL automation (included with your GeoTrust certificate) can remove the task of manually reissuing and reinstalling basic certificates from your to-do list.
How GeoTrust Is Smoothing the Transition to Shorter SSL Validity
At GeoTrust, we’re committed to easing the move to shorter certificate lifespans for our customers. To facilitate this, we’re offering the following solutions and services with every GeoTrust certificate:
SSL Certificate Automation
- AutoInstall SSL® is the easiest way for small businesses to set their certificate renewal and installation tasks on autopilot.
- ACME, included with all GeoTrust SSL certificates, is compatible with most popular web servers and environments. Use ACME to handle certificate reissuances, renewals, and installations automatically using any ACME agent.
Certificate Reissue Notices
If automation isn’t the best option for your use case, no worries. We’ll continue sending certificate reissuance reminders ahead of your certificate’s expiration to help you avoid certificate-related downtime and service outages.
Why These Changes Are Happening
The idea behind the shift to shorter certificate lifespans is that it will make certificates more secure by encouraging SSL automation and more frequent key rotation. Reducing the validity period of a compromised certificate’s key reduces its associated risks and future impacts.
To learn more about SSL/TLS certificate lifespan reductions that will occur over the next few years, read DigiCert’s blog post.