---
description: How Cloudflare issues backup certificates for redundancy.
title: Backup certificates
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# Backup certificates

Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/edge-certificates/backup-certificates/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

If Cloudflare is providing [authoritative DNS](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/dns/zone-setups/full-setup/) for your domain, Cloudflare will issue a backup [Universal SSL certificate](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/edge-certificates/universal-ssl/) for every standard Universal certificate issued.

Backup certificates are wrapped with a different private key and issued from a different Certificate Authority — either Google Trust Services, Let's Encrypt, Sectigo, or SSL.com — than your domain's primary Universal SSL certificate.

These backup certificates are not normally deployed, but they will be deployed automatically by Cloudflare in the event of a certificate revocation or key compromise.

For additional details, refer to the [introductory blog post ↗](https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-backup-certificates/).

## Availability

|              | Free | Pro | Business | Enterprise |
| ------------ | ---- | --- | -------- | ---------- |
| Availability | Yes  | Yes | Yes      | Yes        |
| Can opt out? | No   | No  | No       | Yes        |

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