Uploads

Shows an Upload enabled collection in the Payload Admin Panel

Admin Panel screenshot depicting a Media Collection with Upload enabled

Here are some common use cases of Uploads:

Creating a "Media Library" that contains images for use throughout your site or app
Building a Gated Content library where users need to sign up to gain access to downloadable assets like ebook PDFs, whitepapers, etc.
Storing publicly available, downloadable assets like software, ZIP files, MP4s, etc.

By simply enabling Upload functionality on a Collection, Payload will automatically transform your Collection into a robust file management / storage solution. The following modifications will be made:

filename, mimeType, and filesize fields will be automatically added to your Collection. Optionally, if you pass imageSizes to your Collection's Upload config, a sizes array will also be added containing auto-resized image sizes and filenames.
The Admin Panel will modify its built-in List component to show a thumbnail for each upload within the List View
The Admin Panel will modify its Edit view(s) to add a new set of corresponding Upload UI which will allow for file upload
The create, update, and delete Collection operations will be modified to support file upload, re-upload, and deletion

Enabling Uploads

Every Payload Collection can opt-in to supporting Uploads by specifying the upload property on the Collection's config to either true or to an object containing upload options.

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
slug: 'media',
upload: {
  staticDir: 'media',
  imageSizes: [
    {
      name: 'thumbnail',
      width: 400,
      height: 300,
      position: 'centre',
    },
    {
      name: 'card',
      width: 768,
      height: 1024,
      position: 'centre',
    },
    {
      name: 'tablet',
      width: 1024,
      // By specifying `undefined` or leaving a height undefined,
      // the image will be sized to a certain width,
      // but it will retain its original aspect ratio
      // and calculate a height automatically.
      height: undefined,
      position: 'centre',
    },
  ],
  adminThumbnail: 'thumbnail',
  mimeTypes: ['image/*'],
},
fields: [
  {
    name: 'alt',
    type: 'text',
  },
],
40}

Collection Upload Options

An asterisk denotes that an option is required.

Option	Description
`adminThumbnail`	Set the way that the Admin Panel will display thumbnails for this Collection. More
`bulkUpload`	Allow users to upload in bulk from the list view, default is true
`cacheTags`	Set to `false` to disable the cache tag set in the UI for the admin thumbnail component. Useful for when CDNs don't allow certain cache queries.
`constructorOptions`	An object passed to the Sharp image library that accepts any Constructor options and applies them to the upload file. More
`crop`	Set to `false` to disable the cropping tool in the Admin Panel. Crop is enabled by default. More
`disableLocalStorage`	Completely disable uploading files to disk locally. More
`displayPreview`	Enable displaying preview of the uploaded file in Upload fields related to this Collection. Can be locally overridden by `displayPreview` option in Upload field. More.
`externalFileHeaderFilter`	Accepts existing headers and returns the headers after filtering or modifying. If using this option, you should handle the removal of any sensitive cookies (like payload-prefixed cookies) to prevent leaking session information to external services. By default, Payload automatically filters out payload-prefixed cookies when this option is not defined.
`filesRequiredOnCreate`	Mandate file data on creation, default is true.
`filenameCompoundIndex`	Field slugs to use for a compound index instead of the default filename index.
`focalPoint`	Set to `false` to disable the focal point selection tool in the Admin Panel. The focal point selector is only available when `imageSizes` or `resizeOptions` are defined. More
`formatOptions`	An object with `format` and `options` that are used with the Sharp image library to format the upload file. More
`handlers`	Array of Request handlers to execute when fetching a file, if a handler returns a Response it will be sent to the client. Otherwise Payload will retrieve and send back the file.
`imageSizes`	If specified, image uploads will be automatically resized in accordance to these image sizes. More
`mimeTypes`	Restrict mimeTypes in the file picker. Array of valid mimetypes or mimetype wildcards More
`pasteURL`	Controls whether files can be uploaded from remote URLs by pasting them into the Upload field. Enabled by default. Accepts `false` to disable or an object with an `allowList` of valid remote URLs. More
`resizeOptions`	An object passed to the Sharp image library to resize the uploaded file. More
`skipSafeFetch`	Set to an `allowList` to skip the safe fetch check when fetching external files. Set to `true` to skip the safe fetch for all documents in this collection. Defaults to `false`.
`allowRestrictedFileTypes`	Set to `true` to allow restricted file types. If your Collection has defined mimeTypes, restricted file verification will be skipped. Defaults to `false`. More
`staticDir`	The folder directory to use to store media in. Can be either an absolute path or relative to the directory that contains your config. Defaults to your collection slug
`trimOptions`	An object passed to the Sharp image library to trim the uploaded file. More
`withMetadata`	If specified, appends metadata to the output image file. Accepts a boolean or a function that receives `metadata` and `req`, returning a boolean.
`hideFileInputOnCreate`	Set to `true` to prevent the admin UI from showing file inputs during document creation, useful for programmatic file generation.
`hideRemoveFile`	Set to `true` to prevent the admin UI having a way to remove an existing file while editing.
`modifyResponseHeaders`	Accepts an object with existing `headers` and allows you to manipulate the response headers for media files. More

Payload-wide Upload Options

Upload options are specifiable on a Collection by Collection basis, you can also control app wide options by passing your base Payload Config an upload property containing an object supportive of all Busboy configuration options.

Option	Description
`abortOnLimit`	A boolean that, if `true`, returns HTTP 413 if a file exceeds the file size limit. If `false`, the file is truncated. Defaults to `false`.
`createParentPath`	Set to `true` to automatically create a directory path when moving files from a temporary directory or buffer. Defaults to `false`.
`debug`	A boolean that turns upload process logging on if `true`, or off if `false`. Useful for troubleshooting. Defaults to `false`.
`limitHandler`	A function which is invoked if the file is greater than configured limits.
`parseNested`	Set to `true` to turn `req.body` and `req.files` into nested structures. By default `req.body` and `req.files` are flat objects. Defaults to `false`.
`preserveExtension`	Preserves file extensions with the `safeFileNames` option. Limits file names to 3 characters if `true` or a custom length if a `number`, trimming from the start of the extension.
`responseOnLimit`	A `string` that is sent in the Response to a client if the file size limit is exceeded when used with `abortOnLimit`.
`safeFileNames`	Set to `true` to strip non-alphanumeric characters except dashes and underscores. Can also be set to a regex to determine what to strip. Defaults to `false`.
`tempFileDir`	A `string` path to store temporary files used when the `useTempFiles` option is set to `true`. Defaults to `'./tmp'`.
`uploadTimeout`	A `number` that defines how long to wait for data before aborting, specified in milliseconds. Set to `0` to disable timeout checks. Defaults to `60000`.
`uriDecodeFileNames`	Set to `true` to apply uri decoding to file names. Defaults to `false`.
`useTempFiles`	Set to `true` to store files to a temporary directory instead of in RAM, reducing memory usage for large files or many files.

Click here for more documentation about what you can control with Busboy.

A common example of what you might want to customize within Payload-wide Upload options would be to increase the allowed fileSize of uploads sent to Payload:

1import { buildConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export default buildConfig({
collections: [
  {
    slug: 'media',
    fields: [
      {
        name: 'alt',
        type: 'text',
      },
    ],
    upload: true,
  },
],
upload: {
  limits: {
    fileSize: 5000000, // 5MB, written in bytes
  },
},
21})

Custom filename via hooks

You can customize the filename before it's uploaded to the server by using a beforeOperation hook.

1beforeOperation: [
({ req, operation }) => {
  if ((operation === 'create' || operation === 'update') && req.file) {
    req.file.name = 'test.jpg'
  }
},
7],

The req.file object will have additional information about the file, such as mimeType and extension, and you also have full access to the file data itself. The filename from here will also be threaded to image sizes if they're enabled.

Image Sizes

If you specify an array of imageSizes to your upload config, Payload will automatically crop and resize your uploads to fit each of the sizes specified by your config.

The Admin Panel will also automatically display all available files, including width, height, and file size, for each of your uploaded files.

Behind the scenes, Payload relies on sharp to perform its image resizing. You can specify additional options for sharp to use while resizing your images.

Note that for image resizing to work, sharp must be specified in your Payload Config. This is configured by default if you created your Payload project with create-payload-app. See sharp in Config Options.

Admin List View Options

Each image size also supports admin options to control whether it appears in the Admin Panel list view.

1{
name: 'thumbnail',
width: 400,
height: 300,
admin: {
  disableGroupBy: true, // hide from list view groupBy options
  disableListColumn: true, // hide from list view columns
  disableListFilter: true, // hide from list view filters
},
10}

Option	Description
`disableGroupBy`	If set to `true`, this image size will not be available as a selectable groupBy option in the collection list view. Defaults to `false`.
`disableListColumn`	If set to `true`, this image size will not be available as a selectable column in the collection list view. Defaults to `false`.
`disableListFilter`	If set to `true`, this image size will not be available as a filter option in the collection list view. Defaults to `false`.

This is useful for hiding large or rarely used image sizes from the list view UI while still keeping them available in the API.

Accessing the resized images in hooks

All auto-resized images are exposed to be reused in hooks and similar via an object that is bound to req.payloadUploadSizes.

The object will have keys for each size generated, and each key will be set equal to a buffer containing the file data.

Handling Image Enlargement

When an uploaded image is smaller than the defined image size, we have 3 options:

withoutEnlargement: undefined | false | true

undefined [default]: uploading images with smaller width AND height than the image size will return null
false: always enlarge images to the image size
true: if the image is smaller than the image size, return the original image

Custom file name per size

Each image size supports a generateImageName function that can be used to generate a custom file name for the resized image. This function receives the original file name, the resize name, the extension, height and width as arguments.

1{
name: 'thumbnail',
width: 400,
height: 300,
generateImageName: ({ height, sizeName, extension, width }) => {
  return `custom-${sizeName}-${height}-${width}.${extension}`
},
8}

Crop and Focal Point Selector

This feature is only available for image file types.

Setting crop: false and focalPoint: false in your Upload config will be disable the respective selector in the Admin Panel.

Image cropping occurs before any resizing, the resized images will therefore be generated from the cropped image (not the original image).

If no resizing options are specified (imageSizes or resizeOptions), the focal point selector will not be displayed.

Disabling Local Upload Storage

If you are using a plugin to send your files off to a third-party file storage host or CDN, like Amazon S3 or similar, you may not want to store your files locally at all. You can prevent Payload from writing files to disk by specifying disableLocalStorage: true on your collection's upload config.

Admin Thumbnails

You can specify how Payload retrieves admin thumbnails for your upload-enabled Collections with one of the following:

adminThumbnail as a string, equal to one of your provided image size names.

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
slug: 'media',
upload: {
  adminThumbnail: 'small',
  imageSizes: [
    {
      name: 'small',
      fit: 'cover',
      height: 300,
      width: 900,
    },
    {
      name: 'large',
      fit: 'cover',
      height: 600,
      width: 1800,
    },
  ],
},
22}

adminThumbnail as a function that takes the document's data and sends back a full URL to load the thumbnail.

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
4  slug: 'media',
5  upload: {
6    adminThumbnail: ({ doc }) =>
7      `https://google.com/custom-path-to-file/${doc.filename}`,
8  },
9}

Restricted File Types

Possibly problematic file types are automatically restricted from being uploaded to your application. If your Collection has defined mimeTypes or has set allowRestrictedFileTypes to true, restricted file verification will be skipped.

Restricted file types and extensions:

File Extensions	MIME Type
`exe`, `dll`	`application/x-msdownload`
`exe`, `com`, `app`, `action`	`application/x-executable`
`bat`, `cmd`	`application/x-msdos-program`
`exe`, `com`	`application/x-ms-dos-executable`
`dmg`	`application/x-apple-diskimage`
`deb`	`application/x-debian-package`
`rpm`	`application/x-redhat-package-manager`
`exe`, `dll`	`application/vnd.microsoft.portable-executable`
`msi`	`application/x-msi`
`jar`, `ear`, `war`	`application/java-archive`
`desktop`	`application/x-desktop`
`cpl`	`application/x-cpl`
`lnk`	`application/x-ms-shortcut`
`pkg`	`application/x-apple-installer`
`htm`, `html`, `shtml`, `xhtml`	`text/html`
`php`, `phtml`	`application/x-httpd-php`
`js`, `jse`	`text/javascript`
`jsp`	`application/x-jsp`
`py`	`text/x-python`
`rb`	`text/x-ruby`
`pl`	`text/x-perl`
`ps1`, `psc1`, `psd1`, `psh`, `psm1`	`application/x-powershell`
`vbe`, `vbs`	`application/x-vbscript`
`ws`, `wsc`, `wsf`, `wsh`	`application/x-ms-wsh`
`scr`	`application/x-msdownload`
`asp`, `aspx`	`application/x-asp`
`hta`	`application/x-hta`
`reg`	`application/x-registry`
`url`	`application/x-url`
`workflow`	`application/x-workflow`
`command`	`application/x-command`

MimeTypes

Specifying the mimeTypes property can restrict what files are allowed from the user's file picker. This accepts an array of strings, which can be any valid mimetype or mimetype wildcards

Some example values are: image/*, audio/*, video/*, image/png, application/pdf

Example mimeTypes usage:

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
4  slug: 'media',
5  upload: {
6    mimeTypes: ['image/*', 'application/pdf'], 
7  },
8}

Uploading Files

To upload a file, use your collection's create endpoint. Send it all the data that your Collection requires, as well as a file key containing the file that you'd like to upload.

Send your request as a multipart/form-data request, using FormData if possible.

1const fileInput = document.querySelector('#your-file-input')
2const formData = new FormData()
3
4formData.append('file', fileInput.files[0])
5
6// Replace with the fields defined in your upload-enabled collection.
7// The example below includes an optional field like 'title'.
8formData.append(
9  '_payload',
10  JSON.stringify({
11    title: 'Example Title',
12    description: 'An optional description for the file',
13  }),
14)
15
16fetch('api/:upload-slug', {
17  method: 'POST',
18  body: formData,
19  /**
20   * Do not manually add the Content-Type Header
21   * the browser will handle this.
22   *
23   * headers: {
24   *  'Content-Type': 'multipart/form-data'
25   * }
26   */
27})

Uploading Files stored locally

If you want to upload a file stored on your machine directly using the payload.create method, for example, during a seed script, you can use the filePath property to specify the local path of the file.

1const localFilePath = path.resolve(__dirname, filename)
2
3await payload.create({
4  collection: 'media',
5  data: {
6    alt,
7  },
8  filePath: localFilePath,
9})

The data property should still include all the required fields of your media collection.

Uploading Files from Remote URLs

The pasteURL option allows users to fetch files from remote URLs by pasting them into an Upload field. This option is enabled by default and can be configured to either allow unrestricted client-side fetching or restrict server-side fetching to specific trusted domains.

By default, Payload uses client-side fetching, where the browser downloads the file directly from the provided URL. However, client-side fetching will fail if the URL’s server has CORS restrictions, making it suitable only for internal URLs or public URLs without CORS blocks.

To fetch files from restricted URLs that would otherwise be blocked by CORS, use server-side fetching by configuring the pasteURL option with an allowList of trusted domains. This method ensures that Payload downloads the file on the server and streams it to the browser. However, for security reasons, only URLs that match the specified allowList will be allowed.

Configuration Example

Here’s how to configure the pasteURL option to control remote URL fetching:

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
slug: 'media',
upload: {
  pasteURL: {
    allowList: [
      {
        hostname: 'payloadcms.com', // required
        pathname: '',
        port: '',
        protocol: 'https',
        search: '',
      },
      {
        hostname: 'example.com',
        pathname: '/images/*',
      },
    ],
  },
},
22}

You can also adjust server-side fetching at the upload level as well, this does not effect the CORS policy like the pasteURL option does, but it allows you to skip the safe fetch check for specific URLs.

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
4  slug: 'media',
5  upload: {
6    skipSafeFetch: [
7      {
8        hostname: 'example.com',
9        pathname: '/images/*',
10      },
11    ],
12  },
13}

Accepted Values for `pasteURL`

Option	Description
`undefined`	Default behavior. Enables client-side fetching for internal or public URLs.
`false`	Disables the ability to paste URLs into Upload fields.
`allowList`	Enables server-side fetching for specific trusted URLs. Requires an array of objects defining trusted domains. See the table below for details on `AllowItem`.

`AllowItem` Properties

An asterisk denotes that an option is required.

Option	Description	Example
`hostname` *	The hostname of the allowed URL. This is required to ensure the URL is coming from a trusted source.	`example.com`
`pathname`	The path portion of the URL. Supports wildcards to match multiple paths.	`/images/*`
`port`	The port number of the URL. If not specified, the default port for the protocol will be used.	`3000`
`protocol`	The protocol to match. Must be either `http` or `https`. Defaults to `https`.	`https`
`search`	The query string of the URL. If specified, the URL must match this exact query string.	`?version=1`

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
4  slug: 'media',
5  upload: {
6    modifyResponseHeaders: ({ headers }) => {
7      headers.set('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY') // You can directly set headers without returning
8    },
9  },
10}

Return new headers

You can also return a new Headers object with the modified headers. This is useful if you want to set new headers or remove existing ones.

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const Media: CollectionConfig = {
4  slug: 'media',
5  upload: {
6    modifyResponseHeaders: ({ headers }) => {
7      const newHeaders = new Headers(headers) // Copy existing headers
8      newHeaders.set('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY') // Set new header
9
10      return newHeaders
11    },
12  },
13}

See what others are building with Payload.

"Payload has transformed the way our clients manage content. It's an indispensable tool for any modern agency."

Get the resources you need to start building today

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Uploads

Enabling Uploads

Collection Upload Options

Payload-wide Upload Options

Custom filename via hooks

Image Sizes

Admin List View Options

Accessing the resized images in hooks

Handling Image Enlargement

Custom file name per size

Crop and Focal Point Selector

Disabling Local Upload Storage

Admin Thumbnails

Restricted File Types

MimeTypes

Uploading Files

Uploading Files stored locally

Uploading Files from Remote URLs

Configuration Example

Accepted Values for `pasteURL`

`AllowItem` Properties

Access Control

Modifying response headers

Modifying existing headers

Return new headers

Storage Adapters

See what others are building with Payload.

"Payload has transformed the way our clients manage content. It's an indispensable tool for any modern agency."

Get the resources you need to start building today

Microsoft chose Payload to tell the world about AI.

Uploads

Enabling Uploads

Collection Upload Options

Payload-wide Upload Options

Custom filename via hooks

Image Sizes

Admin List View Options

Accessing the resized images in hooks

Handling Image Enlargement

Custom file name per size

Crop and Focal Point Selector

Disabling Local Upload Storage

Admin Thumbnails

Restricted File Types

MimeTypes

Uploading Files

Uploading Files stored locally

Uploading Files from Remote URLs

Configuration Example

Accepted Values for pasteURL

AllowItem Properties

Access Control

Modifying response headers

Modifying existing headers

Return new headers

Storage Adapters

Accepted Values for `pasteURL`

`AllowItem` Properties