Upload plugin

The Upload plugin is the backend powering the Media Library available by default in the Strapi admin panel. The Upload plugin is installed by default and can not be uninstalled. Using either the Media Library from the admin panel or the upload API directly, you can upload any kind of file for use in your Strapi application.

By default Strapi provides a provider that uploads files to a local directory, which by default will be public/uploads/ in your Strapi project. Additional providers are available should you want to upload your files to another location.

The providers maintained by Strapi include:

Configuration

This section details configuration options for the default upload provider. If using another provider (e.g. AWS S3 or Cloudinary), see the available configuration parameters in that provider's documentation.

Local server

By default Strapi accepts localServer configurations for locally uploaded files. These will be passed as the options for koa-static.

You can provide them by creating or editing the ./config/plugins.js file. The following example sets the max-age header.

JavaScript
TypeScript

./config/plugins.js

module.exports = ({ env })=>({
  upload: {
    config: {
      providerOptions: {
        localServer: {
          maxage: 300000
        },
      },
    },
  },
});

./config/plugins.ts

export default ({ env }) => ({
  upload: {
    config: {
      providerOptions: {
        localServer: {
          maxage: 300000
        },
      },
    },
  },
});

Max file size

Currently the Strapi middleware in charge of parsing requests needs to be configured to support file sizes larger than the default of 200MB in addition to provider options passed to the upload plugin for sizeLimit.

✋ Caution

You may also need to adjust any upstream proxies, load balancers, or firewalls to allow for larger file sizes.
(e.g. Nginx has a config setting called client_max_body_size that will need to be adjusted since it's default is only 1mb.)

The library we use is koa-body, and it uses the node-formidable library to process files.

You can pass configuration to the middleware directly by setting it in the body middleware configuration in ./config/middlewares.js:

JavaScript
TypeScript

path: ./config/middlewares.js

module.exports = [
  // ...
  {
    name: "strapi::body",
    config: {
      formLimit: "256mb", // modify form body
      jsonLimit: "256mb", // modify JSON body
      textLimit: "256mb", // modify text body
      formidable: {
        maxFileSize: 250 * 1024 * 1024, // multipart data, modify here limit of uploaded file size
      },
    },
  },
  // ...
];

path: ./config/middlewares.ts

export default [
  // ...
  {
    name: "strapi::body",
    config: {
      formLimit: "256mb", // modify form body
      jsonLimit: "256mb", // modify JSON body
      textLimit: "256mb", // modify text body
      formidable: {
        maxFileSize: 250 * 1024 * 1024, // multipart data, modify here limit of uploaded file size
      },
    },
  },
  // ...
];

In addition to the middleware configuration, you can pass the sizeLimit, which is an integer in bytes, in the plugin configuration in ./config/plugins.js:

JavaScript
TypeScript

path: ./config/plugins.js

module.exports = {
  // ...
  upload: {
    config: {
      sizeLimit: 250 * 1024 * 1024 // 256mb in bytes
    }
  }
};

path: ./config/plugins.ts

export default {
  // ...
  upload: {
    config: {
      sizeLimit: 250 * 1024 * 1024 // 256mb in bytes
    }
  }
};

Upload request timeout

By default, the value of strapi.server.httpServer.requestTimeout is set to 330 seconds. This includes uploads. To make it possible for users with slow internet connection to upload large files, it might be required to increase this timeout limit. The recommended way to do it is by setting the http.serverOptions.requestTimeout parameter in the config/server.js|ts file (see server configuration. An alternate method is to set the requestTimeout value in the bootstrap function that runs before Strapi gets started. This is useful in cases where it needs to change programmatically — for example, to temporarily disable and re-enable it:

JavaScript
TypeScript

path: ./index.js

module.exports = {

  //...

  bootstrap({ strapi }) {
    // Set the requestTimeout to 1,800,000 milliseconds (30 minutes):
    strapi.server.httpServer.requestTimeout = 30 * 60 * 1000;
  },
};

path: ./index.ts

export default {

  //...

  bootstrap({ strapi }) {
    // Set the requestTimeout to 1,800,000 milliseconds (30 minutes):
    strapi.server.httpServer.requestTimeout = 30 * 60 * 1000;
  },
};

Responsive Images

When the Enable responsive friendly upload setting is enabled in the settings panel the plugin will generate the following responsive image sizes:

Name	Largest Dimension
large	1000px
medium	750px
small	500px

These sizes can be overridden in ./config/plugins.js:

JavaScript
TypeScript

path: ./config/plugins.js

module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  upload: {
    config: {
      breakpoints: {
        xlarge: 1920,
        large: 1000,
        medium: 750,
        small: 500,
        xsmall: 64
      },
    },
  },
});

path: ./config/plugins.ts

export default ({ env }) => ({
  upload: {
    config: {
      breakpoints: {
        xlarge: 1920,
        large: 1000,
        medium: 750,
        small: 500,
        xsmall: 64
      },
    },
  },
});

✋ Caution

Breakpoint changes will only apply to new images, existing images will not be resized or have new sizes generated.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/upload/files	Get a list of files
GET	/api/upload/files/:id	Get a specific file
POST	/api/upload	Upload files
POST	/api/upload?id=x	Update fileInfo
DELETE	/api/upload/files/:id	Delete a file

✏️ Notes

Folders are an admin panel-only feature and are not part of the Content API (REST or GraphQL). Files uploaded through REST are located in the automatically created "API Uploads" folder.
The GraphQL API does not support uploading media files. To upload files, use the REST API or directly add files from the Media Library in the admin panel. Some GraphQL mutations to update or delete uploaded media files are still possible (see GraphQL API documentation for details).

Examples

Upload files

Upload one or more files to your application.

The following parameters are accepted:

files: The file(s) to upload. The value(s) can be a Buffer or Stream.

BROWSER
NODE.JS

<form>
  <!-- Can be multiple files -->
  <input type="file" name="files" />
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
  const form = document.querySelector('form');

  form.addEventListener('submit', async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();

    await fetch('/api/upload', {
      method: 'post',
      body: new FormData(e.target)
    });
  });
</script>

import { FormData } from 'formdata-node';
import fetch, { blobFrom } from 'node-fetch';

const file = await blobFrom('./1.png', 'image/png');
const form = new FormData();

form.append('files', file, "1.png");

const response = await fetch('http://localhost:1337/api/upload', {
  method: 'post',
  body: form,
});

✋ Caution

You have to send FormData in your request body.

Upload entry files

Upload one or more files that will be linked to a specific entry.

The following parameters are accepted:

Parameter	Description
`files`	The file(s) to upload. The value(s) can be a Buffer or Stream.
`path` (optional)	The folder where the file(s) will be uploaded to (only supported on strapi-provider-upload-aws-s3).
`refId`	The ID of the entry which the file(s) will be linked to.
`ref`	The unique ID (uid) of the model which the file(s) will be linked to (see more below).
`source` (optional)	The name of the plugin where the model is located.
`field`	The field of the entry which the file(s) will be precisely linked to.

For example, given the Restaurant model attributes:

path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  "attributes": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "cover": {
      "type": "media",
      "multiple": false,
    }
  }
// ...
}

The corresponding code is be:

<form>
  <!-- Can be multiple files if you setup "collection" instead of "model" -->
  <input type="file" name="files" />
  <input type="text" name="ref" value="api::restaurant.restaurant" />
  <input type="text" name="refId" value="5c126648c7415f0c0ef1bccd" />
  <input type="text" name="field" value="cover" />
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
  const form = document.querySelector('form');

  form.addEventListener('submit', async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();

    await fetch('/api/upload', {
      method: 'post',
      body: new FormData(e.target)
    });
  });
</script>

✋ Caution

You have to send FormData in your request body.

Models definition

Adding a file attribute to a model (or the model of another plugin) is like adding a new association.

In the first example below, you will be able to upload and attach one file to the avatar attribute.

path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  {
    "attributes": {
      "pseudo": {
        "type": "string",
        "required": true
      },
      "email": {
        "type": "email",
        "required": true,
        "unique": true
      },
      "avatar": {
        "type": "media",
        "multiple": false,
      }
    }
  }
  // ...
}

In our second example, you can upload and attach multiple pictures to the restaurant.

path: ./src/api/restaurant/content-types/restaurant/schema.json

{
  // ...
  {
    "attributes": {
      "name": {
        "type": "string",
        "required": true
      },
      "covers": {
        "type": "media",
        "multiple": true,
      }
    }
  }
  // ...
}

Update fileInfo

Update a file in your application.

The following parameters are accepted:

fileInfo: The fileInfo to update.

import { FormData } from 'formdata-node';
import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const fileId = 50;
const newFileData = {
  alternativeText: 'My new alternative text for this image!',
};

const form = new FormData();

form.append('fileInfo', JSON.stringify(newFileData));

const response = await fetch(`http://localhost:1337/api/upload?id=${fileId}`, {
  method: 'post',
  body: form,
});

Upload plugin

Configuration​

Local server​

Max file size​

Upload request timeout​

Responsive Images​

Endpoints​

Examples​

Upload files​

Upload entry files​

Models definition​

Update fileInfo​

Configuration

Local server

Max file size

Upload request timeout

Responsive Images

Endpoints

Examples

Upload files

Upload entry files

Models definition

Update fileInfo