---
title: Captcha stage
description: This stage verifies a response variable populated in state by the reCaptcha mechanism. If the response is missing, or if validation fails (typically, if the configuration does not include the required reCaptcha configuration parameters), the stage throws a bad request exception. If validation succeeds, the process advances to the next stage.
component: pingidm
version: 7.5
page_id: pingidm:self-service-reference:stages/stage-captcha
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingidm/7.5/self-service-reference/stages/stage-captcha.html
keywords: ["JSON", "Configuration", "Authentication", "Self-Service", "User Self-Service", "CAPTCHA"]
---

# Captcha stage

This stage verifies a `response` variable populated in `state` by the reCaptcha mechanism. If the response is missing, or if validation fails (typically, if the configuration does not include the required reCaptcha configuration parameters), the stage throws a bad request exception. If validation succeeds, the process advances to the next stage.

* Example configuration

  ```json
  {
      "name" : "captcha",
      "recaptchaSiteKey" : "6LdahVIUAAAAAJcwGTWdl4OsG9tpdgFIyZKUSzyU",
      "recaptchaSecretKey" : "6LdahVIUAAAAANF-O17E-b8PyBqLrhLaOHUX8ch-",
      "recaptchaUri" : "https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify"
  },
  ```

* Dependencies

  No dependencies on previous or following stages. This stage can occur anywhere in a process.

* Required Parameters

  * `recaptchaSiteKey` - invokes the reCAPTCHA service

  * `recaptchaSecretKey` - authorizes communication between IDM and the reCAPTCHA server to verify the user's response

  * `recaptchaUri` - the reCaptcha verification API