diff --git a/R-package/NAMESPACE b/R-package/NAMESPACE
index 11a812c9e..cd2a3b92b 100644
--- a/R-package/NAMESPACE
+++ b/R-package/NAMESPACE
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ S3method(setinfo,xgb.DMatrix)
 S3method(slice,xgb.DMatrix)
 export("xgb.attr<-")
 export("xgb.attributes<-")
+export("xgb.config<-")
 export("xgb.parameters<-")
 export(cb.cv.predict)
 export(cb.early.stop)
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@ export(xgb.DMatrix)
 export(xgb.DMatrix.save)
 export(xgb.attr)
 export(xgb.attributes)
+export(xgb.config)
 export(xgb.create.features)
 export(xgb.cv)
 export(xgb.dump)
diff --git a/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R b/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R
index 660264e0b..dd901b07d 100644
--- a/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R
+++ b/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R
@@ -503,6 +503,35 @@ xgb.attributes <- function(object) {
   object
 }
 
+#' Accessors for model parameters as JSON string.
+#'
+#' @param object Object of class \code{xgb.Booster}
+#' @param value A JSON string.
+#'
+#' @examples
+#' data(agaricus.train, package='xgboost')
+#' train <- agaricus.train
+#'
+#' bst <- xgboost(data = train$data, label = train$label, max_depth = 2,
+#'                eta = 1, nthread = 2, nrounds = 2, objective = "binary:logistic")
+#' config <- xgb.config(bst)
+#'
+#' @rdname xgb.config
+#' @export
+xgb.config <- function(object) {
+  handle <- xgb.get.handle(object)
+  .Call(XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R, handle);
+}
+
+#' @rdname xgb.config
+#' @export
+`xgb.config<-` <- function(object, value) {
+  handle <- xgb.get.handle(object)
+  .Call(XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig_R, handle, value)
+  object$raw <- xgb.Booster.complete(object)
+  object
+}
+
 #' Accessors for model parameters.
 #'
 #' Only the setter for xgboost parameters is currently implemented.
diff --git a/R-package/man/xgb.config.Rd b/R-package/man/xgb.config.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a5187c8ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R-package/man/xgb.config.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/xgb.Booster.R
+\name{xgb.config}
+\alias{xgb.config}
+\alias{xgb.config<-}
+\title{Accessors for model parameters as JSON string.}
+\usage{
+xgb.config(object)
+
+xgb.config(object) <- value
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{object}{Object of class \code{xgb.Booster}}
+
+\item{value}{A JSON string.}
+}
+\description{
+Accessors for model parameters as JSON string.
+}
+\examples{
+data(agaricus.train, package='xgboost')
+train <- agaricus.train
+
+bst <- xgboost(data = train$data, label = train$label, max_depth = 2,
+               eta = 1, nthread = 2, nrounds = 2, objective = "binary:logistic")
+config <- xgb.config(bst)
+
+}
diff --git a/R-package/src/init.c b/R-package/src/init.c
index 82b853217..b85d4e756 100644
--- a/R-package/src/init.c
+++ b/R-package/src/init.c
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ extern SEXP XGBoosterGetAttrNames_R(SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterGetAttr_R(SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterLoadModelFromRaw_R(SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterLoadModel_R(SEXP, SEXP);
+extern SEXP XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R(SEXP handle);
+extern SEXP XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig_R(SEXP handle, SEXP value);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterModelToRaw_R(SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterPredict_R(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterSaveModel_R(SEXP, SEXP);
@@ -49,6 +51,8 @@ static const R_CallMethodDef CallEntries[] = {
   {"XGBoosterGetAttr_R",          (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterGetAttr_R,          2},
   {"XGBoosterLoadModelFromRaw_R", (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterLoadModelFromRaw_R, 2},
   {"XGBoosterLoadModel_R",        (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterLoadModel_R,        2},
+  {"XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R",   (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R,   1},
+  {"XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig_R",   (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig_R,   2},
   {"XGBoosterModelToRaw_R",       (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterModelToRaw_R,       1},
   {"XGBoosterPredict_R",          (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterPredict_R,          5},
   {"XGBoosterSaveModel_R",        (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterSaveModel_R,        2},
diff --git a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc
index c9083177d..d89ea7bed 100644
--- a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc
+++ b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc
@@ -362,6 +362,24 @@ SEXP XGBoosterModelToRaw_R(SEXP handle) {
   return ret;
 }
 
+SEXP XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R(SEXP handle) {
+  const char* ret;
+  R_API_BEGIN();
+  bst_ulong len {0};
+  CHECK_CALL(XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig(R_ExternalPtrAddr(handle),
+                                     &len,
+                                     &ret));
+  R_API_END();
+  return mkString(ret);
+}
+
+SEXP XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig_R(SEXP handle, SEXP value) {
+  R_API_BEGIN();
+  XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig(R_ExternalPtrAddr(handle), CHAR(asChar(value)));
+  R_API_END();
+  return R_NilValue;
+}
+
 SEXP XGBoosterDumpModel_R(SEXP handle, SEXP fmap, SEXP with_stats, SEXP dump_format) {
   SEXP out;
   R_API_BEGIN();
diff --git a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h
index 764050fd8..05cd7afbe 100644
--- a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h
+++ b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h
@@ -179,9 +179,22 @@ XGB_DLL SEXP XGBoosterLoadModelFromRaw_R(SEXP handle, SEXP raw);
  * \brief save model into R's raw array
  * \param handle handle
  * \return raw array
-   */
+ */
 XGB_DLL SEXP XGBoosterModelToRaw_R(SEXP handle);
 
+/*!
+ * \brief Save internal parameters as a JSON string
+ * \param handle handle
+ * \return JSON string
+ */
+XGB_DLL SEXP XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R(SEXP handle);
+/*!
+ * \brief Load the JSON string returnd by XGBoosterSaveJsonConfig_R
+ * \param handle handle
+ * \param value JSON string
+ * \return R_NilValue
+ */
+XGB_DLL SEXP XGBoosterLoadJsonConfig_R(SEXP handle, SEXP value);
 /*!
  * \brief dump model into a string
  * \param handle handle
diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R
index 97b90f7a1..eb881ed46 100644
--- a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_basic.R
@@ -324,3 +324,13 @@ test_that("colsample_bytree works", {
   # in the 100 trees
   expect_gte(nrow(xgb.importance(model = bst)), 30)
 })
+
+test_that("Configuration works", {
+  bst <- xgboost(data = train$data, label = train$label, max_depth = 2,
+                 eta = 1, nthread = 2, nrounds = 2, objective = "binary:logistic",
+                 eval_metric = 'error', eval_metric = 'auc', eval_metric = "logloss")
+  config <- xgb.config(bst)
+  xgb.config(bst) <- config
+  reloaded_config <- xgb.config(bst)
+  expect_equal(config, reloaded_config);
+})
diff --git a/doc/tutorials/saving_model.rst b/doc/tutorials/saving_model.rst
index 7d416ccb1..88a097ac1 100644
--- a/doc/tutorials/saving_model.rst
+++ b/doc/tutorials/saving_model.rst
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ comments in the script for more details.
 Saving and Loading the internal parameters configuration
 ********************************************************
 
-XGBoost's ``C API`` and ``Python API`` supports saving and loading the internal
+XGBoost's ``C API``, ``Python API`` and ``R API`` support saving and loading the internal
 configuration directly as a JSON string.  In Python package:
 
 .. code-block:: python
@@ -111,6 +111,14 @@ configuration directly as a JSON string.  In Python package:
   config = bst.save_config()
   print(config)
 
+
+or
+
+.. code-block:: R
+
+  config <- xgb.config(bst)
+  print(config)
+
 Will print out something similiar to (not actual output as it's too long for demonstration):
 
 .. code-block:: json