Render Custom Domain Verification or SSL Pending

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Re-verify after DNS propagates

   Copy steps
   1. Wait a few minutes, then click Verify in Settings > Custom Domains
   2. Flush DNS cache in Google, Cloudflare and OpenDNS to speed it up
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Clean up DNS records

   Copy steps
   1. Delete AAAA records for the domain
   2. If you use CAA, add letsencrypt.org and pki.goog (plus issuewild for wildcards)
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Cloudflare users

   1. Set the record to DNS only (gray cloud) while verifying
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Domain shows Verification failed or never gets a certificate; browser shows an insecure or 502 page.

Why it happens

• DNS not propagated yet
• AAAA (IPv6) records present
• CAA records that do not allow Let's Encrypt or Google Trust Services
• Cloudflare proxy (orange cloud) interfering on a root or wildcard domain
• Wildcard domain missing its root or _acme-challenge CNAME

This guide also covers

• render custom domain not verified
• render ssl pending
• render certificate not issued

The same problem in other apps

All export, render & quality loss guides →

• Railway Slow Deployments and Slow App (Railway)
• Fly.io Deploy Failed: Waiting for Depot Builder, Registry 401, Too Many Requests (Fly.io)
• Vercel Deployment Failed: Build Error (Vercel)
• DigitalOcean App Platform Build Failed (DigitalOcean)
• Heroku Build Failed Error (Heroku)

Other Render errors

• Render Free Instance Spins Down: Slow First Request
• Render "No Open Ports Detected" Deploy Error
• Render Build or Service Out of Memory
• Render Build Failed: Exited With Status 1
• Render Free Postgres Expired or Deleted
• Render 502 Bad Gateway Error
• Render Health Check Failed or Deploy Timed Out
• Render Free Service Suspended: 750 Hours Used Up