Add a Signup Form to Your Website
We automatically create signup forms for your audience. Learn how to embed a signup form on your site. And find out which third-party sites accept Mailchimp forms.
Get the job done with a pro
From training to full-service marketing, our community of partners can help you make things happen.
About reCAPTCHA for Signup Forms
Copy Article URL
Copied
We do our best to include tools in Mailchimp that will help protect you from scammers and spambots. Google reCAPTCHA is a challenge-response test intended to prevent spambots from adding fraudulent emails to your audience.
In this article, you'll learn about different types of reCAPTCHA and how they're used in Mailchimp.
About reCAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA is a system designed to tell humans and computers apart, so bots can't fill out forms maliciously on behalf of a human. The CAPTCHA acronym stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
In Mailchimp, reCAPTCHA helps prevent bots from adding fake or malicious email addresses to your audience. There are two types of reCAPTCHAS: checkbox and invisible.
- Checkbox
This type of reCAPTCHA requires new subscribers to check an "I'm not a robot" box. If you've enabled double opt-in and use an embedded or pop-up form, this will appear after your subscriber clicks the link in the opt-in confirmation email.
- Invisible
This type of reCAPTCHA does some additional analysis behind the scenes. It doesn't require new subscribers to check a box, and will only present a visible CAPTCHA if it detects it may be dealing with a bot.
The type of form you're working with determines which reCAPTCHA you'll use.
| Form Type | reCAPTCHA Format | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp-Hosted Forms | Checkbox | Yes |
| Embedded or Pop-Up Forms | Checkbox | No |
| Landing Page Signup Form Blocks (Single opt-in audience) | Invisible | No |
| Landing Page Signup Form Blocks (Double opt-in audience) | Checkbox | No |
ReCAPTCHA is only required for Mailchimp-hosted signup forms, but we recommend you enable it to protect your audience if you use embedded or pop-up forms, or landing page signup form blocks.
Enable reCAPTCHA
To enable reCAPTCHA for your audience's embedded, pop-up, and landing page signup forms, follow these steps.
- Click the Audience icon.
- Click Audience dashboard.
- If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
- Click the Manage Audience drop-down and choose Settings.
- Click Audience name and defaults.
- Check the box next to Enable reCAPTCHA.
- Click Save Audience And Campaign Defaults.
All set! Now your audience's embedded and pop-up signup forms will display a checkbox reCAPTCHA, and your landing page signup forms will include an invisible reCAPTCHA.
Technical Support
Have a question?
Paid users can log in to access email and chat support.
Related
About Fake Signups
Mailchimp uses tools, like reCAPTCHA, to help keep spambots out of your audience. Learn how to spot fake email addresses, and how to remove them.
About Double Opt-In
To help you build a better audience, Mailchimp confirms that subscribers signed up to receive your emails. Learn the benefits of the opt-in process and how it works.