It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.
Special pages are pages generated by the software on demand for special purposes, usually related to project maintenance. They are found in the Special: namespace, a virtual namespace whose pages lack corresponding talk pages. They are not written in wikitext and cannot be directly edited but elements of their pages can sometimes be edited through corresponding pages in the MediaWiki namespace. If you make a normal redirect to a special page, the redirect will not be immediately followed (though special pages can be targets of soft redirects), and directly creating any pages beginning with the Special: prefix is also not possible.
Special pages often take parameters. Sometimes these can be supplied after a slash (as in Special:Log/block); in other cases an index.php call is used; for example https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&days=3&limit=10. Also, the content of most special pages depends on preferences that have been set by the user, e.g. classic or enhanced Recent Changes, the number of titles in Recent Changes and the watchlist, etc.
A directory of special pages available for the current user can be accessed from Special:SpecialPages, which is found in the sidebar of every page on Wikipedia in the Tools section.
Modifying special pagesedit
Although special pages are not themselves editable, they generally contain standard text which is modifiable (although only by administrators). To find the right portion of text, append ?uselang=qqx to the special page URL, or append &uselang=qqx instead if the URL already contains a ?. This will reveal message names in parentheses. Then, go to that name in the MediaWiki namespace. For example, Special:BookSources?uselang=qqx reveals "(booksources-summary)", so MediaWiki:Booksources-summary is used on that page. To propose a modification, leave an {{edit fully-protected}} request on the talk page of the relevant MediaWiki page. An administrator will make the change if it seems appropriate.
Available special pagesedit
By functionedit
General informationedit
Special:AllMessages (System messages): displays all pages in the MediaWiki namespace. See Help:MediaWiki namespace.
Special:SiteMatrix (Wikimedia wikis): lists all Wikimedia projects (such as different language Wikipedias) and their codes.
Special:SpecialPages: a list of most special pages currently available to all users.
Special:Statistics: total number of pages and users in various categories.
Special:Version: shows the version of the software the site is currently running and lists the extensions, skins, and libraries currently installed.
Page listingsedit
Special:AllPages: allows the user to access a portion of an alphabetical list of all Wikipedia pages in a specified namespace. A starting point can be given as a parameter, e.g. Special:AllPages/T (pages in the main namespace, from "T"), Special:AllPages/Template: (pages in the Template: namespace, from the start). For the order in which pages are listed, see Help:Alphabetical order.
Special:Categories: shows an alphabetical list of categories, with numbers of members.
Special:CategoryTree: displays categories in a tree structure.
Special:ListFiles (File list): list of images and other files uploaded; can be sorted by size or date. Special:ListFiles/Example lists files uploaded by User:Example.
Special:ListRedirects (Redirects): lists all redirects.
Special:PagesWithProp (Pages with a page property): lists pages that use a particular page property.
Special:PrefixIndex (All pages with prefix): similar to AllPages. Lists all pages of a specified namespace beginning with a given prefix. Useful to find subpages, for example: Special:PrefixIndex/User:Example.
Special:ProtectedPages: lists protected pages.
Special:ProtectedTitles: lists titles which have been protected to prevent pages being created there.
Special:StablePages (Pages using Pending Changes): lists pages under pending changes protection.
Special:UnconnectedPages (Pages not connected to items): lists pages not connected with any item from Wikidata.
Toolsedit
Special:ApiHelp: MediaWiki API help.
Special:ApiSandbox
Special:Book (Manage your book): gives access to functionality for creating personalized sets of Wikipedia pages. See Help:Books.
Special:ComparePages: to compare two pages (diffs between two pages).
Special:Diff: e.g. [[Special:Diff/611653557|<text>]] gives diff between version 611653557 and the preceding version of the same article, or [[Special:Diff/583498451/611653557|<text>]] gives diff between version 583498451 and 611653557, not necessarily of the same article, e.g. Special:Diff/330350877/611653557.
Special:MobileDiff/id1...id2: diffs in mobile version. e.g., Special:MobileDiff/548289653...567368971.
Special:Export (Export pages): produces an XML file containing the wikitext and metadata of either the current version only, or all revisions, of one or more pages, specified in the form of a list; the XML file is in the format required for Special:Import; exporting is typically done either in preparation of applying the latter at another MediaWiki project, or for searching within old page revisions. See Help:Export.
Special:Gadgets: lists gadgets that users can enable in their preferences.
Special:MovePage: for moving (renaming) a page (see Wikipedia:Moving a page). The page must be given as a parameter.
Special:Nearby: to see a list of articles around you (articles near your geographical location).
Special:Random: redirects to a random page from the main namespace which is not a redirect. Other namespaces can be specified as a parameter, e.g. Special:Random/Talk. See Wikipedia:Random for more details.
Special:RandomInCategory (Random page in category): redirects to a random page within the specified category (can be from any namespace).
Special:RandomRedirect: redirects to a random redirect page.
Special:RandomRootpage: redirects to a random root page, that is, excluding sub-pages. Some wikis, such as Wikibooks, use a sub-page hierarchy. This function can be used there as a substitute for Special:Random, so it can be used to show "random books" in Wikibooks, instead of random pages.[1]
Special:Search: for searching Wikipedia. See Help:Searching.
Special:TemplateSandbox
Special:Upload (Upload file): upload a file to the wiki.
Special:VipsTest (VIPS scaling test page)
Special:WhatLinksHere: enables listing all pages linking to a given page (including transclusions and redirects). The target can be specified as a parameter, e.g. Special:WhatLinksHere/Swaziland. See Help:What links here.
Latest changesedit
Special:AbuseFilter (Edit filter management): a set of tools for detecting problematic edits. See Wikipedia:Edit filter.
Special:AbuseLog (Edit filter log): the log generated by the Abuse Filter.
Special:AdvancedReviewLog or Special:QualityOversight: listed recent approvals and deprecations of pending revisions. (deprecated in 2022; see phab:T277883)
Special:ConfiguredPages (deprecated in 2022; see phab:T277883)
Special:Log (All public logs): combined display of various logs. The type of log, user and page affected can be specified. Parameters "block", "delete", "protect" and "upload" are available. e.g. Special:Log/block displays the block log directly. For more information, see Help:Log.
Special:NewFiles (Gallery of new files): gallery of new uploaded files.
Special:NewPages: newest pages with creation date and time, current size, user who created the page, and first edit summary, in reverse order of creation. See Wikipedia:New pages patrol.
Special:NewPagesFeed: for new page patrolling. See Wikipedia:Page Curation.
Special:PendingChanges or Special:OldReviewedPages (Articles with edits awaiting review): articles with edits awaiting review. See Wikipedia:Pending changes.
Special:ProblemChanges (Tagged pending changes): tagged pending changes. (deprecated in 2021; see phab:T277883)
Special:RecentChanges: lists the latest edits in the project. Changes to watched pages appear bold. See Help:Recent changes.
Special:RecentChangesLinked (Related changes): enables listing of the most recent changes in pages linked from a selected page, or belonging to a selected category. Changes to watched pages appear bold. The page can be supplied as a parameter, e.g. Special:RecentChangesLinked/Lesotho. See Help:Related changes.
Special:ReviewedPages (deprecated in 2021; see phab:T277883)
Special:ReviewedVersions (deprecated in 2021; see phab:T277883)
Special:RevisionReview
Special:Stabilization or Special:Stabilisation (deprecated in 2022; see phab:T277883)
Special:Tags: lists the tags with which edits may be marked. See Wikipedia:Tags.
Special:UnreviewedPages (deprecated in 2022; see phab:T277883)
Usersedit
Special:ActiveUsers (Active users list): lists editors who have performed at least one action in the last 30 days.
Special:BlockList (Blocked users): blocked IPs and usernames.
Special:Contributions (User contributions): enables listing of a user's contributions, or all new users' contributions. The user can be supplied as a parameter, e.g. Special:Contributions/Example. See Help:User contributions.
Special:EmailUser: e.g. Special:EmailUser/Example. For emailing users, see Wikipedia:Emailing users.
Special:ListGroupRights (User group rights): shows the rights assigned to user groups.
Special:ListUsers (Users): lists all registered users. Can be filtered by group (e.g. administrators) and other criteria. Note that Special:ListAdmins redirects to Special:ListUsers/sysop.
Global usersedit
Special:CentralAuth (Global account information): global user statistics through the unified login or SUL (single user login). e.g. Special:CentralAuth/Jimbo Wales.
Special:GlobalBlockList (List of globally blocked IP addresses): all IP addresses with global blocks.
Special:GlobalGroupPermissions (Global group management): lists the rights associated with global user groups. Also lists the members of global user groups, and allows for management of rights.
Special:GlobalUsers (Global accounts list): lists users across all Wikimedia wikis, along with global user group membership, and whether their account exists locally on English Wikipedia. Can also be filtered by global user groups.
Personaledit
Special:CentralLogin (Central user log in)
Special:ChangePassword, Special:ChangeEmail (Change or remove email address), Special:ConfirmEmail (Confirm email address) and Special:ResetTokens
Special:Contributions (User contributions)
Special:MyContributions: links to your contributions page. See Help:User contributions.
Special:EditWatchlist and Special:EditWatchlist/raw: To edit your watchlist.
Special:Homepage, curated suggested edits and impact statistics
Special:MergeAccount (Login unification status): to create a unified account to log on to any Wikimedia project. See Help:Unified login.
Special:MyPage: links to your user page.
Special:MyTalk: links to your user talk page.
Special:MyUploads (File list): lists files you have uploaded.
Special:Notifications: links to your notifications page.
Special:Preferences: allows you to view and modify your personal settings. See Help:Preferences.
Special:TopicSubscriptions: topics on talk pages you are following.
Special:UserLogin (Log in): to log in to Wikipedia. Special:UserLogin/signup (Create account) to create an account. See Help:Logging in.
Special:UserLogout (Log out): to log out of your account.
Special:Watchlist: shows recent changes to the pages you are watching. See Help:Watchlist.
Maintenanceedit
Special:BrokenRedirects: lists redirects that point a non-existent page. May contain false positives.
Special:DisambiguationPages: lists all the disambiguation pages.
Special:DisambiguationPageLinks (Pages linking to disambiguation pages), which lists all of the pages that link to disambiguation pages. (This is a replacement for the old Special:Disambiguations page which is deprecated.)
Special:DoubleRedirects: lists redirects that redirect to another redirect. May contain false positives.
Special:FileDuplicateSearch: Check to see if a certain file has a duplicate.
Special:ListDuplicatedFiles: See all duplicated files on Wikipedia.
Special:LongPages: pages in the main namespace, with size in bytes, in order of decreasing size.
Special:MostLinkedFiles (Most linked-to files): lists images and other files linked from the largest number of pages.
Special:ShortPages: pages in the main namespace, with size (of the wikitext excluding that of templates used) in bytes, in order of increasing size.
Special:UncategorizedFiles: images and other files without category tags (see above).
Special:UncategorizedPages: pages without category tags. Note that after adding a tag to a page, refreshing this page does not immediately reflect the change. Note also that Special:UncategorizedCategories is disabled; use Wikipedia:Database reports/Uncategorized categories instead.
Special:UncategorizedTemplates: templates without category tags (see above).
Special:UnusedCategories
Special:UnusedFiles
Special:UnusedTemplates: templates which are not transcluded (however, they may be used for substitution).
Special:WantedCategories: categories with members but no category page.
Special:WantedFiles: missing image files and others.
Special:WithoutInterwiki (Pages without language links): pages without links to other language Wikipedias.
Miscellaneousedit
Special:Badtitle: The error message shown when attempting to access a page with an invalid title or with an incorrectly linked interwiki prefix. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%23 (%23 represents the number sign, which is unsupported) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/meatball:WikiPedia (meatball: cannot be directly linked in the URL) for examples. Note that this special page was intentionally and by design a red link.
Special:BlankPage: a blank page.
Special:BookSources: search sources for a book by inputting the book's ISBN number.
Special:Cite (Cite This Page): generates bibliographic citations, in several formats, for citing a Wikipedia article as a reference.
Special:ExpandTemplates: an extension used to produce expanded wikitext, i.e. templates, parser functions and variables in the input text are expanded recursively. See also mw:Extension:ExpandTemplates.
Special:FilePath (Redirect by file, user, page or revision ID): returns the complete path for a file.
Special:Hieroglyphs (Try hieroglyph markup): to try out hieroglyph markup.
Special:LinkSearch (External links search): for searching for external links. See Help:Linksearch and mw:Help:Linksearch.
Special:MobileOptions (Settings): change settings for Mobile view.
Special:Permalink/Oldid: for linking to a specific version of a wiki page. See Help:Permanent link.
Special:Random: a random page.
Special:Redirect (Redirect by file, user, page or revision ID): Special:Redirect/revision/532639569 is equivalent to Special:Permalink/532639569
Special:SecurePoll
Special:ValidationStatistics (Page review statistics): page review statistics for pending changes.
Special:WikiSets, shows a list of wiki sets
Restrictededit
The following pages can be accessed only by users with certain privileges.
Special:Block: available to administrators. Used to block or unblock users, IPs and ranges of IPs.
Special:CheckUser: available to users with the checkuser privilege.
Special:DeletedContributions: available to administrators.
Special:Import: available to administrators and importers. See Help:Import.
Special:LockDB and Special:UnlockDB: available only to developers. Used to switch the database between read/write and read-only modes.
Special:MassMessage: allows administrators and mass message senders to send a message to a list of users (help).
Special:Nuke: available to administrators.
Special:Undelete: available to administrators. Provides one way to undelete a page.
Special:UnwatchedPages: available to administrators.
Special:UserRights: can be read by anyone, however only administrators can use the page to assign and remove user access rights (e.g. rollbacker status).
Infrequently updatededit
The following special pages are updated on a less regular schedule. Some of these pages may have analogues on cloud services.
Special:AncientPages (Dormant pages): pages in the main namespace, in order of last edit. See Wikipedia:Database reports/Forgotten articles. Updated on the 8th and 22nd of each month.[2]
Special:DeadendPages: pages without any outgoing links. Updated on the 9th and 23rd of each month.[3]
Special:FewestRevisions (Pages with the fewest revisions): lists articles with the fewest revisions. Updated on the 13th and 27th of each month.[4]
Special:LonelyPages (Orphaned pages): i.e. articles with no links to them in the wiki. Updated on the 15th of every month.[5]
Special:MostCategories (Pages with the most categories): lists articles whose number of categories is largest. Updated on the 16th of every month.[6]
Special:MostLinkedCategories (Most linked-to categories): lists categories with the most pages. Updated on the 17th of every month.[7]
Special:MostLinkedPages (Most linked-to pages): lists pages linked from the largest number of other pages. Updated on the 10th and 24th of each month.[8]
Special:MostRevisions (Pages with the most revisions): lists articles with the most revisions. Updated on the 11th and 25th of each month.[9]
Special:MostTranscludedPages or Special:MostLinkedTemplates (Most transcluded pages): lists templates for which the number of pages in which the template is transcluded is largest, not counting transclusions through redirects. Updated on the 18th of every month.[10]
Special:UncategorizedCategories Updated on the 19th of every month.[11]
Special:WantedPages Updated on the 12th and 26th of each month.[12]
Special:WantedTemplates Updated on the 20th of every month.[13]
Alphabetical orderedit
Aedit
Special:AbuseFilter, Edit filter management
Special:AbuseLog, Edit filter log
Special:ActiveUsers, Active users list
Special:AllMessages, System messages
Special:AllMyUploads, File list
Special:AllPages, All pages
Special:AncientPages, Dormant pages
Special:ApiFeatureUsage, Deprecated API feature usage
Special:ApiHelp, MediaWiki API help
Special:ApiSandbox, MediaWiki web service API sandbox
Special:AutoblockList, list of active autoblocks
Bedit
Special:BannerLoader
Special:BannerRandom, 410
Special:BetaFeatures, Beta features
Special:BlankPage, Blank page
Special:Block, Block user
Special:BlockList, Blocked users
Special:Book, Manage your book
Special:BookSources, Book sources given the 10- or 13-digit ISBN number
Special:BotPasswords, Create bot passwords
Special:BrokenRedirects, Broken redirects
Special:BrokenLinks, Wanted pages. Redirects to Special:WantedPages.
Cedit
Special:Captcha, CAPTCHA help
Special:Categories, Categories
Special:CategoryTree, Category tree
Special:CentralAuth, Global account information
Special:CentralAutoLogin, Central login (use by the software); see next
Special:CentralLogin, Central login
Special:ChangeContentModel, Change content model of a page. Available only to template editors and administrators.
Special:ChangeCredentials, For changing password
Special:ChangeEmail, Change or remove email address
Special:ChangePassword, For changing password
Special:CheckUser, Check user. Available only to users with the CheckUser right.
Special:CheckUserLog, CheckUser log
Special:CiteThisPage, Cite this page
Special:CollabPad
Special:ComparePages, Compare differences between page A and B
Special:GlobalRenameProgress, Global rename progress
Special:GlobalRenameQueue, Global rename queue
Special:GlobalRenameRequest, Global user account rename request
Special:GlobalRenameUser, Globally rename user account
Special:GlobalUnblock, Unblock globally blocked IP addresses
Special:GlobalUsage, Global file usage
Special:GlobalUserRights, Membership in global groups
Special:GlobalUsers, Global accounts list
Special:GoToInterwiki, (required value: valid project prefix), Hop into another project. Example: Special:GoToInterwiki/fr:
Hedit
Special:HideBanners, gives blank page
Special:Hieroglyphs, Try hieroglyph markup
Special:History, (required value; valid page name). Page history. Special:History/Wikipedia:Sandbox
Iedit
Special:Impact, without parameter shows your impact on Wikipedia. Can be used to specify another user with their username followed after the slash symbol.
Special:Import, Import pages. Available only to administrators, importers, and transwiki importers.
Special:ListAdmins, redirects to Special:ListUsers/sysop
Special:ListBots, redirects to Special:ListUsers/bot
Special:ListDuplicatedFiles, List of files with duplicates
Special:ListGrants, Grants
Special:ListGroupRights, User group rights
Special:ListRedirects, Redirects
Special:ListUsers, List of all users
Special:LockDB, Lock database (disable write)
Special:Log, All public logs
Special:LonelyPages, Orphaned pages
Special:LongPages, Long pages
Special:Login, redirects to Special:UserLogin
Special:Logout, redirects to Special:UserLogout
Medit
Special:Map, Coordinates information
Special:MassMessage, Send mass message
Special:MathShowImage
Special:MathStatus, Math status
Special:MathWikibase, information of mathematical items
Special:MediaStatistics, Media statistics about uploaded file types
Special:MergeAccount, Login unification
Special:MergeHistory, Merge page histories
Special:MIMESearch, MIME search
Special:MobileDiff, (required value: valid revision id). Shows diffs as they are shown on mobile web. Cf. Special:MobileDiff/1
Special:MobileLanguages, parameter required. Only available on mobile view.
Special:MobileOptions, Settings
Special:MostCategories, Pages with the most categories
Special:MostGloballyLinkedFiles, Most globally linked files
Special:MostInterwikis, Pages with the most interwikis
Special:MostLinkedCategories, Most linked-to categories
Special:MostLinkedFiles, Most linked-to files
Special:MostLinkedPages, Most linked-to pages
Special:MostRevisions, Pages with the most revisions
Special:MostTranscludedPages, Most transcluded pages
Special:MovePage, (required value: valid page name). Example Special:MovePage/Main page
Special:MultiLock, Lock and Unlock global accounts.
Special:MyContributions, User contributions
Special:MyLanguage, intended for multilingual sites. This special page goes to the page of the name supplied after the slash, e.g. Special:MyLanguage/Example goes to Example on this wiki. When an interwiki Page or an invalid page name is entered after the slash, this page redirects to Main page.
Special:MyPage, User page for active user, also used for generic link to User/sandbox
Special:MyTalk, Talk page of active user.
Special:MyUploads, Uploads of active user
Nedit
Special:Nearby, articles nearby your geographical location
Special:NewFiles, Gallery of new files
Special:NewPages, New pages
Special:NewPagesFeed, New pages feed
Special:Notifications, notifications
Special:NotificationsMarkRead, Notification: Mark as read
Special:Nuke, Mass delete
Oedit
Special:OATH, Enable two-factor authentication
Special:OAuth, Outside application authorization
Special:OAuthListConsumers, List OAuth applications
To present the list on a page, transclude the name:
{{Special:PrefixIndex/HMS}}
However, some pages cannot be transcluded and would produce only a wikilink (e.g., {{Special:Random}} → Special:Random). When non-existent pages are linked or transcluded, a red link is produced (e.g., Special:RedLinkExample).[a]
More information on transcludable special pages can be found at Help:Transclusion#Special pages.
Links containing URL query stringsedit
Because the ampersand character (&) is disallowed, it is not possible to create an ordinary link containing &action=edit or &redirect=no in the URL query string.
Special pages in other languagesedit
The term in the site language equivalent to the English word "Special" and the special page name in English (e.g. "Special:Statistics") is used in each project, for example:
"Especial:Estadísticas" in Spanish
"Speciaal:Statistieken" in Dutch
"Spécial:Statistiques" in French
"Spezial:Statistik" in German
These also appear in the URLs. The English word "Special" and the special page name in English (e.g. "Special:Statistics") always works, even on foreign-language sites, but non-English equivalents don't work on English-language projects, nor on other-language project besides the language edition one is on.
See alsoedit
Writing a new special page on the MediaWiki site
Special page extensions: MediaWiki category
Help:Special page on Meta
Notesedit
^MediaWiki:Nospecialpagetext is the message displayed for non-existent special pages. However, Special:Badtitle is peculiar as it has actual viewable content but is a red link, which is because this special page was intentionally and by design to be considered non-existent (unlike all other valid page names.) See phab:T262959 for more details.
Referencesedit
^Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions/Archive 18#Volunteer-initiated extension to be deployed to Wikimedia sites