Personal access tokens

Personal access tokens can be an alternative to OAuth2 and used to:

• Authenticate with the GitLab API.
• Authenticate with Git using HTTP Basic Authentication.

In both cases, you authenticate with a personal access token in place of your password. Username is not evaluated as part of the authentication process.

Personal access tokens are:

• Required when two-factor authentication (2FA) or SAML is enabled.
• Used with a GitLab username to authenticate with GitLab features that require usernames. For example, GitLab-managed Terraform state backend and Docker container registry,
• Similar to project access tokens and group access tokens, but are attached to a user rather than a project or group.

For examples of how you can use a personal access token to authenticate with the API, see the API documentation.

Alternately, GitLab administrators can use the API to create impersonation tokens. Use impersonation tokens to automate authentication as a specific user.

Create a personal access token

You can create as many personal access tokens as you like.

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.

2. Select Edit profile.

3. On the left sidebar, select Access tokens.

4. Select Add new token.

5. In Token name, enter a name for the token.

6. Optional. In Token description, enter a description for the token.

7. In Expiration date, enter an expiration date for the token.

   • The token expires on that date at midnight UTC. A token with the expiration date of 2024-01-01 expires at 00:00:00 UTC on 2024-01-01.
   • If you do not enter an expiry date, the expiry date is automatically set to 365 days later than the current date.
   • By default, this date can be a maximum of 365 days later than the current date. In GitLab 17.6 or later, you can extend this limit to 400 days.

8. Select the desired scopes.

9. Select Create personal access token.

Save the personal access token somewhere safe. After you leave the page, you no longer have access to the token.

Prefill personal access token name and scopes

You can link directly to the personal access token page and have the form prefilled with a name and list of scopes. To do this, you can append a name parameter and a list of comma-separated scopes to the URL. For example:

https://gitlab.example.com/-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens?name=Example+Access+token&scopes=api,read_user,read_registry

Revoke or rotate a personal access token

At any time, you can use the UI to revoke or, in GitLab 17.7 and later, rotate a personal access token.

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.

2. Select Edit profile.

3. On the left sidebar, select Access tokens.

4. In the Active personal access tokens area, for the relevant token, select Revoke ( ) or Rotate ( ).

5. On the confirmation dialog, select Revoke or Rotate.

   These actions cannot be undone. Any tools that rely on a revoked or rotated access token will stop working.

Disable personal access tokens

Prerequisites:

• You must be an administrator.

Depending on your GitLab version, you can use either the application settings API or the Admin UI to disable personal access tokens.

Use the application settings API

In GitLab 15.7 and later, you can use the disable_personal_access_tokens attribute in the application settings API to disable personal access tokens.

Use the Admin UI

In GitLab 17.3 and later, you can use the Admin UI to disable personal access tokens:

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand Visibility and access controls.
4. Select the Disable personal access tokens checkbox.
5. Select Save changes.

Disable personal access tokens for enterprise users

Prerequisites:

• You must have the Owner role for the group that the enterprise user belongs to.

Disabling the personal access tokens of a group’s enterprise users:

• Stops the enterprise users from creating new personal access tokens. This behavior applies even if an enterprise user is also an administrator of the group.
• Disables the existing personal access tokens of the enterprise users.
• Disables OAuth tokens. This prevents usage of the Web IDE.

To disable the enterprise users’ personal access tokens:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group or subgroup.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand Permissions and group features.
4. Under Personal access tokens, select Disable personal access tokens.
5. Select Save changes.

When you delete or block an enterprise user account, their personal access tokens are automatically revoked.

View token usage information

Token usage information updates periodically. The time the token was last used updates every 10 minutes, and the most recently used IP address updates every minute. GitLab considers a token used when the token:

• Authenticates with the REST or GraphQL APIs.
• Performs a Git operation.

To view the last time a token was used, and the IP addresses from where the token was used:

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.
2. Select Edit profile.
3. On the left sidebar, select Access tokens.
4. In the Active personal access tokens area, view the Last Used date and Last Used IPs for the relevant token. Last Used IPs shows the last five distinct IP addresses.

Personal access token scopes

A personal access token can perform actions based on the assigned scopes.

Access token expiration

Personal access tokens expire on the date you define, at midnight, 00:00 AM UTC. A token with the expiration date of 2024-01-01 expires at 00:00:00 UTC on 2024-01-01.

• GitLab runs a check at 1:00 AM UTC every day to identify personal access tokens that expire soon. The owners of these tokens are notified by email.
• GitLab runs a check at 02:00 AM UTC every day to identify personal access tokens that expire on the current date. The owners of these tokens are notified by email.
• In GitLab Ultimate, administrators can limit the allowable lifetime of access tokens. If not set, the maximum allowable lifetime of a personal access token is 365 days. In GitLab 17.6 or later, you can extend this limit to 400 days.
• In GitLab Free and Premium, the maximum allowable lifetime of a personal access token is 365 days. In GitLab 17.6 or later, you can extend this limit to 400 days.
• If you do not set an expiry date when creating a personal access token, the expiry date is set to the maximum allowed lifetime for the token. If the maximum allowed lifetime is not set, the default expiry date is 365 days from the date of creation.

Whether your existing personal access tokens have expiry dates automatically applied depends on what GitLab offering you have, and when you upgraded to GitLab 16.0 or later:

• On GitLab.com, during the 16.0 milestone, existing personal access tokens without an expiry date were automatically given an expiry date of 365 days later than the current date.
• On GitLab Self-Managed, if you upgraded from GitLab 15.11 or earlier to GitLab 16.0 or later:
  • On or before July 23, 2024, existing personal access tokens without an expiry date were automatically given an expiry date of 365 days later than the current date. This change is a breaking change.
  • On or after July 24, 2024, existing personal access tokens without an expiry date did not have an expiry date set.

On GitLab Self-Managed, if you do a new install of one of the following GitLab versions, your existing personal access tokens do not have expiry dates automatically applied:

• 16.0.9
• 16.1.7
• 16.2.10
• 16.3.8
• 16.4.6
• 16.5.9
• 16.6.9
• 16.7.9
• 16.8.9
• 16.9.10
• 16.10.9
• 16.11.7
• 17.0.5
• 17.1.3
• 17.2.1

Personal access token expiry emails

GitLab runs a check every day at 1:00 AM UTC to identify personal access tokens that are expiring in the near future. The owners of these tokens are notified by email when these tokens expire in a certain number of days. The number of days differs depending on the version of GitLab:

• In GitLab 17.6 and later, personal access token owners are notified by email when the check identifies their personal access tokens as expiring in the next sixty days. An additional email is sent when the check identifies their group access tokens as expiring in the next thirty days.
• Personal access token owners are notified by email when the check identifies their group access tokens as expiring in the next seven days.

Personal access token expiry calendar

You can subscribe to an iCalendar endpoint which contains events at the expiry date for each token. After signing in, this endpoint is available at /-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens.ics.

Create a service account personal access token with no expiry date

You can create a personal access token for a service account with no expiry date. These personal access tokens never expire, unlike non-service account personal access tokens.

GitLab.com

Prerequisites:

• You must have the Owner role for the top-level group.

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
2. Select Settings > General > Permissions and group features.
3. Clear the Service account token expiration checkbox.

You can now create personal access tokens for a service account user with no expiry date.

GitLab Self-Managed

Prerequisites:

• You must be an administrator for your GitLab Self-Managed instance.

1. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand Account and limit.
4. Clear the Service account token expiration checkbox.

You can now create personal access tokens for a service account user with no expiry date.

Require DPoP headers with personal access tokens

Demonstrating Proof of Possession (DPoP) enhances the security of your personal access tokens, and minimizes the effects of unintended token leaks. When you enable this feature on your account, all REST and GraphQL API requests containing a PAT must also provide a signed DPoP header. Creating a signed DPoP header requires your corresponding private SSH key.

Prerequisites:

• You must have added at least one public SSH key to your account, with the Usage type of Signing, or Authentication & Signing.
• You must have installed and configured the GitLab CLI for your GitLab account.

To require DPoP on all calls to the REST and GraphQL APIs:

1. On the left sidebar, select your avatar.

2. Select Edit profile.

3. On the left sidebar, select Access Tokens.

4. Go to the Use Demonstrating Proof of Possession section, and select Enable DPoP.

5. Select Save changes.

6. To generate a DPoP header with the GitLab CLI, run this command in your terminal. Replace <your_access_token> with your access token, and ~/.ssh/id_rsa with the location of your private key:

    bin/glab auth dpop-gen --pat "<your_access_token>" --private-key ~/.ssh/id_rsa

The DPoP header you generated in the CLI can be used:

• With the REST API:

  curl --header "Private-Token: <your_access_token>" \
    --header "DPoP: <dpop-from-glab>" \
    "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects"

• With GraphQL:

   curl --request POST \
   --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
   --header "Private-Token: <your_access_token>" \
   --header "DPoP: <dpop-from-glab>" \
   --data '{
   "query": "query { currentUser { id } }"
   }' \
   "https://gitlab.example.com/api/graphql"

To learn more about DPoP headers, see the blueprint Sender Constraining Personal Access Tokens.

Create a personal access token programmatically

You can create a predetermined personal access token as part of your tests or automation.

Prerequisites:

• You need sufficient access to run a Rails console session for your GitLab instance.

To create a personal access token programmatically:

1. Open a Rails console:

   sudo gitlab-rails console

2. Run the following commands to reference the username, the token, and the scopes.

   The token must be 20 characters long. The scopes must be valid and are visible in the source code.

   For example, to create a token that belongs to a user with username automation-bot and expires in a year:

   user = User.find_by_username('automation-bot')
   token = user.personal_access_tokens.create(scopes: ['read_user', 'read_repository'], name: 'Automation token', expires_at: 365.days.from_now)
   token.set_token('token-string-here123')
   token.save!

This code can be shortened into a single-line shell command by using the Rails runner:

sudo gitlab-rails runner "token = User.find_by_username('automation-bot').personal_access_tokens.create(scopes: ['read_user', 'read_repository'], name: 'Automation token', expires_at: 365.days.from_now); token.set_token('token-string-here123'); token.save!"

Revoke a personal access token programmatically

You can programmatically revoke a personal access token as part of your tests or automation.

Prerequisites:

• You need sufficient access to run a Rails console session for your GitLab instance.

To revoke a token programmatically:

1. Open a Rails console:

   sudo gitlab-rails console

2. To revoke a token of token-string-here123, run the following commands:

   token = PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('token-string-here123')
   token.revoke!

This code can be shortened into a single-line shell command using the Rails runner:

sudo gitlab-rails runner "PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('token-string-here123').revoke!"

Clone repository using personal access token

To clone a repository when SSH is disabled, clone it using a personal access token by running the following command:

git clone https://<username>:<personal_token>@gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.git

This method saves your personal access token in your bash history. To avoid this, run the following command:

git clone https://<username>@gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.git

When asked for your password for https://gitlab.com, enter your personal access token.

The username in the clone command:

• Can be any string value.
• Must not be an empty string.

Remember this if you set up an automation pipeline that depends on authentication.

Troubleshooting

Unrevoke a personal access token

If a personal access token is revoked accidentally by any method, administrators can unrevoke that token. By default, a daily job deletes revoked tokens at 1:00 AM system time.

1. Open a Rails console.

2. Unrevoke the token:

   token = PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('<token_string>')
   token.update!(revoked:false)

   For example, to unrevoke a token of token-string-here123:

   token = PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('token-string-here123')
   token.update!(revoked:false)

Alternatives to personal access tokens

For Git over HTTPS, an alternative to personal access tokens is to use an OAuth credential helper.