---
title: Create a client certificate
description: Generate a client certificate using the dashboard or API.
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/core-services-preview.png
---

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### Tags

[ mTLS ](https://developers.cloudflare.com/search/?tags=mTLS) 

# Create a client certificate

Use Cloudflare's public key infrastructure (PKI) to create client certificates issued from a Cloudflare-managed CA. You can then complete your mTLS configuration, as explained in [How mTLS works](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/#how-it-works).

Cloudflare-issued or BYOCA

The following process only refers to certificates issued from the Cloudflare-managed CA. To bring your own CA, refer to [BYOCA](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/byo-ca/) instead. Only available to Enterprise accounts.

To create a client certificate on the Cloudflare dashboard:

1. Go to the **Client Certificates** page.  
[ Go to **Client Certificates** ](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/ssl-tls/client-certificates)
2. Select **Add Certificate**. The Cloudflare-managed CA is the default **Certificate Authority**.
3. Fill in the required fields. You can choose one of the following options:
* Generate a private key and Certificate Signing Request (CSR) with Cloudflare.
* Use your own private key and CSR. This option allows you to also [label client certificates](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/label-client-certificate/).  
Example OpenSSL command  
To generate and use your own CSR, you can run a command like the following:  
Terminal window  
```  
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout client1.key -out client1.csr -subj '/C=GB/ST=London/L=London/O=Organization/CN=CommonName'  
```
1. Select a value for **Certificate Validity**, and choose **Continue**.
2. Make sure to copy the certificate and private key as they will no longer be displayed after creation.
3. (Optional) Specify hostnames where you wish to [enable mTLS](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/enable-mtls/).  
When associating hostnames via this form, they should be in fully qualified domain name (FQDN) format and correspond to a hostname that exists in the zone you are in. For example, if you are in zone `example.com`, you can specify `host.example.com` but not `host.example.net`.
4. Select **Save** to confirm.

## Next steps

After creating the client certificate, make sure it is installed on the client devices and [enable mTLS](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/enable-mtls/) for each hostname that should require a certificate from clients.

Refer to our [mTLS at Cloudflare learning path](https://developers.cloudflare.com/learning-paths/mtls/concepts/) for further context.

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