Is there a fee to cancel or stop using Let's Encrypt?

No. Let's Encrypt is entirely free. There is no subscription, no billing, and no cancellation fee. You simply stop renewing certificates by disabling your ACME client's renewal process.

What happens if I just let my Let's Encrypt certificate expire?

Your website will show a browser security warning to visitors after the certificate expires (90 days from issuance). There is no penalty from Let's Encrypt for letting a certificate expire — you will just receive reminder emails at 20 days and 7 days before expiry.

Will I still receive expiry emails after deleting my certificate?

Once you delete the certificate using 'certbot delete', you will stop receiving expiry reminder emails for that domain. If you only disable renewal without deleting, emails may continue until the certificate expires.

Can I reactivate or get a new Let's Encrypt certificate after stopping?

Yes. Let's Encrypt is always free and open. You can request a new certificate at any time by running your ACME client again (e.g., 'sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com'). There is no waiting period or penalty for having stopped previously.

Does revoking a certificate affect my website visitors immediately?

Certificate revocation via Let's Encrypt has limited real-world impact because most browsers rely on CRLite or OCSP stapling and do not check revocation status in real time. Revocation is mainly useful for security incidents where your private key was compromised.

Can I delete my Let's Encrypt account entirely?

There is no web portal to delete your Let's Encrypt ACME account. You can deactivate it programmatically via the ACME API (RFC 8555) using an ACME client, or simply delete the local account files from /etc/letsencrypt/accounts/ on your server. Deactivation is permanent and irreversible.

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Understand what cancellation means

Let's Encrypt is a free, non-profit Certificate Authority — there is no paid subscription, billing, or account portal to cancel. 'Cancelling' means stopping automatic certificate renewal on your server and optionally revoking existing certificates. All steps are performed via command line on your server, not through a website UI.

Identify your ACME client

Determine which client manages your certificates. The most common is Certbot (Linux/macOS). Others include acme.sh, win-acme (Windows), Caddy (built-in), or your hosting panel (cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin). The commands differ per client. Run 'certbot certificates' to list active certificates if using Certbot.

Stop automatic renewal (Certbot)

To disable auto-renewal for a specific domain with Certbot, edit the renewal config file at /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/yourdomain.com.conf and add 'autorenew = False' under the [renewalparams] section. Alternatively, to stop all renewals, disable the systemd timer: run 'sudo systemctl disable certbot.timer && sudo systemctl stop certbot.timer'. On older systems using cron, remove or comment out the certbot line in /etc/cron.d/certbot.

Delete the certificate (Certbot)

Run 'sudo certbot delete --cert-name yourdomain.com' and confirm when prompted. This removes the certificate files from /etc/letsencrypt/live/, /etc/letsencrypt/archive/, and the renewal config from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/. You will no longer receive expiry reminder emails for that certificate.

Revoke the certificate (optional, security only)

Revocation is only necessary if your private key was compromised or exposed. Run 'sudo certbot revoke --cert-path /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem' and follow prompts. For non-security reasons (just stopping use), revocation is unnecessary — you can simply let the certificate expire or delete it.

Update your web server configuration

After deleting the certificate, update your web server config to remove all SSL references pointing to /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/. For Nginx, remove or comment out the ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key lines. For Apache, remove SSLCertificateFile and SSLCertificateKeyFile directives. Restart the web server: 'sudo systemctl restart nginx' or 'sudo systemctl restart apache2'.

Deactivate your ACME account (optional)

If you want to formally deactivate your Let's Encrypt ACME account (not just stop using it), this must be done programmatically via the ACME API per RFC 8555. Most users simply delete local account files at /etc/letsencrypt/accounts/ instead. There is no website dashboard to deactivate accounts. Inactive accounts are ignored and do not cause any issues if left.

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