EV SSL Certificate Price: What It Costs in 2026

EV SSL price at a glance

EV pricing sits at the top of the SSL market because it carries the most thorough identity checks and the largest warranties. A single-domain EV certificate runs from roughly $70 a year at the budget end to $400 or more from premium brands, and a multi-domain SAN EV is priced by how many hostnames it holds. As with every tier, the number is driven by the certificate authority's brand, the warranty, and the coverage — not by the strength of the encryption, which matches a free certificate's.

Treat these as market bands rather than fixed figures — confirm the price on the specific certificate before you buy, since the warranty and the number of domains move the number more than the brand name does. For the full picture across every certificate type, the SSL certificate pricing guide lays out what changes from DV up to EV.

What the EV premium actually buys

An EV certificate's price pays for the deepest identity assurance a certificate authority offers, plus the warranty that backs it — not for better security. On top of the organization check an OV certificate already performs, EV verifies your business's legal, physical, and operational existence, confirms the person requesting it is an authorized signer, and attaches the highest warranty tier. That extended vetting is the whole difference in the invoice.

Here is the part buyers most often miscount: the encryption on a $49 EV certificate, a $400 EV certificate, and a free Let's Encrypt certificate is the same. What differs is how thoroughly the CA has documented who you are, and the warranty it stands behind that with. If the warranty figure itself is swaying your decision, our explainer on what an SSL warranty actually covers shows why it rarely should.

Isn't EV the green-bar certificate?

Not any more. EV certificates once turned the address bar green and printed your company name beside the URL, but Chrome removed that display in Chrome 77 and Firefox followed in Firefox 70, both in 2019. Every mainstream browser now shows the same plain padlock for DV, OV, and EV. The verified organization details in an EV certificate still exist — a visitor can see them by clicking the padlock and opening the certificate — but there is no colored bar or company name shown by default.

This matters for how you value the price. If you are buying EV for a visible trust badge in the address bar, that badge no longer exists, and OV puts the same verified name behind the same padlock for less. EV's remaining value is the depth of the vetting on record and the warranty — real assets in specific situations, which the next section works through.

EV vs OV: is the step up worth it?

For most sites, OV delivers the same practical outcome as EV for less money, because ordinary visitors see an identical padlock either way. EV is worth the step up when the deepest documented vetting or the highest warranty tier is something you actually need — a partner's onboarding requirement, a regulated industry, or an internal risk policy. Where none of those apply, the extra EV cost buys assurance no one is checking for.

One caveat that catches people out: there is no EV wildcard. The CA/Browser Forum does not permit wildcard names in EV certificates, so a multi-domain SAN EV is the way to cover several hostnames, and an OV wildcard is the highest level for unlimited subdomains. If you're weighing the top two tiers, the OV vs EV SSL comparison walks through when EV's extra cost pays off, and the OV SSL certificate price breakdown covers the tier just below.

What moves an EV certificate's price

Four things move an EV certificate's price: the number of domains it covers, the warranty ceiling, the term length, and the certificate authority's brand. Because there is no EV wildcard, coverage is priced per hostname on a SAN EV certificate, which makes the domain count the biggest single lever. The rest are adjustments layered on top of the same standardized EV validation.

• Number of domains. A single-domain EV is the floor; a multi-domain SAN EV (from ~$49 at My-SSL) is priced by how many hostnames you add. There is no wildcard shortcut at the EV level.
• Warranty ceiling. Higher warranty amounts push the price up. My-SSL's Premium EV carries a $1,500,000 warranty and the SAN EV a $1,000,000 one — a signal of the CA's backing, not insurance for your own site.
• Term length. A multi-year purchase usually lowers the effective yearly cost, even though each certificate is now reissued within the 199-day cap.
• Brand premium. Enterprise CAs charge more for the same EV validation. A Certum-issued EV certificate and a bigger-brand EV certificate both put your fully vetted name in the certificate; much of the price difference is the label.

Because EV validation is standardized by the CA/Browser Forum, a cheaper EV certificate is not a weaker one. If you're not sure how many domains you need to cover or which level fits, the SSL Wizard narrows it down in about a minute.

Does the 199-day cap change the cost?

Not on the invoice. Since March 13, 2026, every publicly trusted TLS certificate — EV included — has been capped at 199 days of validity under CA/Browser Forum Ballot SC-081v3. A multi-year EV purchase is not billed per reissue: you pay once for the term, and the certificate is reissued for free each cycle within that paid period. The shorter lifetime changes your operations, not your budget.

The real cost is the calendar. Where an EV certificate once lasted a year or more, you now redeploy roughly every six months, so the risk is a missed renewal rather than a bigger bill — and a lapsed EV certificate on a checkout or banking page is exactly where you don't want a gap. Our SSL certificate renewal guide covers keeping that cycle from slipping, and the 199-day limit explainer lays out the full reduction schedule through 2029.

Is EV worth the price for your site?

EV is worth its premium when the deepest documented vetting or the highest warranty is a requirement you have to meet — a bank, a large payment or trading platform, or a business whose partner or regulator asks for extended validation on record. For most sites, including plenty of e-commerce, an OV certificate gives the same verified company name behind the same padlock, and the EV premium buys assurance no visitor will ever see.

A useful test: is anyone — a compliance team, a partner's onboarding form, an auditor — actually going to ask for extended validation or a specific warranty figure? If yes, EV earns its price. If the honest answer is that no one is checking, OV covers the same ground for less. The which SSL certificate do I need guide works through exactly where that line falls.

How to buy EV at the right price

Buy on coverage and validation level first, then compare price within that band — not the other way around. Confirm you genuinely need EV rather than OV; decide whether it's a single domain or several; check the warranty you want; then pick the cheapest EV certificate that meets those needs, since the validation itself is standardized. To avoid the delay that stalls most EV orders, have your paperwork ready before you order.

Have a matching business registration, a verifiable public phone number, and a contact who can complete the certificate authority's verification call ready before you order. EV's deeper checks make missing paperwork the single most common reason validation drags past the usual three to seven business days — a point our guide to how long SSL validation takes covers in detail.

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