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# Tokens

A token is a unique identifier mapped to a Nautobot user account. Each user may have one or more tokens which he or she can use for authentication when making REST API requests. To create a token, navigate to the API tokens page under your user profile.

1. Sign into Nautobot
2. On the upper right hand corner, select your username, then Profile
3. On the left hand side, under User Profile, select API Tokens
4. Select +Add a token
5. Leave Key blank to automatically create a token, or fill one in for yourself
6. Check or uncheck "Write enabled", as desired
7. (Optional) Set an expiration date for this token
8. (Optional) Add a description

Note

The creation and modification of API tokens can be restricted per user by an administrator. If you don't see an option to create an API token, ask an administrator to grant you access.

Each token contains a 160-bit key represented as 40 hexadecimal characters. When creating a token, you'll typically leave the key field blank so that a random key will be automatically generated. However, Nautobot allows you to specify a key in case you need to restore a previously deleted token to operation.

By default, a token can be used to perform all actions via the API that a user would be permitted to do via the web UI. Deselecting the "write enabled" option will restrict API requests made with the token to read operations (e.g. GET) only.

Additionally, a token can be set to expire at a specific time. This can be useful if an external client needs to be granted temporary access to Nautobot.