Glossary
What Is Credential Expiry?
Credential expiry is a date set at issue after which a credential is no longer current — the record stays, but verification reports it as expired rather than valid.
Also called: certificate expiry, credential expiration, valid until
What it's for
Some things stay true forever. Someone attended your workshop in March 2026; nothing that happens afterwards makes that untrue. Other things go stale: a first-aid certification, a safety clearance, an annual membership, a software certification tied to a version nobody runs any more.
An expiry date is how a credential says which kind it is. Without one, a fifteen-year-old safety certificate looks exactly as current as one issued last week.
How it works
The date is set when the credential is issued and can't be reached by editing the file afterwards, because it's part of the signed Verifiable Credential — in the W3C data model it's the validUntil field.
What happens after that date matters, and there's a wrong way to do it:
- Right: the record stays, and verification reports it as expired. Anyone checking learns both that the credential was genuinely issued and that it's no longer current.
- Wrong: the page 404s. Now the holder can't show they ever earned it, and a real credential is indistinguishable from a fake one.
Expiry is not revocation. Expiry is scheduled at issue and expected. Revocation is unscheduled, and says something was wrong.
Where you'll see it
On professional certifications with renewal cycles, safety and compliance training, memberships, and vendor certifications tied to product versions. LinkedIn's Licenses & certifications has an expiry field, and marks lapsed entries accordingly.
Participation and completion certificates normally shouldn't expire. Attendance is a historical fact.
In Verifycate
You can set an expiry date when you issue. After it passes, the public page shows the certificate as expired rather than disappearing — the record and the issuer's name stay visible, and the certificate is clearly marked as no longer current. Leave the date empty and the certificate doesn't expire.
The date is carried in the Open Badge 3.0 credential as validUntil, so anything reading the signed credential sees the same thing the page does.
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Common questions
- Should participation certificates have an expiry date?
- Almost never. Someone attended your event; that stays true. Save expiry for credentials where the underlying qualification genuinely lapses.
- What happens to a certificate after it expires?
- In Verifycate the page stays up and shows the certificate as expired. The recipient can still prove they earned it; anyone checking can see it's no longer current. It's not deleted.
- Can I extend or remove an expiry date after issuing?
- Reissuing the certificate with a new date is the way to change it. Note that a reissue spends a credit, where a correction to a name doesn't.
- Is an expired certificate the same as a revoked one?
- No. Expired means it ran its course as planned. Revoked means the issuer withdrew it — because it was issued in error, or the holder no longer qualifies. Verifiers usually treat those very differently.
Related terms
- Credential RevocationRevocation is an issuer withdrawing a credential before its expiry date, because it was issued in error or the holder no longer qualifies for it.
- Credential IDA credential ID is the unique reference for one issued credential, used to look it up, verify it, and tell it apart from every other credential the same issuer has given out.
- Certificate RecipientIn Verifycate, a certificate recipient is one person on a certificate's list — the record carrying their name, contact details, attribute values and status from import through issue to verification.
- Certificate VerificationCertificate verification is confirming that a certificate was really issued by the organisation it names, to the person it names, and hasn't been altered since.
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