How to set up Open WebUI admin account
Open WebUI accessible in browser at http://localhost:8080
What this does
Creates the first admin user in Open WebUI, granting full access to settings, user management, and model configuration. After this guide the admin account is active and protected by a known password.
Steps
Navigate to the registration page. On a fresh install the root page redirects to the admin setup screen automatically.
http://localhost:8080Expected result: Page displays a form titled "Initial Admin Account Setup".
Fill in the admin credentials. Use a strong password.
Name: Admin Email: [email protected] Password: <strong-password>Expected result: Form submits without validation errors.
Log in with the newly created account.
http://localhost:8080Expected result: Dashboard renders with admin privileges.
Verify full admin access in Settings. Navigate to Settings > Admin Panel to confirm administrative functions are available. Expected result: User management controls are visible.
Verification
curl -s http://localhost:8080/api/v1/auth/me | python3 -m json.tool
# Expected: {"email":"[email protected]","role":"admin"}
Common failures
- Registration form does not appear — An admin account already exists. Use the forgotten-password flow or clear the volume data in
~/open-webui/data/. - 400 Bad Request on registration — Email format is invalid or password does not meet requirements.
- Admin role not granted — The first account may require explicit promotion. Create a new admin account by removing the user data volume and restarting.
- Admin Panel missing — The account was created as a standard user. Restart with a clean volume.
- 503 Service Unavailable during setup — Container is still initializing. Wait 60 seconds and retry.
Operator checkpoint
Before treating this as solved, write down the local runtime, model or package version, hardware/backend if relevant, and the verification output. This keeps the guide useful as a Will-It-Run style decision instead of a one-off command transcript.