---
id: oauthenticator
version: "17.4.0"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# oauthenticator — OAuthenticator: Authenticate JupyterHub users with common OAuth providers

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 90.2K/mo

## What it is and what it does

OAuthenticator bridges OAuth2 identity providers and JupyterHub by overriding the login handlers to support token-based authentication instead of username/password mapping. It ships with authenticators for major providers like GitHub, Google, Azure AD, GitLab, Globus, and others, plus a GenericAuthenticator for custom OAuth2 setups.

The package depends on JupyterHub, Tornado, requests, PyJWT, and related utilities to handle OAuth flows, token validation, and user session management. It is designed for administrators deploying JupyterHub in environments where centralized identity management through OAuth2 is preferred, such as institutional deployments, cloud platforms, or organizations already using services like GitHub or Google Workspace.

Use it for:

- Deploy JupyterHub with GitHub OAuth so users log in via their GitHub account without separate credentials.
- Configure institutional Azure AD authentication for a JupyterHub instance serving a university or enterprise.
- Set up Globus authentication for a research computing environment requiring federated identity management.
- Use GenericAuthenticator to integrate JupyterHub with a custom or less common OAuth2 provider.
- Migrate from local JupyterHub authentication to Google OAuth for simplified user management.
- Enable single sign-on across multiple JupyterHub deployments using a shared OAuth identity provider.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

OAuthenticator provides OAuth2 login handlers for JupyterHub, supporting multiple identity providers including GitHub, Google, Azure AD, GitLab, and others through provider-specific authenticators or a configurable generic handler.

Yes, if you run JupyterHub and need OAuth2 authentication. The package is actively maintained, has low install friction, supports many common providers out of the box, and carries no known vulnerabilities. It is the standard way to integrate OAuth identity providers with JupyterHub. Install only if you have a JupyterHub instance and an OAuth provider to configure.

## Install

pip install oauthenticator
uv add oauthenticator
poetry add oauthenticator

## Installing oauthenticator

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. Active maintenance with a recent release and ongoing commits; last commit 2026-08-03 indicates current development activity.

License in practice: BSD-3-Clause is a permissive open-source license with minimal restrictions on use, modification, and distribution in both open and proprietary contexts.

Quickstart:

pip install oauthenticator

In jupyterhub_config.py:
from oauthenticator.github import GitHubOAuthenticator
c.JupyterHub.authenticator_class = GitHubOAuthenticator

Requires Python >=3.10 and a running JupyterHub instance configured with OAuth provider credentials.

Verify before relying:

- Whether all listed OAuth providers (Auth0, Azure AD, Bitbucket, CILogon, GitHub, GitLab, Globus, Google, MediaWiki, OpenShift) are equally well-maintained and documented.
- Performance characteristics and scalability limits when handling large numbers of concurrent authentication requests.
- Whether the GenericAuthenticator can be reliably used with arbitrary OAuth2 providers not explicitly listed.

## Package facts

- License: BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 90.2K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

jupyterhub oauth authentication, oauth2 identity provider login, github google azure ad login, jupyterhub single sign-on, oauth authenticator providers, jupyterhub user authentication, token-based login jupyterhub, authentication, jupyterhub, oauth2

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/oauthenticator) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/oauthenticator/)