Internationalization settings in Kibana

You do not need to configure any settings to run Kibana in English.

General settings

i18n.defaultLocale Stack Beta 9.5+ The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Beta since 9.5 This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

Supported on: ECH Beta Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Self-managed Beta Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

The locale used for server-rendered strings and as the default for users who haven't picked a preferred language. Must be one of the values listed in i18n.locales when that setting is non-empty.

Datatype: string

Default: 'en'

i18n.locales Stack Beta 9.5+ The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Beta since 9.5 This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

Supported on: ECH Beta Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Self-managed Beta Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

The list of locales that Kibana offers for per-user language selection. Locales not in this list are not available to users, even if translation files for them are installed. Set to [] to disable language selection entirely.

Datatype: list

Default: ["en", "fr-FR", "ja-JP", "zh-CN", "de-DE", "pt-BR"]

i18n.allowLocaleCookie Stack Beta 9.5+ The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Beta since 9.5 This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

Supported on: ECH Beta Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Self-managed Beta Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

When true (the default), Kibana writes a KBN_LOCALE cookie on every rendered response so the browser remembers the resolved locale across page loads, anonymous pages, and post-logout browsing. Set to false to disable the cookie.

Datatype: boolean

Default: true

i18n.detectBrowserLocale Stack Beta 9.5+ The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Beta since 9.5 This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

Supported on: ECH Beta Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. Self-managed Beta Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability Beta This functionality is in beta and is not ready for production usage. For beta features, the design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features. Specific Support terms apply. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

When true (the default), Kibana uses the browser's Accept-Language preferences to pick the display language for users who have not chosen one and when i18n.defaultLocale is left at en. Set to false to always fall back to i18n.defaultLocale instead. Per-user language selection and the KBN_LOCALE cookie are not affected.

Datatype: boolean

Default: true

i18n.locale Stack Deprecated 9.5+ The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Deprecated since 9.5 This functionality is deprecated. You can still use it, but it'll be removed in a future Elastic Stack update. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

Supported on: ECH Elastic Cloud Hosted lets you manage and configure one or more deployments of the versioned Elastic Stack, hosted on Elastic Cloud. Availability Generally available This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Self-managed Self-managed deployments are Elastic Stack deployments managed without the assistance of an orchestrator. Availability Generally available This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.

Set the Kibana interface language.

Datatype: enum

Default: en

Options:

• en - English
• zh-CN - Chinese
• ja-JP - Japanese
• fr-FR - French
• de-DE - German
• pt-BR - Portuguese (Brazil)

Deprecation details

Replaced by i18n.defaultLocale. Kibana continues to honor i18n.locale if set, logging a deprecation warning at startup.

To apply these settings in your deployment, refer to Elastic Stack settings. On Elastic Cloud Serverless, Elastic manages these settings for you.

Kibana ships translation files for the following locales:

• Serverless Elastic Cloud Serverless projects are autoscaled environments, fully managed by Elastic and available on Elastic Cloud. Availability Generally available This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Serverless interfaces and procedures might differ from classic Elastic Stack deployments. Stack Planned The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Planned We plan to add this functionality in a future Elastic Stack update. Subject to changes. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. English, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, German, and Portuguese (Brazil)
• Stack 9.0-9.5 The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability Generally available from 9.0 to 9.5 This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes. English, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and German

Plugins and admin-installed translation files can add additional locales. Any locale listed in i18n.locales for which a translation file exists will be served. Locales without translation files fall back to English.

Each user can change their display language from the user menu or profile page. For steps, see Change the interface language in Kibana.

When i18n.locales is not empty, language selection is available to users. When a user sets a preferred language, it is stored in their user profile and takes effect after a page reload.

Kibana resolves the display language using the following priority chain:

1. User profile setting — The language selected by the user in their profile or the user menu (must be one of i18n.locales).
2. KBN_LOCALE cookie — The most recently rendered locale on this browser. Kibana writes this cookie on every rendered response, so it tracks profile changes automatically. The cookie is the fallback used on surfaces where the profile isn't available — login pages, error pages, and any browsing the user does after signing out. Only used when the cookie value matches a locale Kibana can serve.
3. i18n.defaultLocale config (when explicitly set) — When an admin sets i18n.defaultLocale to a value other than the built-in en default, that server-wide choice takes precedence over browser detection. Per-user signals (profile, cookie) above still win over it.
4. Accept-Language header — When the steps above produce no match and i18n.defaultLocale is left at its en default, Kibana consults the browser's Accept-Language preferences. The first weighted preference matching an entry in i18n.locales, exactly or by language (fr-CH or bare fr can resolve to a configured fr-FR), wins. Skipped when i18n.detectBrowserLocale is false.
5. i18n.defaultLocale config — The server-wide default (en unless overridden) set in kibana.yml, used when nothing above matches.

Kibana sets a KBN_LOCALE cookie on every rendered response containing the resolved locale id (for example, KBN_LOCALE=ja-JP). Attributes:

• Path scoped to the Kibana serverBasePath.
• SameSite=Lax, Max-Age of one year, and Secure when the response is over HTTPS.
• HttpOnly. The value is a preference, not a secret, but Kibana does not need browser-side JavaScript to read it.

Privacy posture: KBN_LOCALE is a strictly-necessary preference cookie. It does not track the user, store identity, or enable cross-site activity.

To disable the cookie entirely, set i18n.allowLocaleCookie: false in kibana.yml. When disabled, the per-user language selection still works via user profiles; however, anonymous pages and pages visited after signing out resolve their locale from i18n.defaultLocale when it is explicitly set, and otherwise from the browser's Accept-Language preferences (falling back to the en default when no preference matches), rather than remembering the previously resolved locale.

# 1. Default behavior — language selection offers the bundled locales,
#    server defaults to English. Equivalent to omitting all i18n.* keys.

# 2. Curate the available languages to a subset:
i18n.locales: ["en", "ja-JP"]
i18n.defaultLocale: "en"

# 3. Disable language selection entirely (server still serves defaultLocale).
#    The flow-style empty array (square brackets) is the supported way to
#    express "no locales"; the block-list form has no syntax for an empty list.
i18n.locales: []
i18n.defaultLocale: "en"

# 4. Legacy form — still works, logs a deprecation warning at startup:
i18n.locale: "ja-JP"

# 5. Disable the KBN_LOCALE cookie:
i18n.allowLocaleCookie: false

# 6. Keep language selection, but never pick the language from the browser.
#    Users see i18n.defaultLocale until they choose a language themselves:
i18n.detectBrowserLocale: false