Overview

TP-Link Tapo devices are a popular, affordable entry point into smart home hardware but on their own, they’re locked inside the Tapo app, isolated from everything else in your setup. By integrating Tapo into Home Assistant, these devices stop being a standalone silo and become part of the same automation logic as every other brand in your ecosystem.

This guide covers connecting Tapo smart plugs (and compatible devices) to an existing Home Assistant instance.

Requirements

  • Home Assistant already installed and running (see my Home Assistant on Proxmox guide if you haven’t set this up yet).
  • Tapo device(s) already set up and working in the official Tapo app.
  • Your Tapo account email and password the integration authenticates through TP-Link’s cloud, not locally.

🌐 Prerequisite: Your Tapo devices must be on the same local network as your Home Assistant instance for local polling to work correctly after setup.

Procedure

  1. In Home Assistant, go to Settings → Devices & Services.
  2. Click Add Integration (bottom-right) and search for Tapo.
  3. Select the Tapo integration from the results.
  4. Enter your Tapo account credentials (email and password) when prompted.
  5. Home Assistant will authenticate with TP-Link’s cloud and automatically discover your Tapo devices on the local network.
  6. Once discovery completes, your devices will appear under Settings → Devices & Services → Tapo, each one ready to add to dashboards and automations.
  7. Test the connection by toggling a device directly from the Home Assistant UI, the physical device should respond immediately.

Notes

  • If a device doesn’t get discovered automatically, double-check it’s on the same subnet/VLAN as your Home Assistant instance.
  • Cloud authentication is required for setup, but device control afterward is handled locally for lower latency.