Products · Product
reCAPTCHA
Raised as a usability problem by 334 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 205 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Repeated challenges take minutes to log in or downloadUnreviewed
20082026- Captchas on Firefox are often unsolvable, forcing users to switch browsers2026-09-08
- Captcha keeps looping and never accepts correct answers in Firefox2026-09-05
- Login repeatedly demands solving a captcha, forcing user to cancel account2026-09-04
Image challenges are unsolvable even after many attemptsUnreviewed
20082026- Photo-selection challenges are too annoying and not worth the effort2026-10-25
- Repeated image-identification challenges keep appearing, one after another, without letting the user in2026-09-08
- Has to solve image challenges repeatedly before it accepts you2026-05-31
Ambiguous image puzzles fail randomly even after correct answersUnreviewed
20082026- Endless blurry image puzzles, slow fades, then fails with 'please try again'2026-09-04
- Correct answers fail repeatedly and images load too slowly to respond2025-01-01
- Slow, annoying image puzzles that repeat and ask to retry for legitimate users2024-10-02
Challenges take too long and are hard to complete correctlyUnreviewed
20082026- Challenges take too long and users struggle to complete them correctly2026-07-11
- Slow, crappy, bad UI for users solving the challenge2026-05-09
- Challenge is expected to be user hostile to people trying to get through2026-05-06
Crosswalk and traffic light image selection takes minutes each timeUnreviewed
20082026- Clicking through many crosswalk and traffic light images takes a minute or two each time2021-07-15
- Must solve image puzzles like hydrants and traffic lights before logging in2020-07-11
- Endless clicking on traffic lights, buses and sidewalks to pass the check2019-06-27
Images fade in slowly and correct selections still failUnreviewed
20082026- Slow fade-out animation makes image box selections drag and delay2023-08-17
- Images fade in very slowly, then correct selections still fail and force retries2022-09-28
- Selected images fade out slowly and get replaced with new ones after a low trust score2019-06-11
Hard to tell which images match due to ambiguous categoriesUnreviewed
20082026- Hard to tell whether edge-case images count as matching the category2020-09-01
- Unclear which images count, like whether partial cars or sign posts qualify2018-07-29
- Hard to tell which images match, with ambiguous partial matches and confusing sign categories2016-04-08
Challenges are hostile to visually impaired usersUnreviewed
20082026- Hostile to visually impaired users, making everyday browsing a hellish struggle2020-05-15
- Makes the site unusable for blind people2019-06-13
- Nearly impossible for screen reader users and visually impaired people2018-05-15
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Photo-selection challenges are too annoying and not worth the effort2026-10-25
- ReCAPTCHA breaks for Firefox users with tracking protection, forcing them to disable it2026-09-08
- Captchas on Firefox are often unsolvable, forcing users to switch browsers2026-09-08
- Repeatedly rejects legitimate Firefox and Linux users, forcing workarounds like VPN or tethering2026-09-08
- Repeated image-identification challenges keep appearing, one after another, without letting the user in2026-09-08
- Captcha keeps looping and never accepts correct answers in Firefox2026-09-05
- Endless blurry image puzzles, slow fades, then fails with 'please try again'2026-09-04
- Login repeatedly demands solving a captcha, forcing user to cancel account2026-09-04
- Captchas on Firefox Linux are unsolvable, so users cannot get past them2026-08-15
- Challenges take too long and users struggle to complete them correctly2026-07-11
- Captchas take about 30 seconds to solve, even for VPN users2026-07-11
- Google captcha repeatedly blocks access, so the user gives up2026-07-05
- Endless loops of vague captchas that restart unless all solved in a row, for non-Chrome browsers2026-06-10
- Has to solve image challenges repeatedly before it accepts you2026-05-31
- Image challenge loops endlessly and audio version blocks user as suspicious2026-05-10
- Non-Chromium or tracker-blocking users get visible challenge prompts instead of invisible checks2026-05-09
- Slow, crappy, bad UI for users solving the challenge2026-05-09
- Captcha gets stuck in endless refresh loops, blocking access to sites2026-05-08
- Users accidentally create Google Cloud accounts they didn't know about while solving captchas2026-05-08
- Endless captcha and refresh loops block the user from normal browsing and purchases2026-05-08
- Audio captcha is limited to few languages and unusable for people with hearing issues2026-05-08
- Repeated captcha checks fail, forcing many retries before passing2026-05-07
- Pages feel slow because users must wait for the captcha2026-05-07
- Image puzzles are nearly impossible to see on e-ink screens2026-05-07
- Challenge is expected to be user hostile to people trying to get through2026-05-06
- Users without an approved phone are blocked from completing verification2026-05-06
- Gets repeated 'are you a human' captcha prompts, 2-4 times per search on some days2025-12-14
- Text with hidden Unicode characters becomes unusable for blind users of screen readers2025-11-24
- Captcha takes many attempts over several pages, then times out before completing2025-11-11
- Captcha puzzles are annoying and hard to get through2025-11-10
- Image challenges are ambiguous, so users can't tell which parts to select2025-11-10
- Moving the mouse quickly fails the captcha, requiring retries; slow movement passes2025-10-04
- Challenge sporadically fails to register; must toggle camera and switch tabs2025-09-21
- ReCAPTCHA challenges are more annoying to get through than Cloudflare's2025-06-10
- Fails silently with a confusing error and no way to prove humanity2025-05-26
- Has to solve the challenge about a dozen times, then gets flagged as non-human2025-05-15
- Correct answers fail repeatedly and images load too slowly to respond2025-01-01
- Repeatedly fails with 'try again' for users on certain ISPs, blocking them from posting2024-11-30
- Gets stuck in a loop and keeps failing even when answers are correct2024-11-18
- Captcha repeatedly fails or challenges users who disable third-party cookies or privacy protections2024-10-10
- Slow, annoying image puzzles that repeat and ask to retry for legitimate users2024-10-02
- CAPTCHA is cumbersome to use and annoying for people2024-07-29
- Captcha is so hard to pass it often needs an accessibility workaround or add-on2024-06-07
- Hard to switch reCAPTCHA into English, forcing users to learn foreign words2024-05-25
- Doesn't understand what 'crosswalk' means in the image challenge, sees only a zebra crossing2024-01-29
- Extra captcha step before MFA makes logging in annoying even with MFA enabled2024-01-16
- Anti-spam checks triggered by VPN or VPS use make some sites nearly unusable2024-01-03
- Captcha loops endlessly with ambiguous image tiles, so the user can't tell what counts as correct2023-11-17
- Slow fade-out animation makes image box selections drag and delay2023-08-17
- Confusing API docs and Google Cloud key setup make it hard to integrate2023-08-08