---
title: i18n settings in Kibana
description: You do not need to configure any settings to run Kibana in English. Kibana ships translation files for English, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese,...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3242/reference/kibana/configuration-reference/internationalization-settings
products:
  - Kibana
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available
  - Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available
---

# i18n settings in Kibana
You do not need to configure any settings to run Kibana in English.
<definitions>
  <definition term="i18n.defaultLocale logo cloud Elastic Stack: Planned">
    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.
    **Default: `en`**
  </definition>
  <definition term="i18n.locales logo cloud Elastic Stack: Planned">
    The list of locales that Kibana offers in the language picker.
    Locales not in this list are not available to users, even if translation files
    for them are installed. Set to `[]` to disable the language picker.
    **Default:** `["en", "fr-FR", "ja-JP", "zh-CN", "de-DE"]`
  </definition>
  <definition term="i18n.locale Elastic Stack: Planned for deprecation">
    Replaced by `i18n.defaultLocale`. Kibana continues to honor `i18n.locale`
    if set, logging a deprecation warning at startup.
  </definition>
</definitions>


## Built-in and custom locales

Kibana ships translation files for English, French, Japanese, Simplified
Chinese, and German. Plugins (and admin-installed translation files) can add
additional locales. Any locale you list in `i18n.locales` for which a
translation file exists will be served; locales without translation files fall
back to English.

## Per-user language selection

When `i18n.locales` is not empty, individual users can choose their preferred
display language:
- <applies-to>Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available</applies-to> **User Profile page** — Users can select a language from the
  **Language** section on their profile page (*User icon → Profile*).
- <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available</applies-to> **User menu** — Users can select a language from the **Language**
  option in the user menu available from the application header.

When a user sets a preferred language, it is stored in their user profile and
takes effect after a page reload.

### Resolution priority

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. **`i18n.defaultLocale` config** — The server-wide default set in `kibana.yml`.


## Example configurations

```yaml
# 1. Default behavior — picker shows the five bundled locales, server defaults
#    to English. Equivalent to omitting all i18n.* keys.

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

# 3. Disable the per-user picker 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"
```