Wikipedia:User access levels

This is an information page.

It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcuts

To find the permissions for your account, go to Special:Preferences. Your permissions are listed in the user profile tab under "Member of groups".

The user access level of editors affects their abilities to perform specific actions on Wikipedia. A user's access level depends on which rights (also called permissions, user groups, bits, or flags) are assigned to accounts. There are two types of access leveling: automatic and requested. User access levels are determined by whether the Wikipedian is logged in, the account's age and edit count, and what manually assigned rights the account has.

Anyone can use the basic functionalities of Wikipedia even if they are not logged in. Unless they are blocked, they may freely edit most pages. Being logged in gives users many advantages, such as having their public IP address hidden and the ability to track one's own contributions. Furthermore, once user accounts are more than a certain number of days old and have made more than a certain number of edits, they automatically become autoconfirmed or extended confirmed, allowing the direct creation of articles, the ability to move pages, to edit semi-protected and extended-protected pages, and upload files. Further access levels need to be assigned manually by a user with the appropriate authority. An editor with more experience and in good standing can attempt to become an administrator, which provides a large number of advanced permissions. Many different flags for specialized tasks are also available.

Overview

All visitors to the site, including unregistered users, are part of the * group, and all logged-in registered users are also part of the user group. Users are automatically promoted into the autoconfirmed/confirmed users pseudo-group of established users when their account is more than four days old and has ten edits, and the extended confirmed user group later on, at 30 days of age and 500 edits.

Other flags are only given upon request; some, such as rollbacker, pending changes reviewer, or bot, are granted unilaterally if the user demonstrates a need for them (see Wikipedia:Requests for permissions and Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval). Others, such as sysop and bureaucrat, are given only after community discussion and consensus at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. Users are made members of such groups as oversight and checkuser only with the approval of the Arbitration Committee, after signing the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information.

User groups have one or more rights assigned to them; for example, the IP block-exempt (IP block exemptions) group has the 'ipblock-exempt' and 'torunblocked' rights. All members of a particular user group will have access to these rights. The individual rights that are assigned to user groups are listed at Special:ListGroupRights. Terms like rights, permissions, bits and flags can refer to both user groups and the individual rights assigned to them.

Permissions requested at Requests for permissions only have local rights on the English Wikipedia wiki. Members of global user groups have rights across all Wikimedia Foundation wikis, although that access can sometimes be restricted by local wiki policies. Users registered at Wikimedia wikis also have registered user rights to other Wikimedia wikis if their account is a SUL or unified login account. Both local and global user group membership across Wikimedia wikis can be viewed at Special:CentralAuth.

User groups

The system-generated technical permissions are listed at Special:ListGroupRights.

Standard user rights that are granted automatically

Unregistered (IP or not logged in) users

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Users who are not logged in are identified by their IP address rather than a username, whether or not they have already registered an account. They may read all Wikipedia pages (except restricted special pages), and edit pages that are not protected (including pending changes protected/move-protected articles). They may create talk pages in any talk namespace, but need to ask for help to create pages in some parts of the wiki. Furthermore, they cannot upload files or images. They must answer a CAPTCHA if they wish to make an edit which involves the addition of external links, and click a confirmation link to purge pages. All users may also query the site API in 500-record batches.

Edit screens of unregistered users are headed by a banner displaying the Anoneditwarning system message.

Registered (new) users

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WP:REGISTERED

You are not logged in or registered. You can log in or create an account here.You are logged in.

Registered users may immediately e-mail other users if they activate an email address in their user preferences. All logged-in users may mark edits as minor. They may purge pages without a confirmation step, but are still required to answer a CAPTCHA when adding external links. They may customize their Wikimedia interface and its options as they wish—either via Special:Preferences, or by adding personal CSS or JavaScript rules to their common.css or common.js files. They may create and maintain a watchlist.

Autoconfirmed and confirmed users

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You are not logged in, so you are not autoconfirmed. Your account is autoconfirmedis not autoconfirmed.

Several actions on the English Wikipedia (such as article creation) are restricted to user accounts that are at least 4 days old and have made at least 10 edits. Users who meet these requirements are considered part of the pseudo-group autoconfirmed. The conditions for autoconfirmed status are checked every time a user attempts to perform a restricted action; if they are met, permission is granted automatically by the MediaWiki software. Although the precise requirements for autoconfirmed status vary according to circumstances, most English Wikipedia user accounts that are at least 4 days old and have made at least 10 edits (including deleted edits) are considered autoconfirmed. However, users with the IP block exemption flag and who are editing through the Tor network are subjected to much stricter autoconfirmed thresholds: 90 days and 100 edits.^[1]

Autoconfirmed/confirmed users can create articles (except for create-protected pages), move pages (except for move-protected pages), edit semi-protected pages, and upload files (including new versions of existing files, except for upload-protected files). Edits that they make to a page that is under pending changes protection will be accepted and will immediately be visible to people who are not logged in without requiring review or approval (unless there are prior pending changes awaiting approval, in which case edits not made by reviewers or administrators will not become visible until the prior pending changes are accepted).

Autoconfirmed users are no longer required to enter a CAPTCHA for most edits, including, but not limited to, adding external links. Autoconfirmed users may email users that have their "allow emails from brand-new users" checkbox off. In addition, the edit filter has a number of warning settings that will no longer affect editors who are autoconfirmed. Autoconfirmed/confirmed users gain access to additional tools such as Wikipedia:Twinkle.

As of April 2024^[update], there were approximately 2.38 million autoconfirmed users on the English Wikipedia, of which the vast majority were inactive. See Special:ActiveUsers for a list of recently active users.

Before 16 November 2016, confirmed and autoconfirmed users could also mark new pages as patrolled. This has been changed and now requires the new page reviewer right to do so.

Confirmed users

Sometimes, it is necessary for accounts to skip the customary confirmation period and to be confirmed right away. The confirmed group contains the exact same rights as the autoconfirmed pseudo-group, but can be granted by administrators and event coordinators^[2] as necessary. It is redundant to grant the confirmed right to an account that is already autoconfirmed since it provides the exact same abilities. To request this permission, see Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Confirmed. See Special:ListUsers/confirmed for a list of the 551 confirmed users.

Extended confirmed users

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You are not logged in, so you are not extended confirmed. Your account is extended confirmed.does not have the extended confirmed flag, but you are an administrator, so your account is extended confirmed by default.

A registered editor becomes extendedconfirmed automatically one edit after the account has existed for at least 30 days and has made at least 500 edits.^[3]^[4] This user access right allows editors to edit and create pages that are under extended confirmed protection. The English Wikipedia also enables editors to use the Content Translation tool to create articles and the INDEX template on user pages. This access is included and bundled in the bot and sysop (administrator) user groups. This group was primarily created to deal with specific arbitration remedies and community issues; the Arbitration Committee has since left community-use decisions up to the community.^[5]

Extended confirmed is revoked if a user is in another group with which it is redundant, and in rare cases may be revoked for other reasons, such as if a user games the system by making many trivial edits. If extended confirmed is revoked, it may be re-granted at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Extended confirmed. That page may also be used to request early grants of the group, but requests are almost never accepted except for legitimate alternate accounts of users who are extended confirmed on other accounts.

See Special:ListUsers/extendedconfirmed for a list of the 73,230 extended confirmed users.

Administrators and bureaucrats

Administrators and bureaucrats are requested from pages other than Wikipedia:Requests for permissions.

Administrators

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WP:UAL#Administrators

Administrators, often referred to as "admins" or "sysops" (system operators), are editors who are granted the rights by the community following a successful Request for Adminship (RfA). The RfA process involves in-depth and considerable discussion and examination of the candidate's activity and contributions as an editor. Candidates are granted the rights by community consensus.

Administrators have exclusive access to a number of tools to allow them to carry out certain functions on the wiki. The tools cover processes such as page deletion, page protection, blocking and unblocking users, and the ability to edit fully protected pages. Administrators also have the ability to grant and remove most access rights to and from other users (account creator, autopatrolled, confirmed, file mover, edit filter helper, edit filter manager, event coordinator, extended confirmed, IP block exempt, mass message sender, new page reviewer, page mover, pending changes reviewer, rollback, template editor, and AutoWikiBrowser) and to their own alternate accounts. By convention, administrators also normally take responsibility for judging the outcome of certain discussions requiring these technical controls (such as deletions).

Administrators are not granted more editorial control over article content than other editors. They are required to follow all policies and guidelines and are held to the same level of accountability as non-administrators.

Administrators are not employees of the Wikimedia Foundation and should not be confused with Wikimedia system administrators ("sysadmins").

See Special:ListUsers/sysop for a full list of the 848 English Wikipedia administrators.

Bureaucrats

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Bureaucrats are exceptionally trusted editors who have the capability to perform certain actions on other users' accounts. These capabilities are granted by the community following a successful Request for Bureaucratship (RfB).

Bureaucrats have access to Special:UserRights, enabling them to add users to the bureaucrat group (but not remove them),^[6] and add users to and remove users from the administrator,^[7] bot, and interface administrator user groups.

See Special:ListUsers/bureaucrat for a list of the 15 bureaucrats.

Flags granted to users giving access to specialized functions

Unless otherwise noted, see Wikipedia:Requests for permissions to request the following rights. Some of these rights are automatically assigned to administrators.

Pending changes reviewer

Members of this group can review other users' edits to articles placed under pending changes protection. This right is automatically assigned to administrators. Prior to September 2014, this right was known as reviewer.

See Special:ListUsers/reviewer for a list of the 8,040 reviewers.

Rollback

Users who are given the rollback flag (rollbacker user group) may revert consecutive revisions of an editor using the rollback feature. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/rollbacker for a list of the 6,879 rollbackers.

Autopatrolled

Members of this group have autopatrol, which allows them to have their pages automatically patrolled on the New Pages list. Prior to June 2010, it was known as autoreviewer. Before December 2021, it was automatically assigned to administrators, but following an RFC, it was removed from the default toolkit. The 2021 RFC concluded that administrators are allowed to grant the user right to themselves without approval or a discussion beforehand, similar to the edit filter manager user right.

See Special:ListUsers/autoreviewer for a list of the 4,837 autopatrolled users.

New page reviewer (patroller)

Members of this group have patrol, which allows them to mark pages created by others as patrolled or reviewed. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/patroller for a list of the 812 new page reviewers.

File mover

The file mover right is intended to allow users experienced in working with files to rename them, subject to policy, with the ease that autoconfirmed users already enjoy when renaming Wikipedia articles. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/filemover for a list of the 387 file movers.

Page mover

The page mover user right (extendedmover user group) is intended to allow users who have demonstrated a good understanding of the Wikipedia page naming system to rename pages and subpages without leaving redirects, subject to policy. They are also able to create and edit editnotices as well as move categories. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/extendedmover for a list of the 406 page movers.

Account creator

The account creator user right (accountcreator user group) is intended for users involved in the request an account process (ACC), and so have signed the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. They are not affected by the 6 account creation limit per day per IP, and can create accounts for other users without restriction. Users in this group can also override the anti-spoof checks on account creation. Additionally, account creators are able to create accounts with names that are otherwise blocked by the title blacklist. This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bureaucrats.^[8]

See Special:ListUsers/accountcreator for a list of the 7 account creators.

Event coordinator

The event coordinator flag (eventcoordinator user group) is intended for individuals involved with off-wiki outreach events to create accounts for their attendees. Event coordinators are not affected by the 6 account creation limit per day per IP. In addition, they can allow their event attendees to create new articles by temporarily adding newly created accounts to confirmed user group. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/eventcoordinator for a list of the 124 event coordinators.

Template editor

Users who are given the template editor flag (templateeditor user group) are allowed to edit pages that are template-protected, as well as create and edit editnotices. Template protection is only applied to pages in the template and module namespaces, as well as a few pages in the Wikipedia namespace. This right is intended to allow experienced template and module coders to make changes without having to request that an administrator make the edits for them. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/templateeditor for a list of the 185 template editors.

IP block exemption

Users who are given the ipblock-exempt flag (ipblock-exempt user group) are not affected by autoblocks, blocks of IP addresses and ranges that are made with the "Prevent logged-in users from editing" option enabled,^[9] and by Tor blocks.

The flag is intended for trusted users in good standing who are unfortunately affected by such blocks. Requests for this permission may be included with your unblock request. If you are affected by an IP address range block, you must send your unblock request using the Unblock Ticket Request System. If you are trying to edit through a blocked anonymous proxy or a VPN service, you must instead send your request to checkuser-en-wpwikipedia.org, or contact a CheckUser directly.

This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bots.^[10] Administrators are also free to grant the right to good-faith editors known to be affected by IP blocks, without waiting for an unblock request.

See Special:ListUsers/ipblock-exempt for a list of the 795 affected users.

Edit filter managers

Members of the edit filter manager group can view, create, modify, enable, disable, and delete edit filters, including private edit filters that are hidden from public view. They can also view any associated logs that are generated by any edit filter. This right is not assigned to administrators by default, but they are allowed to grant the user right to themselves without approval or a discussion beforehand. The edit filter manager user right can also be granted to non-administrators following a successful request at the edit filter noticeboard.

See Special:ListUsers/abusefilter for a list of the 146 edit filter managers.

Edit filter helpers

Members of the edit filter helper group have the ability to view all edit filters (including private edit filters that are hidden from being publicly viewed), as well as view their associated logs. It does not grant them the ability to modify or make any changes to edit filters. The user right is intended for editors who are interested in helping with edit filters or have demonstrated experience with helping with public edit filters on appropriate discussion pages, but do not yet meet the thresholds required to be able to modify them. The user right is also intended for users who are currently active administrators or edit filter managers on other Wikimedia wikis who would like to learn from the English Wikipedia, as well as, at the discretion of any checkuser, sockpuppet investigation (SPI) clerks and trainee clerks.

This access is also included in the administrator groups. These capabilities can also be granted to non-administrators following a successful request at the edit filter noticeboard.

See Special:ListUsers/abusefilter-helper for a list of the 24 edit filter helpers.

Mass message sender

Members of this group may send messages to multiple users at once. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/massmessage-sender for a list of the 51 mass message senders.

Interface administrators

Users who are given the interface administrator flag (interface-admin user group) have the ability to edit site-wide CSS, JavaScript, and JSON pages (pages such as MediaWiki:Common.js or MediaWiki:Vector.css, or the gadget pages listed on Special:Gadgets), all CSS, JavaScript, and JSON pages regardless of location^[11], and pages in the MediaWiki namespace. Interface administrator access, along with access to another group that has undelete access, is required to view deleted versions of pages only editable by this group. Because it provides the potential to send malicious CSS, JS, and JSON code to execute in other users' browsers, this right may only be granted to existing administrators^[12] with two-factor authentication enabled on their accounts.^[13] These capabilities can be granted following a successful request at Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard.

See Special:ListUsers/interface-admin for a list of the 13 interface administrators.

Functionary user levels

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WP:UALF

CheckUser

Users who are granted and possess the CheckUser flag (checkuser user group) have access to Special:CheckUser, a function page that allows them to view a list of all IP addresses that have been used by a user account to edit the English Wikipedia, an extended list of all edits made from an IP address or range (which includes edits that were made by any user accounts while using the specific IP or range), or a list of all user accounts that have used a given IP address or range to edit the English Wikipedia. They also have access to the Checkuser log, which logs each time a Checkuser uses their tools to view any of the information listed. This user right is only granted to exceedingly few users and after a high level of scrutiny and review by the community, and after review and the support of the Arbitration Committee, typically around once a year (see Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight § Appointments). Users must also be at least 18 years old and have signed the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. As CheckUsers have access to deleted revisions, they are also required to have passed an "RfA or RfA-identical process" first.^[14]

See Special:ListUsers/checkuser for a list of the 58 CheckUsers.

Oversight

Users who are granted and possess the Oversight flag (suppress user group^[15]) have access to additional options on the page deletion, revision deletion, and block function pages through which they can hide logs or revisions of pages (partially or entirely) from any form of usual access by all other users, including administrators. They also have access to the suppression log, where they can view actions made by other oversighters, as well as the content of the hidden revisions. This user right is only granted to exceedingly few users and after a high level of scrutiny and review by the community, and after review and the support of Arbitration Committee, typically around once a year (see Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight § Appointments). Users must also be at least 18 years old and have signed the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. Oversighters are also required to have passed a "RfA or RfA-identical process" first.^[14]

See Special:ListUsers/suppress for a list of the 47 Oversighters.

Other flagged accounts

Bots

Accounts used by approved bots to make pre-approved edits can be flagged as such. Bot accounts are automated or semi-automated, the nature of their edits is well defined, and they will be quickly blocked if their actions vary from their given tasks, so they require less scrutiny than human edits.

For this reason, contributions from accounts with the bot flag (bot user group) are not displayed in recent changes or watchlists to users who have opted to hide bot edits. Minor edits made by bot accounts to user talk pages do not trigger the "you have new messages" banner. Bot accounts can query the API in batches of 5,000 rather than 500.

See Special:ListUsers/bot for a list of the 299 bots.

Copyright violation bots

A copyviobot is an approved bot that is given the (pagetriage-copyvio) permission, allowing it to use the API to tag pages listed on Special:NewPagesFeed as likely copyright violations.

See Special:ListUsers/copyviobot for a list of the 2 copyviobots.

Founder

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WP:Founder

The founder group was created on the English Wikipedia by developer Tim Starling, without community input, as a unique group for Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales—although Larry Sanger is a co-founder, he has never been a member of this group—see Special:ListUsers/founder. The group formerly gave Wales full access to user rights, and no longer has any function but continues to exist as a courtesy. Wales is also a member of the founder global group, which grants several more rights across the Wikimedia network.

Researchers

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The researcher group allows individuals approved by the Wikimedia Foundation to perform a title search for deleted pages, view deleted history entries, and view deleted contents. It was created in 2010 and expanded in 2020.^[16]^[17]

See Special:ListUsers/researcher for a list of the 0 current researchers and meta:Research:Special API permissions/Log for further details.

Importers and transwiki importers

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WP:Importers

The Transwiki importers group gives editors the import permission for use on Special:Import. This interface allows users to copy pages, and optionally entire page histories, from certain other Wikimedia wikis. The import permission is also included in the administrators and importers user groups. There are currently 1 users in the transwiki importers group. This group is only available for assignment by stewards following a special community approval discussion.

Importers is a similar group which gives editors the importupload permission as well as the import permission for use on Special:Import. Importers have the additional ability to import articles directly from XML (which may come from any wiki site), as well as to merge the history of pages together using the mergehistory right (see WP:HM for more information). The importupload permission is also included in the stewards group. There are currently 2 users in the importer group. This access is highly restricted and is only available for assignment to a limited number of very trusted users by stewards following a special community approval discussion.

All users can use Special:Export to create an XML export of a page and its history.

Blocked users

Any user account can be blocked, regardless of which user group(s) it belongs to. While the account is blocked, the blocking flag disables the user or IP's existing editing privileges depending on which block options are set by the administrator. A partial block still allows some parts of Wikipedia to be edited.

Blocked users are listed on Special:BlockList.

Indefinitely blocked users

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If an editor is blocked indefinitely but not site-banned, their rights should generally be left as is. Rights specifically related to the reason for blocking may be removed at administrators' discretion;^[18] certain rights might also later be removed under applicable inactivity rules.

When an editor is indefinitely site-banned by the community, their granted permissions should be removed. If the ban is reversed due to actual error (e.g. votestacking in the ban thread), the rights should be restored, but otherwise a user who successfully appeals their ban is not automatically entitled to regain the rights.^[19]

Global rights

Global rights have effects on all public Wikimedia wikis, but their use may be restricted by local policy, see Wikipedia:Global rights policy. For an automatically generated list of global groups with all their permissions, see Special:GlobalGroupPermissions. For a list of users along with their global groups, see Special:GlobalUsers.

Stewards

Stewardship is an elected role, and stewards are appointed globally across all public Wikimedia wikis.

Users who are members of the steward user group may grant and revoke any permission to or from any user on any wiki operated by the Wikimedia Foundation which allows open account creation. This group is set on MetaWiki, and may use meta:Special:Userrights to set permissions on any Wikimedia wiki; they may add or remove any user from any group configured on metawiki. Stewards generally act only when there is no user on a particular wiki that can make the necessary change. This includes granting of the administrator or bureaucrat access levels on wikis which do not have any local bureaucrats, and removing such flags if the user resigns or the account is acting maliciously. Stewards are also responsible for granting and revoking access levels such as oversight and checkuser, as no other group is capable of making such changes except Foundation sysadmins and Trust and Safety staff.

Stewards can also act as checkusers, oversighters, bureaucrats or administrators on wikis which do not have active local members of those groups. For example, if a wiki has a passing need for an edit to be oversighted, a steward can add themselves to the oversight user group on that wiki, perform the necessary function, and then remove themselves from the oversight group using their steward rights.

Most steward actions are logged at meta:Special:Log/rights or meta:Special:Log/gblrights (some go to meta:Stewards/Additional log for global changes). See Special:GlobalUsers/steward or meta:Special:ListUsers/steward for a list of users in this group.

Other global user groups

Other global groups include WMF staff, sysadmins (system administrators), ombuds, Volunteer Response Team (VRT) members, global bots, global rollbackers, global sysops (not enabled on English Wikipedia), and interface editors. See Global rights policy and meta:User groups for information on these, as well as a full list.

Table

Generally, bureaucrats on the English Wikipedia are also administrators, and so have all the permissions of the sysop user group in addition to those rights from the bureaucrat group. However, this is not a requirement of the MediaWiki software nor is it a formal requirement of the Requests for Bureaucratship process; it is technically possible for a user to be a bureaucrat without also being an admin.
Deprecated permissions are either no longer assigned to any group or the group to which they are assigned is no longer populated.

Special:ListGroupRights is an automatically generated list of granted user group rights. The below table is manually updated, and also includes global groups with local access.

v t e Permission	Allows user(s) to…	All users^[a]	Registered accounts^[b]	Autoconfirmed and Confirmed	Bots	Administrators	Bureaucrats	other groups^[c]
abusefilter-access-protected-vars	View and create filters that use protected variables					Y		EFM, EFH
abusefilter-bypass-blocked-external-domains	Bypass blocked external domains				Y
abusefilter-hidden-log	View hidden abuse log entries							OS
abusefilter-hide-log	Hide entries in the abuse log							OS
abusefilter-log	View the abuse log	Y
abusefilter-log-detail	View detailed abuse log entries	Y		Y		Y		GR
abusefilter-log-private	View edit filters marked as private					Y
abusefilter-modify	Modify abuse filters							EFM
abusefilter-modify-blocked-external-domains	Create or modify what external domains are blocked from being linked					Y
abusefilter-modify-restricted	Modify edit filters with restricted actions					Y
abusefilter-privatedetails	View private data (IP addresses) in the abuse log							CU
abusefilter-privatedetails-log	View the AbuseFilter private details access log
abusefilter-protected-vars-log	View logs related to accessing protected variable values
abusefilter-revert	Revert all changes by a given abuse filter					Y
abusefilter-view	View non-private abuse filters	Y
abusefilter-view-private	View edit filters marked as private							CU, EFH, EFM, OS
apihighlimits	Request API queries in batches of 5,000, rather than 500				Y	Y		Researchers
applychangetags	Apply tags along with one's changes		Y
autoconfirmed	Not be affected by IP-based rate limits			Y	Y	Y		PCR, GR, IE
autopatrol	Automatically mark all edits made by the user as patrolled				Y			AP, GR
autoreview	Automatically mark all revisions made by the user as "accepted"			Y	Y	Y		PCR
bigdelete	Delete pages with over 5,000 revisions							Stewards
block	Block an IP address, user account, or range of IP addresses, from editing					Y
blockemail	Block a user from sending email					Y
bot	Edit without their edits showing up in recent changes				Y
browsearchive	Search deleted pages					Y		CU, OS, Researchers
centralauth-create-local	Forcibly create a local account for a global account					Y
centralauth-merge	Merge their account^[d]	Y
changetags	Add and remove arbitrary tags on individual revisions and log entries				Y	Y		EFM
checkuser	View all IP addresses used by a user account or show all edits from a given IP address							CU, Ombuds
checkuser-log	View the checkuser log							CU, Ombuds
checkuser-temporary-account	View IP addresses used by temporary accounts					Y	Y	TAIPV, Ombuds, GTAIPV
checkuser-temporary-account-log	View the log of access to temporary account IP addresses							CU, Ombuds
checkuser-temporary-account-no-preference	View IP addresses used by temporary accounts without needing to check the preference							CU, Ombuds
collectionsaveasuserpage	Save books as user subpage		Y	Y
createaccount	Create a new user account for themselves or another user	Y				Y		ACCP
createpage	Create a new page		Y
createpagemainns	Create a new mainspace page (users without this right are redirected to the Article Creation Workflow landing page)			Y
createtalk	Create a new talk page	Y	Y
delete	Delete a page with ≤ 5,000 revisions					Y
deletechangetags	Delete tags from the database					Y
deletedhistory	View the history of a deleted page or a user's deleted contributions, provided it is not CSS or JS					Y		CU, OS, Researchers
delete-redirect	Delete single revision redirects during page moves							PMR
deletedtext	View the text of deleted revisions, provided the page is not CSS or JS					Y		CU, Ombuds, OS, Researchers
deletelogentry	Access the RevisionDelete tool and change the public visibility of log entries					Y		OS
deleterevision	Access the RevisionDelete tool and change the public visibility of edit revisions					Y		OS
Permission	Allows user(s) to…	All users^[a]	Registered accounts^[b]	Autoconfirmed and Confirmed	Bots	Administrators	Bureaucrats	other groups^[c]
edit	Edit any page which is not protected	Y	Y					IE
editcontentmodel	Edit the content model of a page					Y		TE, IE
editinterface	Edit the MediaWiki namespace to affect the interface					Y		IA, IE
editmyoptions	Edit your own preferences	Y
editmyprivateinfo	Edit your own private data (e.g. email address, real name)	Y
editmyusercss	Edit your own user .css files		Y
editmyuserjs	Edit your own user .js files		Y
editmyuserjson	Edit your own user .json files		Y
editmywatchlist	Edit your own watchlist		Y
editprotected	Edit fully-protected pages					Y		IE
editsemiprotected	Edit semi-protected pages			Y	Y	Y		PCR, GR, IE
editsitecss	Edit sitewide .css files							IA, IE
editsitejs	Edit sitewide .js files
editsitejson	Edit sitewide .json files					Y
editusercss	Edit other users' .css files							IA, IE
edituserjs	Edit other users' .js files							IA, IE
edituserjson	Edit other users' .json files					Y		IA
extendedconfirmed	Edit 30/500 protected pages				Y	Y		XC, IE
globalblock-whitelist	Disable global blocks locally					Y
hideuser	Block a username, hiding it from the public							OS
import	Import pages from other wikis					Y		IMP, TWI
importupload	Import pages from a locally stored XML file							IMP
ipblock-exempt	Be unaffected by blocks applied to the user's IP address or a range (CIDR) containing it				Y	Y		IPBE
managechangetags	Create and (de)activate tags					Y		EFM
managementors	Manage the list of mentors					Y
markbotedits	Mark rollback as bot edits, to keep them out of recent changes					Y		GR^[e]
massmessage	Send a message to multiple users at once					Y		MMS
mergehistory	Merge the history of pages					Y		IMP
minoredit	Make an edit marked as 'minor'		Y
move	Change the title of a page by moving it			Y		Y		PMR, GR
move-categorypages	Change the title of a category by moving it				Y	Y		PMR
movefile	Change the title of a file by moving it					Y		FMV
move-rootuserpages	Move root user pages		Y			Y
move-subpages	Move pages with their subpages					Y	Y	PMR
movestable	Move pages under pending changes			Y		Y		GR
mwoauthmanagemygrants	Manage OAuth grants		Y
nominornewtalk	Minor edits by this user to user talk pages do not trigger the "you have new messages" banner				Y
noratelimit	Not be affected by rate limits				Y	Y	Y	ACCP, EVC, GR^[e], Stewards
Permission	Allows user(s) to…	All users^[a]	Registered accounts^[b]	Autoconfirmed and Confirmed	Bots	Administrators	Bureaucrats	other groups^[c]
nuke	Mass delete pages					Y
oathauth-enable	Enable two-factor authentication					Y	Y	CU, EFM, Founder, IMP, IA, OS, TE, TWI
override-antispoof	Allows the creation of accounts with mixed-script, confusing and similar usernames					Y	Y	ACCP
pagetriage-copyvio	Tag pages in the Special:NewPagesFeed as likely copyright violations, through the pagetriage-tagcopyvio API							Copyright violation bots
patrol	State that they have checked a page that appeared in Special:Newpages					Y		NPR
protect	Change protection levels, edit and move protected pages, and edit cascade-protected pages					Y		IE
purge	Purge a page by adding `&action=purge` to the URL		Y
read	Read pages	Y	Y
renameuser	Change the name of an existing account							Global renamers, Stewards
reupload	Overwrite an existing unprotected file			Y		Y
reupload-own	Overwrite existing files uploaded by oneself		Y
reupload-shared	Override files on the shared media repository locally					Y
review	Mark revisions as being "accepted"					Y		PCR
rollback	Use a special link to more easily revert a bad edit					Y		RBK, GR^[e]
sboverride	Bypass the spam block list				Y
sendemail	E-mail a user (using `Special:EmailUser/username`) who have associated an email address with themselves		Y
setmentor	Set user's mentor					Y
skipcaptcha	Perform CAPTCHA-triggering actions without having to go through the CAPTCHA			Y	Y	Y		GR
spamblacklistlog	View the spam blacklist log		Y					EFH
stablesettings	Configure how the latest accepted revision is selected and displayed					Y
suppressionlog	View private logs							OS
suppressredirect	Not create a redirect from the old name when moving a page				Y	Y	Y	GR^[e], PMR, IE
suppressrevision	Access the RevisionDelete tool and change the public and administrator visibility of edit revisions and logs							OS
tboverride	Override the title blacklist					Y	Y	TE, PMR, IE
tboverride-account	Override the username blacklist							ACCP
templateeditor	Edit pages under template protection					Y		TE, IE
titleblacklistlog	View title blacklist log (note: the log is empty, as it has not been enabled)					Y
torunblocked	Bypass automatic blocks of Tor exit nodes							IPBE
transcode-reset	Reset failed or transcoded videos so they are inserted into the job queue again			Y		Y
transcode-status	View information about the current transcode activity					Y
undelete	Undelete a previously deleted page or specific revisions from it, view deleted revisions					Y
unwatchedpages	View a list of pages which are not on anyone's watchlist					Y
upload	Upload a media file			Y		Y
urlshortener-create-url	Create short URLs	Y				Y
userrights	Edit all user rights							Stewards
viewmyprivateinfo	View your own private data (e.g. email address, real name)	Y
viewmywatchlist	View your own watchlist		Y
viewsuppressed	View revisions hidden from any user							OS
vipsscaler-test	Use the VIPS scaling test interface	Y
writeapi	Use of the write API	Y	Y		Y
Permission	Allows user(s) to…	All users^[a]	Registered accounts^[b]	Autoconfirmed and Confirmed	Bots	Administrators	Bureaucrats	other groups^[c]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Includes IP users. Any permission granted to all users will be inherited by the other user groups.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Any permission granted to registered accounts will be inherited by the other (registered) user groups.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Any user listed in this column has the relevant permission. Italics indicate a global permission.
^ Irrelevant since the SUL finalisation in 2015 where all mergeable accounts were merged.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Per Wikipedia:Global rights policy, Global rollbackers are only allowed to use this right in the context of counter-vandalism efforts.

IPs and new users are limited to 8 edits per minute. Autoconfirmed or confirmed users who are in no usergroup with the noratelimit userright are limited to 8 moves per minute, except that those granted the page mover usergroup are subject to an increased limit of 16 moves per minute^[20]. Rollbackers in the same situation are limited to 100 rollbacks per minute.^[21] Account creations are subject to an IP based limit, set at 6 for WMF wikis, but users with noratelimit are unaffected.


Group	Count	% held indirectly
Edit filter manager (abusefilter)	146	0%
Account creator (accountcreator)	855	99.2%
Autopatrolled (autoreviewer)	4,837	0%
Bot (bot)	299	0%
Bureaucrat (bureaucrat)	15	0%
CheckUser (checkuser)	58	0%
Event coordinator (eventcoordinator)	972	87.2%
Extended confirmed (extendedconfirmed)	74,078	1.1%
File mover (filemover)	1,235	68.7%
Founder (founder)	1	0%
Importer (import)	2	0%
Interface administrator (interface-admin)	13	0%
IP block exemption (ipblock-exempt)	795	0%
Mass message sender (massmessage-sender)	899	94.3%
Page mover (extendedmover)	1,254	67.6%
New page reviewer (patroller)	1,660	51.1%
Researcher (researcher)	0	0%
Pending changes reviewer (reviewer)	8,888	9.5%
Rollbacker (rollbacker)	7,727	11%
Oversight (suppress)	47	0%
Administrator (sysop)	848	0%
Template editor (templateeditor)	1,033	82.1%

User access level changes

Key to Rights
Yes	No
Y

Key to Project
Local	Global

		Event coord.	Administrator	Bureaucrat	Steward
Confirmed	give	Y	Y	Y	Y
Confirmed	take	N	Y	Y	Y
Extended confirmed			Y		Y
New page reviewer			Y		Y
Rollbacker			Y		Y
Autopatrolled			Y		Y
Edit Filter helper, Edit Filter manager			Y		Y
Event coordinator			Y		Y
Page mover, File mover			Y		Y
Template editor			Y		Y
Mass message sender			Y		Y
IP Block Exempt	give		Y	N	Y
IP Block Exempt	take		Y	Y	Y
Pending changes reviewer			Y	Y	Y
Account Creator			Y	Y	Y
Bot, Copyright violation bot				Y	Y
Administrator, Interface Administrator				Y	Y¹
Bureaucrat	give			Y	Y
Bureaucrat	take			N	Y
Checkuser, Oversight					Y
Import					Y
		Event coord.	Administrator	Bureaucrat	Steward

^1 Because bureaucrats were granted the ability to do this, stewards would refer most ordinary requests for removal of the sysop permission to them, but retain the right to remove the sysop permission when appropriate (such as emergencies or requests from the Arbitration Committee).

Former levels

Course coordinator, instructor, online and campus volunteer
Enabled users to manage course pages in the "Education Program:" namespace, which was shut down in June 2018
Afttest and Afttest-hide
Only granted by WMF staff, these enabled users to delete and/or hide article feedback. Removed in March 2014 after one year as the article feedback feature was discontinued.
EP staff, administrator, campus-ambassador, online-ambassador, and instructor
Used by users to coordinate and work with students, instructors, and institutions as part of the education program. Deprecated since 2013.

Notes

^ See wgTorAutoConfirmAge and wgTorAutoConfirmCount in https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/CommonSettings.php.txt
^ In accordance with this RfC, event coordinators may only grant the confirmed flag to editors who actually participate in an outreach event.
^ The edit total includes both live and deleted edits
^ Must have at least one edit after the creation of the extendedconfirmed user access level on 5 April 2016 (following this discussion).
^ 28 May 2017 clarification request
^ MediaWiki default settings are that the 'bureaucrats' group has the userrights flag (giving access to Special:UserRights) and can add or remove any flags. However this can be modified by mw:Manual:$wgAddGroups and mw:Manual:$wgRemoveGroups to restrict adding/removing flags to specified ones. Wikimedia's settings file uses these, and by default bureaucrats can only remove bot flags and add administrator, bureaucrat and bot flags. English Wikipedia, or 'enwiki', settings additionally permit adding accountcreator and removal of ipblock-exempt and accountcreator; which administrators can do anyway, and removal of sysop.
^ Since August 2011, per T20390
^ "Project:Account creators". MediaWikiWiki. 2015. Retrieved 2015-02-01. DefaultSettings.php grants the noratelimit user right to bureaucrats and sysops.
^ This flag only grants the exempted user to edit behind the IP address. IP block exempt users are not able to create accounts while behind an IP address that is also blocked with the "Prevent account creation" option enabled.
^ Administrators and bots are not affected by autoblocks and hard IP address blocks. However, the ipblock-exempt flag must be added to the administrator or bot account as a separate user right to allow them to edit from IP addresses affected by Tor blocks.
^ Specifically, they can edit these pages - even if they're located within the user space of another account.
^ See this RfC at Wikipedia talk:Interface administrators/Archive 3 § Allow non-admins to request access?
^ WMF 2FA requirement as published on Meta-Wiki
^ ^a ^b The Wikimedia Foundation has stated that an "RfA or RfA-identical process" is required for users to be granted access to deleted revisions.
^ The user group was named oversight until February of 2022.
^ Phabricator Task T253420: Add 'deletedtext' right to user group 'researchers'
^ The group has access to the browsearchive, deletedhistory and deletedtext rights, as well as apihighlimits (Special:ListGroupRights § researcher)
^ See the RfC at Wikipedia talk:User access levels/Archive 2 § Rights of indef blocked users.
^ See 2023 RfC. There is no consensus for or against applying this consensus retroactively. Administrators should use their discretion.
^ Per consensus in this RfC.
^ The API query https://wiki.riteme.site/w/api.php?action=query&meta=userinfo&uiprop=ratelimits%7Cgroups can be used to check those values.

[all-20] Includes IP users. Any permission granted to all users will be inherited by the other user groups.

[reg-21] Any permission granted to registered accounts will be inherited by the other (registered) user groups.

[other-22] Any user listed in this column has the relevant permission. Italics indicate a global permission.

[accountmerge-23] Irrelevant since the SUL finalisation in 2015 where all mergeable accounts were merged.

[GRP-24] Per Wikipedia:Global rights policy, Global rollbackers are only allowed to use this right in the context of counter-vandalism efforts.

[1] See wgTorAutoConfirmAge and wgTorAutoConfirmCount in https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/CommonSettings.php.txt

[2] In accordance with this RfC, event coordinators may only grant the confirmed flag to editors who actually participate in an outreach event.

[3] The edit total includes both live and deleted edits

[4] Must have at least one edit after the creation of the extendedconfirmed user access level on 5 April 2016 (following this discussion).

[5] 28 May 2017 clarification request

[6] MediaWiki default settings are that the 'bureaucrats' group has the userrights flag (giving access to Special:UserRights) and can add or remove any flags. However this can be modified by mw:Manual:$wgAddGroups and mw:Manual:$wgRemoveGroups to restrict adding/removing flags to specified ones. Wikimedia's settings file uses these, and by default bureaucrats can only remove bot flags and add administrator, bureaucrat and bot flags. English Wikipedia, or 'enwiki', settings additionally permit adding accountcreator and removal of ipblock-exempt and accountcreator; which administrators can do anyway, and removal of sysop.

[7] Since August 2011, per T20390

[8] "Project:Account creators". MediaWikiWiki. 2015. Retrieved 2015-02-01. DefaultSettings.php grants the noratelimit user right to bureaucrats and sysops.

[9] This flag only grants the exempted user to edit behind the IP address. IP block exempt users are not able to create accounts while behind an IP address that is also blocked with the "Prevent account creation" option enabled.

[10] Administrators and bots are not affected by autoblocks and hard IP address blocks. However, the ipblock-exempt flag must be added to the administrator or bot account as a separate user right to allow them to edit from IP addresses affected by Tor blocks.

[11] Specifically, they can edit these pages - even if they're located within the user space of another account.

[12] See this RfC at Wikipedia talk:Interface administrators/Archive 3 § Allow non-admins to request access?

[13] WMF 2FA requirement as published on Meta-Wiki

[wmf-14] The Wikimedia Foundation has stated that an "RfA or RfA-identical process" is required for users to be granted access to deleted revisions.

[15] The user group was named oversight until February of 2022.

[16] Phabricator Task T253420: Add 'deletedtext' right to user group 'researchers'

[17] The group has access to the browsearchive, deletedhistory and deletedtext rights, as well as apihighlimits (Special:ListGroupRights § researcher)

[18] See the RfC at Wikipedia talk:User access levels/Archive 2 § Rights of indef blocked users.

[19] See 2023 RfC. There is no consensus for or against applying this consensus retroactively. Administrators should use their discretion.

[25] Per consensus in this RfC.

[26] The API query https://wiki.riteme.site/w/api.php?action=query&meta=userinfo&uiprop=ratelimits%7Cgroups can be used to check those values.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]

[e]

[20]

[21]

Requests for permissions
Common	Autopatrolled AutoWikiBrowser New page reviewer Page mover Pending changes reviewer Rollback
Uncommon	Account creator Confirmed Event coordinator Extended confirmed File mover Mass message sender Template editor
Logs	Archived requests Approved requests Denied requests System rights log
Special	Administrator Bot Bureaucrat CheckUser and Oversight Edit filter helper Edit filter manager Interface administrator

v t e Wikipedia technical help
Get personal technical help at the Teahouse, help desk, village pump (technical), talk pages or IRC.
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Data structure	Namespaces Main/Article Category Draft File File description page Help Portal Project/Wikipedia Talk Archiving Simple Template User User page design MediaWiki Bug reports and feature requests TimedMediaHandler extension Module Special
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See also: Category:Wikipedia how-to Category:Wikipedia information pages Further navigation at: Help pages Administrators Accessibility Accounts Bots Referencing Citation metadata Templates User scripts

v t e Wikipedia accounts and governance
Unregistered (IP) users	Why create an account? Create an account Request an account IPs are human too IP addresses are not people IP hopper
Registered users	New account Logging in Reset passwords Username policy Changing username Usernames for administrator attention Unified login or SUL Alternate account
Account security	Password strength requirements User account security Personal security practices Two-factor authentication 2FA for AWB Committed identity On privacy, confidentiality and discretion Compromised accounts How to not get outed
Blocks, bans, sanctions, global actions	Blocking policy FAQ Admin's guide Tools Autoblock Appealing a block Guide to appealing blocks UTRS Unblock Ticket Request System Blocking IP addresses Range blocks IPv6 Open proxies Banning policy ArbCom appeals Sanctions Personal sanctions General sanctions Contentious topics and Log Essay Indef ≠ infinite Long-term abuse Standard offer Global actions
Related to accounts	Sockpuppetry Single-purpose account Sleeper account Vandalism-only account Wikibreak Enforcer Retiring Courtesy vanishing Clean start Quiet return
User groups and global user groups	Requests for permissions Admin instructions Admin guide Account creator PERM (Auto) confirmed PERM Autopatrolled PERM AutoWikiBrowser PERM Bot Request Edit filter helper Request Event coordinator PERM Extended confirmed PERM File mover PERM IP block exempt Request Mass message sender PERM New page reviewer PERM Page mover PERM Pending changes reviewer PERM Rollback PERM Template editor PERM Global rights policy Volunteer Response Team
Advanced user groups	Administrator RfA Bureaucrat RfB CheckUser and Oversight Request Edit filter manager Request Interface administrator Request Founder Importer Researcher
Committees and related	Arbitration Committee Bot approvals group Functionaries Clerks SPI clerks ArbCom clerks
Governance	Administration FAQ Formal organization Editorial oversight and control Quality control Wikimedia Foundation Board Founder's seat Meta-Wiki Proposals WikiProjects Elections Policies and guidelines Petitions Noticeboards Consensus Dispute resolution Reforms

Overview

User groups

Standard user rights that are granted automatically

Unregistered (IP or not logged in) users

Registered (new) users

Autoconfirmed and confirmed users

Confirmed users

Extended confirmed users

Administrators and bureaucrats

Administrators

Bureaucrats

Flags granted to users giving access to specialized functions

Pending changes reviewer

Rollback

Autopatrolled

New page reviewer (patroller)

File mover

Page mover

Account creator

Event coordinator

Template editor

IP block exemption

Edit filter managers

Edit filter helpers

Mass message sender

Interface administrators

Functionary user levels

CheckUser

Oversight

Other flagged accounts

Bots

Copyright violation bots

Founder

Researchers

Importers and transwiki importers

Blocked users

Indefinitely blocked users

Global rights

Stewards

Other global user groups

Table

User access level changes

Former levels

See also

Notes