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How to generate a CSR in cPanel

A CSR (certificate signing request) is a block of text that tells the certification authority which domain the certificate is for. cPanel makes it for you and keeps the matching private key safe on your server.

1. Sign in to cPanel and open SSL/TLS.
2. Under Certificate Signing Requests (CSR), click Generate, view, or delete SSL certificate signing requests.
3. For Key, choose Generate a new 2,048-bit key. If it offers 4,096 that is fine too, but never 1,024.
4. In Domains, type the name exactly as it is on your order, for example www.example.com. For a wildcard, type *.example.com.
5. Fill in City, State, Country and Company. For Country, choose United Kingdom (cPanel turns this into GB). Leave the passphrase empty.
6. Click Generate.
7. Copy the whole CSR, from -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- to -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----, and paste it into your order.

Menu names can differ slightly between cPanel versions. cPanel stores the private key for you. When your certificate is issued, install it in cPanel and the key is picked up automatically.

What we check when you paste it in

• Key size: 2048-bit RSA is what you want. 4096-bit is also accepted. 1024-bit is refused.
• Common name: it must match the domain on your order exactly. For a wildcard certificate it must begin *., for example *.example.com.
• Country: if you enter one, use the two-letter code. For the United Kingdom that is GB, not UK.

If something is wrong we tell you straight away, all at once, so you can make a new CSR and paste it in. Our free CSR decoder shows what is inside a CSR before you order.

More in this section

• How to generate a CSR in Plesk
• How to generate a CSR with OpenSSL (Apache and nginx)
• How to generate a CSR in Windows IIS

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