X Plugin is enabled by default in MySQL 8, therefore installing or upgrading to MySQL 8 makes the plugin available. You can verify X Plugin is installed on an instance of MySQL server by using the SHOW plugins statement to view the plugins list.

To use MySQL Shell to verify X Plugin is installed, issue:

$> mysqlsh -u user --sqlc -P 3306 -e "SHOW plugins"

To use MySQL Client to verify X Plugin is installed, issue:

$> mysql -u user -p -e "SHOW plugins"

An example result if X Plugin is installed is highlighted here:

+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+
| Name                       | Status   | Type               | Library | License |
+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+

...


| mysqlx                     | ACTIVE   | DAEMON             | NULL    | GPL     |

...

+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+