---
title: Authentication Config
label: Config
order: 20
desc: Enable and customize options in the Authentication config for features including Forgot Password, Login Attempts, API key usage and more.
keywords: authentication, config, configuration, documentation, Content Management System, cms, headless, javascript, node, react, express
---

Payload's Authentication is extremely powerful and gives you everything you need when you go to build a new app or site in a secure and responsible manner.

To enable Authentication on a collection, define an `auth` property and set it to either `true` or to an object containing the options below.

## Options

| Option                 | Description  |
| ---------------------- | -------------|
| **`useAPIKey`**        | Payload Authentication provides for API keys to be set on each user within an Authentication-enabled Collection. [More](/docs/authentication/config#api-keys) |
| **`tokenExpiration`**  | How long (in seconds) to keep the user logged in. JWTs and HTTP-only cookies will both expire at the same time. |
| **`maxLoginAttempts`** | Only allow a user to attempt logging in X amount of times. Automatically locks out a user from authenticating if this limit is passed. Set to `0` to disable. |
| **`lockTime`**         | Set the time that a user should be locked out if they fail authentication more times than `maxLoginAttempts` allows for. |
| **`depth`**            | How many levels deep a `user` document should be populated when creating the JWT and binding the `user` to the express `req`. Defaults to `0` and should only be modified if absolutely necessary, as this will affect performance. |
| **`cookies`**          | Set cookie options, including `secure`, `sameSite`, and `domain`. For advanced users. |
| **`forgotPassword`**   | Customize the way that the `forgotPassword` operation functions. [More](/docs/authentication/config#forgot-password) |
| **`verify`**           | Set to `true` or pass an object with verification options to require users to verify by email before they are allowed to log into your app. [More](/docs/authentication/config#email-verification) |

### API keys

To integrate with third-party APIs or services, you might need the ability to generate API keys that can be used to identify as a certain user within Payload.

For example, if you have a third-party service or external app that needs to be able to perform protected actions at its discretion, you have two options:

1. Create a user for the third-party app, and log in each time to receive a token before you attempt to access any protected actions
1. Enable API key support for the Collection, where you can generate a non-expiring API key per user in the collection

Technically, both of these options will work for third-party integrations but the second option with API key is simpler, because it reduces the amount of work that your integrations need to do to be authenticated properly.

To enable API keys on a collection, set the `useAPIKey` auth option to `true`. From there, a new interface will appear in the Admin panel for each document within the collection that allows you to generate an API key for each user in the Collection.

<Banner type="success">
  User API keys are encrypted within the database, meaning that if your database is compromised, your API keys will not be.
</Banner>

##### Authenticating via API Key

To utilize your API key while interacting with the REST or GraphQL API, add the `Authorization` header.

**For example, using Fetch:**
```js
const response = await fetch('http://localhost:3000/api/pages', {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `${collection.labels.singular} API-Key ${YOUR_API_KEY}`,
  },
});
```

### Forgot Password

You can customize how the Forgot Password workflow operates with the following options on the `auth.forgotPassword` property:

**`generateEmailHTML`**

Function that accepts one argument, containing `{ req, token, user }`, that allows for overriding the HTML within emails that are sent to users attempting to reset their password. The function should return a string that supports HTML, which can be a full HTML email.

<Banner type="success">
  <strong>Tip:</strong><br />
  HTML templating can be used to create custom email templates, inline CSS automatically, and more. You can make a reusable function that standardizes all email sent from Payload, which makes sending custom emails more DRY. Payload doesn't ship with an HTML templating engine, so you are free to choose your own.
</Banner>

Example:

```js
{
  slug: 'customers',
  auth: {
    forgotPassword: {
      // highlight-start
      generateEmailHTML: ({ req, token, user }) => {
        // Use the token provided to allow your user to reset their password
        const resetPasswordURL = `https://yourfrontend.com/reset-password?token=${token}`;

        return `
          <!doctype html>
          <html>
            <body>
              <h1>Here is my custom email template!</h1>
              <p>Hello, ${user.email}!</p>
              <p>Click below to reset your password.</p>
              <p>
                <a href="${resetPasswordURL}">${resetPasswordURL}</a>
              </p>
            </body>
          </html>
        `;
      }
      // highlight-end
    }
  }
}
```

<Banner type="warning">
  <strong>Important:</strong><br />
  If you specify a different URL to send your users to for resetting their password, such as a page on the frontend of your app or similar, you need to handle making the call to the Payload REST or GraphQL reset-password operation yourself on your frontend, using the token that was provided for you. Above, it was passed via query parameter.
</Banner>

**`generateEmailSubject`**

Similarly to the above `generateEmailHTML`, you can also customize the subject of the email. The function argument are the same but you can only return a string - not HTML.

Example:

```js
{
  slug: 'customers',
  auth: {
    forgotPassword: {
      // highlight-start
      generateEmailSubject: ({ req, user }) => {
        return `Hey ${user.email}, reset your password!`;
      }
      // highlight-end
    }
  }
}
```

### Email Verification

If you'd like to require email verification before a user can successfully log in, you can enable it by passing `true` or an `options` object to `auth.verify`. The following options are available:

**`generateEmailHTML`**

Function that accepts one argument, containing `{ req, token, user }`, that allows for overriding the HTML within emails that are sent to users indicating how to validate their account. The function should return a string that supports HTML, which can optionally be a full HTML email.

Example:

```js
{
  slug: 'customers',
  auth: {
    verify: {
      // highlight-start
      generateEmailHTML: ({ req, token, user }) => {
        // Use the token provided to allow your user to verify their account
        const url = `https://yourfrontend.com/verify?token=${token}`;

        return `Hey ${user.email}, verify your email by clicking here: ${url}`;
      }
      // highlight-end
    }
  }
}
```

<Banner type="warning">
  <strong>Important:</strong><br />
  If you specify a different URL to send your users to for email verification, such as a page on the frontend of your app or similar, you need to handle making the call to the Payload REST or GraphQL verification operation yourself on your frontend, using the token that was provided for you. Above, it was passed via query parameter.
</Banner>

**`generateEmailSubject`**

Similarly to the above `generateEmailHTML`, you can also customize the subject of the email. The function argument are the same but you can only return a string - not HTML.

Example:

```js
{
  slug: 'customers',
  auth: {
    forgotPassword: {
      // highlight-start
      generateEmailSubject: ({ req, user }) => {
        return `Hey ${user.email}, reset your password!`;
      }
      // highlight-end
    }
  }
}
```
