---
title: Add plugins and extensions in Elastic Cloud Hosted
description: Plugins extend the core functionality of Elasticsearch. Elastic Cloud Hosted simplifies plugin management by offering compatible plugins for your Elasticsearch...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/7101/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/add-plugins-extensions
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available
---

# Add plugins and extensions in Elastic Cloud Hosted
Plugins extend the core functionality of Elasticsearch. Elastic Cloud Hosted simplifies plugin management by offering compatible plugins for your Elasticsearch version. These plugins are automatically upgraded with your deployment, except when there are breaking changes.
In Elastic Cloud Hosted deployments, you can add plugins by selecting them from the available list. Plugin availability depends on your Elasticsearch version.
There are many suitable plugins, including:
- Discovery plugins, such as the cloud AWS plugin that allows discovering nodes on EC2 instances.
- Analysis plugins, to provide analyzers targeted at languages other than English.
- Scripting plugins, to provide additional scripting languages.

Plugins can come from different sources: official ones created or maintained by Elastic, community-sourced plugins from other users, and plugins that you provide. Some of the official plugins are always provided with our service, and can be [enabled per deployment](#ec-adding-elastic-plugins).
To add plugins to a hosted deployment in Elastic Cloud, you can:
- [Enable one of the official plugins already available in Elastic Cloud](#ec-adding-elastic-plugins). To learn more about the official and community-sourced plugins, refer to [Elasticsearch plugins](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/elasticsearch/tree/main/reference/elasticsearch-plugins).
- [Upload a custom plugin and then enable it per deployment](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/7101/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/upload-custom-plugins-bundles). Custom plugins can include the official Elasticsearch plugins not provided with Elastic Cloud, any of the community-sourced plugins, or [plugins that you write yourself](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/elasticsearch/tree/main/extend).

For a detailed guide with examples of using the Elastic Cloud API to create, get information about, update, and delete extensions and plugins, check [Managing plugins and extensions through the API](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/7101/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/manage-plugins-extensions-through-api).

## Add plugins provided with Elastic Cloud Hosted

You can use a variety of official plugins that are compatible with your version of Elasticsearch. When you upgrade to a new Elasticsearch version, these plugins are upgraded with the rest of your deployment.

### Before you begin

Some restrictions apply when adding plugins. For example, plugins are not supported for Kibana. To learn more, check [Restrictions for Elasticsearch and Kibana plugins](/elastic/docs-content/pull/7101/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/restrictions-known-problems#ec-restrictions-plugins).
Only Gold, Platinum, Enterprise, and Private subscriptions have access to uploading custom plugins. All subscription levels, including Standard, can upload scripts and dictionaries.

### Enable plugins for a deployment

1. Log in to [Elastic Cloud](https://cloud.elastic.co?page=docs&placement=docs-body).
2. Find your deployment on the home page or on the **Hosted deployments** page, then select **Manage** to access its settings menus.
   On the **Hosted deployments** page you can narrow your deployments by name, ID, or choose from several other filters. To customize your view, use a combination of filters, or change the format from a grid to a list.
3. From the **Actions** dropdown, select **Edit deployment**.
4. Select **Manage user settings and extensions**.
5. Select the **Extensions** tab.
6. Select the plugins or extensions that you want to enable.
7. Select **Back**.
8. Select **Save**. The Elasticsearch cluster is then updated with new nodes that have the plugin installed.