---
layout: docs
page_title: Required Ports
description: >-
  Consul requires multiple ports for directing DNS, HTTP, gRPC, gossip, and sidecar proxy requests. Learn about required and optional ports, and how Consul uses them for specific communication functions.
---

# Required Ports

Consul requires up to 6 different ports to work properly, some on
TCP, UDP, or both protocols. Below we document the requirements for each
port.

## Ports Table

Before running Consul, you should ensure the following bind ports are accessible:

| Use                                                                                                           | Default Ports     |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| DNS: The DNS server (TCP and UDP)                                                                             | 8600              |
| HTTP: The HTTP API (TCP Only)                                                                                 | 8500              |
| HTTPS: The HTTPS API                                                                                          | disabled (8501)\* |
| gRPC: The gRPC API                                                                                            | disabled (8502)\* |
| gRPC TLS: The gRPC API with TLS connections                                                                   | disabled (8503)\* |
| LAN Serf: The Serf LAN port (TCP and UDP)                                                                     | 8301              |
| Wan Serf: The Serf WAN port (TCP and UDP)                                                                     | 8302              |
| server: Server RPC address (TCP Only)                                                                         | 8300              |
| Sidecar Proxy Min: Inclusive min port number to use for automatically assigned sidecar service registrations. | 21000             |
| Sidecar Proxy Max: Inclusive max port number to use for automatically assigned sidecar service registrations. | 21255             |

\*For `HTTPS` and `gRPC` the ports specified in the table
are recommendations.

## Port Information

**DNS Interface** Used to resolve DNS queries.

**HTTP API** This is used by clients to talk to the HTTP
API.

**HTTPS API** (Optional) Is off by default, but port 8501 is a convention
used by various tools as the default.

**gRPC API** (Optional). Currently gRPC is
only used to expose the xDS API to Envoy proxies. It is off by default, but port 8502 is a convention used by various tools as the default. Defaults to 8502 in `-dev` mode.

**Serf LAN** This is used to handle gossip in the LAN.
Required by all agents.

**Serf WAN** This is used by servers to gossip over the WAN, to
other servers. As of Consul 0.8 the WAN join flooding feature requires
the Serf WAN port (TCP/UDP) to be listening on both WAN and LAN interfaces. See also:
[Consul 0.8.0 CHANGELOG](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#080-april-5-2017) and [GH-3058](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/issues/3058)

**Server RPC** This is used by servers to handle incoming
requests from other agents.

Note, the default ports can be changed in the [agent configuration](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#ports).
