Abstract: The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), led by NASA, uses a 2.4m diameter telescope for deep near-IR imaging survey. It also includes a visible light corongraph instrument (CGI), designed to image exoplanets and disks around nearby stars. The CGI includes both a broadband imaging camera and a integral field spectrograph (IFS), allowing spectroscopic characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. At least a dozen known giant exoplanets (identified by the radial velocity technique) will be imaged by WFIRST , and the instrument will also identify lower mass planets. WFIRST's coronagraph design includes two deformable mirrors for fine wavefront correction and a high performance coronagraph to remove starlight. The CGI will validate and utilize technologies which are required for direct imaging and characterization of habitable planets with future larger telescope, and is therefore a major step toward NASA's long term goal of finding evidence for life outside our solar system.