Wikipedia:User access levels

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The user access level of editors affects their abilities to perform specific actions on Wikipedia. A user's access level depends on which rights (also called permissions, user groups, bits, or flags) are assigned to accounts. There are two types of access leveling: automatic and requested. User access levels are determined by whether the Wikipedian is logged in, the account's age and edit count, and what manually assigned rights the account has.

Anyone can use the basic functionalities of Wikipedia even if they are not logged in. Unless they are blocked, they may freely edit most pages. Being logged in gives users many advantages, such as having their public IP address hidden and the ability to track one's own contributions. Furthermore, once user accounts are more than a certain number of days old and have made more than a certain number of edits, they automatically become autoconfirmed or extended confirmed, allowing the direct creation of articles, the ability to move pages, to edit semi-protected and extended-protected pages, and upload files. Further access levels need to be assigned manually by a user with the appropriate authority. An editor with more experience and in good standing can attempt to become an administrator, which provides a large number of advanced permissions. Many different flags for specialized tasks are also available.