# What exactly is Let's Encrypt email used for?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** letsencrypt
**Created:** [May 27, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838 "2025-05-27T21:51:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Willy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Willy)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838/1 "2025-05-27T21:51:58Z")
During installation, I’m asked for an email address for SSL. Do I need to register that email somewhere, or does Discourse do it for me? Can it be any email address as long as it works for receiving emails?
I read this, and it seems like they’ll no longer send expiration emails:
> **[Ending Support for Expiration Notification Emails](https://letsencrypt.org/2025/01/22/ending-expiration-emails)**
>
> Since its inception, Let’s Encrypt has been sending expiration notification emails to subscribers that have provided an email address to us. We will be ending this service on June 4, 2025. The decision to end this service is the result of the...
Does this change have any impact?
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838/2 "2025-05-28T12:26:16Z")
> [@Willy](#):
>
> Does this change have any impact?
Yes. The template samples and discourse-setup should stop including them.
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838/3 "2025-05-28T12:28:12Z")
Appreciate the heads up. Interesting!
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838/4 "2026-01-20T16:38:37Z")
> [@LETSENCRYPT\_ACCOUNT\_EMAIL no longer needed](https://meta.discourse.org/t/letsencrypt-account-email-no-longer-needed/393831):
>
> As of June 4, Let’s Encrypt stopped sending email notifications about failing renewals, which was the only reason to have that ENV variable set. I just ran discourse-setup-ruby and didn’t get a email address for LETSENCRYPT\_ACCOUNT\_EMAIL and now Discourse won’t work because the clever logic refuses to request a certification if there’s no email address. It’s been almost a year since including an email address in that variable did anything. So this if needs to be deleted:
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-exactly-is-lets-encrypt-email-used-for/367838/5 "2026-01-20T16:38:41Z")