Certbot: Too many certificates already issued
Understand and work around Let's Encrypt rate limits when Certbot reports too many certificates issued for a domain.
Certbot reports "too many certificates already issued" when the domain has exceeded Let's Encrypt's rate limit of 50 certificates per registered domain per week.
What Causes This Error
Let's Encrypt enforces rate limits to prevent abuse. The "Duplicate Certificate" limit allows 5 identical certificates per week. The "Certificates per Registered Domain" limit allows 50 certificates per top-level registered domain per week.
How to Fix
Wait for the rate limit window to reset (7 days from the oldest counted issuance).
Use Certbot's
--stagingflag to test against Let's Encrypt's staging environment, which has much higher rate limits:
sudo certbot --staging --nginx -d example.com- Use the
--expandflag to add domains to an existing certificate instead of issuing new ones:
sudo certbot --expand -d example.com -d new.example.com- Check existing certificates before issuing new ones:
sudo certbot certificates