Documentation

Use a preconfigured admin token

Start InfluxDB 3 Core with a preconfigured “offline” admin token file. If no admin tokens already exist, InfluxDB automatically creates an admin token using the provided admin token file. Offline tokens are designed to help with automated deployments.

Generate an offline admin token file

Use the influxdb3 create token --admin command to generate an offline admin token file. Include the following options:

* Required

  • --name: The name of the admin token (default is _admin) (replace TOKEN_NAME)
  • --expiry: Duration for the token to remain valid, in humantime format (for example, 10d for 10 days or 1y for 1 year). (replace DURATION)
  • * --offline
  • * --output-file: File path to use for the generated token file (replace path/to/tokens.json)
influxdb3 create token --admin \
  --name 
TOKEN_NAME
\
--expiry
DURATION
\
--offline \ --output-file
path/to/admin-token.json

You can write or generate your own admin token file

The influxdb3 create token --admin --offline command makes generating offline admin token files easy, but it is not required. You can also write or generate your own admin token files using the required JSON schema.

Token string security standards

If writing or generating your own admin token file, ensure that the token string is sufficiently secure. We recommend the following:

  • Use a cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator.
  • Ensure sufficient length and entropy. Generate and base64-encode a random string of at least 16 bytes (128 bits).
  • Prepend the generated string with apiv3_ for InfluxDB compatibility.

Token file permissions

Token file permissions should be restricted 0600 to protect the token.

Offline admin token file schema

An offline admin token file is a JSON-formatted file that contains a single object with the following fields:

  • token: The raw token string (must begin with apiv3_)
  • name: The token name (default is _admin)
  • description: (Optional) A description of the token
  • expiry_millis: (Optional) Token expiration time as a millisecond Unix timestamp
{
  "token": "apiv3_0XXXX-xxxXxXxxxXX_OxxxX...",
  "name": "_admin",
  "description": "Admin token for InfluxDB 3",
  "expiry_millis": 1756400061529
}

Start InfluxDB with the preconfigured admin token

When starting InfluxDB 3 Core, include the --admin-token-file option with the influxdb3 serve command or set the INFLUXDB3_ADMIN_TOKEN_FILE environment variable to provide the preconfigured offline admin token file:

influxdb3 serve \
  # ... \
  --admin-token-file 
path/to/admin-token.json
INFLUXDB3_ADMIN_TOKEN_FILE=
path/to/admin-token.json
influxdb3 serve \ # ... \

When the server starts, you can use the preconfigured admin token to interact with your InfluxDB 3 Core instance.


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New in InfluxDB 3.8

Key enhancements in InfluxDB 3.8 and the InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.6.

See the Blog Post

InfluxDB 3.8 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, alongside the 1.6 release of the InfluxDB 3 Explorer UI. This release is focused on operational maturity and making InfluxDB easier to deploy, manage, and run reliably in production.

For more information, check out:

InfluxDB Docker latest tag changing to InfluxDB 3 Core

On April 7, 2026, the latest tag for InfluxDB Docker images will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments.

If using Docker to install and run InfluxDB, the latest tag will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments. For example, if using Docker to run InfluxDB v2, replace the latest version tag with a specific version tag in your Docker pull command–for example:

docker pull influxdb:2