How to setup Tailscale

Monday, June 30th 2025

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Tailscale quickstart Welcome! Follow the steps below to create your own private Tailscale network (known as a tailnet), or watch the video to learn how to get started with Tailscale and set up some useful features.

Create a tailnet Go to tailscale.com and select Get Started. Alternatively, you can download and install the Tailscale client on your device, then sign up.

On the Sign up with your identity provider page, log in using a single sign-on (SSO) identity provider account.

If you sign up using a custom-owned domain, you are automatically enrolled in the Enterprise plan for a 14-day trial. If you sign up using a public domain email account such as @gmail.com, you are automatically enrolled in the Personal plan, which entitles you to three free users and many of the features offered in the Enterprise plan. You can always change your plan. For details, see Modify billing.

On the Welcome to Tailscale page, select either Business use or Personal use.

On the Let's add your first device page, select the OS that corresponds to the device you are using to download and install the client. Authenticate the client using the same credentials that you used to create the tailnet in step 2.

Once you are authenticated, you will see your device appear in the browser window.

On the Next, add a second device page, select the OS for another machine to add to the tailnet. Copy the link and send it to the second device. After the second device is authenticated, both devices will display.

Select Take me home. You will be redirected to the Tailscale admin console. This interface lets you control most aspects of your tailnet including users, devices, DNS, permissions, authentication keys, and more.

Rename devices Every device added to a tailnet, including servers, nodes, phones, and personal computers is assigned a unique name generated from the device's OS hostname. This name is displayed in the Machines page of the admin console. You can also rename a device to help you locate and organize devices in the Machines page list.

Use MagicDNS MagicDNS makes communicating with devices across your tailnet easier by allowing you to use the name listed in the Machines page of the admin console instead of an IP address. This works using automatically assigned OS hostnames or renamed device names. MagicDNS is enabled by default, and we recommend you keep it enabled.

Invite users There are two types of tailnet user invites.

Team member invites are for users who will authenticate using the same identity provider you used when creating the tailnet. This is the same domain displayed in the Organization field of the General page of the admin console.

External invites are for users who are not part of your custom domain, such as contractors, friends, and family.

Team members If your tailnet uses a custom domain (example.com), users with email addresses with the same domain can log in without needing an invite. Alternatively, you can send team member invites to notify them to join.

External users To invite external users to a tailnet, open the Users page of the admin console, select Invite external users, and choose one of the following options:

Invite via email to send one or more invites. Copy invite link to share the invite link with others. When users select the link, they will be directed to the Tailscale login page, where they can authenticate using a supported single sign-on (SSO) identity provider account. Once they are authenticated, users are added on the Users page of the admin console.

For more details, see Invite any user to your tailnet.

Add devices You can add more devices to your tailnet using one of the following methods: