Manage guest access in Jira
Use guest access to let external collaborators (such as contractors, consultants, or clients) work with you in Jira, without giving them full access to your site. Read more about guest access
Guest access is granted in two parts:
A site admin invites a guest to the Jira site, then
A space admin adds a guest to a space in the site.
Guest access is only available in Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans.
Security controls for guests
Guest access is designed with least‑privilege controls. Guests must be external to your organization, can only be added to a single Jira space per site, and can’t see work or data outside that space unless it’s been explicitly shared with them. Their access is governed by the guest role and space permissions, so admins stay in control of what guests can see and do.
Guests also can’t access site‑wide experiences (like dashboards or goals) or other apps unless an admin explicitly grants that access.
To help you manage external collaborators securely across your organization, you can also use Atlassian’s external user security settings, including:
Two-step verification
Periodic re-verification
Reviewing external users before changing security settings
API token access
More about external user security
Invite a guest to your site
You must have the following to do the things described in this section.
Role: Site admin
Site admins can invite external collaborators as guests so they can access Jira. This step controls who can sign in as a guest on your site.
To invite a guest to your site:
In Jira’s top navigation, go to Settings (), then User management.
On the Users page, select Invite users.
Enter the email address of the external collaborator you want to invite.
In the Apps tab, find the relevant Jira site, and in the Roles dropdown, select Guest.
Select Next.
Review your changes.
Optional: Select Personalize email invite to add a short message explaining why you’re inviting them.
Select Grant access.
The external collaborator will receive an email invitation. Once they accept and create or sign in with an Atlassian account, they’ll appear as a guest on your site. At this point, they still can’t see any work until a space admin adds them to a specific space.
Approve site access requests
Site admins can also approve site access requests. To manage these requests:
In Jira’s top navigation, go to Settings (), then User management.
On the Users page, select Approve requests.
Select a request to view more information, then select Approve.
Alternatively, grant access straight away by selecting More actions (•••) next to a request, then Approve.
Add a guest to your space
You must have the following to do the things described in this section.
Role: Space admin
Once a guest has access to a site, space admins decide where guests can collaborate by adding them to a Jira space.
Guests can only belong to one Jira software or business space per site. If a guest is already in another space on that site, you’ll need to remove them before adding them to another space.
To add a guest to your space:
Navigate to the Jira space you want the guest to access.
Next to the space’s name in the sidebar, select More actions (•••), then Space settings, then People.
Select Add people.
Enter the email address of the external collaborator you want to invite.
In the Role dropdown, select Guest.
Select Add.
Once you’ve added the guest to the space, they can sign in to Jira and access only that space. They’ll see work and views according to the permissions configured for the guest role.
Change a guest to a fully licensed user
You must have the following to do the things described in this section.
Role: Site admin
If an external collaborator becomes a long-term partner or internal team member, you can promote them to a fully licensed user.
To change a guest to a fully licensed user:
In Jira’s top navigation, go to Settings (), then User management.
Select the relevant user to open their profile.
Find the relevant Jira site, and in the Roles dropdown, select the licensed user role you’d like them to have instead.
Once converted, they’ll count towards your Jira billing, and be able to access multiple spaces, depending on the permissions you grant them.
Remove a guest from your space or site
When a guest no longer needs access, you can remove them from a space or from the site entirely.
Remove a guest from your space
To remove a guest from your space:
Navigate to the relevant Jira space.
Next to the space’s name in the sidebar, select More actions (•••), then Space settings, then People.
Find the relevant user in your list, then select Remove.
Confirm the removal.
Without access to a space, a guest can’t access Jira at all, but will remain in the guest list. A space admin can re-add them to a space at any time.
Remove a guest from your site
You must have the following to do the things described in this section.
Role: Site admin
To remove a guest from your site:
In Jira’s top navigation, go to Settings (), then User management.
Find the relevant user in your Users list.
Select the relevant user to open their profile.
Select More actions (•••) in the row for Jira, then Remove access.
This completely revokes the guest’s access to Jira on your site.
Was this helpful?