How to Give Access to Google Analytics 4 (Roles Explained)

You need to give someone access to Google Analytics 4, maybe a new team member, a freelancer or an SEO agency, and you want to do it without handing over too much control. Here is the short answer. An Administrator goes to Admin, opens Account access management or Property access management, clicks the blue + button, chooses Add users, enters the person’s Google account email, picks a role and clicks Add. Their access works straight away.

The clicks are easy. The decisions are where people go wrong: which level to add someone at, which role to pick, and whether to hide cost and revenue data. In this guide I explain each role in plain words, show the exact steps, and cover the problems I see most often when access does not work.

Before You Start: What You Need

Check three things before you open GA4. It saves a lot of back and forth.

• You must be an Administrator. Only Administrators can add, change or remove users. If you are an Editor or lower, you will see the user list but not the option to add people.
• The other person needs a Google account. GA4 grants access to an email address that is linked to a Google account or a Google Workspace account. It does not have to be a Gmail address. A work email can be turned into a Google account.
• Know which property they need. If your account has several properties (for example, one per website or app), decide whether the person needs one property or all of them.

There is no seat limit. Google says you can add as many users as you need.

One more habit of mine: I ask the person which email they want to use before I add anyone. People often have a personal Gmail and a work account, and access added to the wrong one is the most common “it doesn’t work” message I get.

Account Access vs Property Access in GA4

GA4 is organised in levels. An account is the top container, usually one per business. Inside it sit one or more properties. A property is where the data for a website or app lives, along with its reports and settings.

You can give someone access at either level, and the difference matters:

• Account-level access applies to every property in that account, now and in the future, with the same role on each.
• Property-level access applies only to that one property. The person cannot see other properties in the account.

Roles pass down from the account to its properties. Google’s rule is that a person always gets the most generous role they hold. So if someone is an Editor at the account level, they are an Editor on every property, and you cannot lower that on one property. You can add more access at the property level, but you cannot take away access that comes from the account level.

My rule of thumb is simple. Add people at the property level unless they truly need every property. Account-level access is for the business owner and one or two trusted admins. An agency working on one website does not need to see your other sites.

Some larger companies also have an organization above the account, set up through Google Marketing Platform. Most small businesses never use this. It matters mainly for user groups, which I cover below.

GA4 Roles Explained

GA4 has five roles plus “None”. Each role includes everything the role below it can do. Here is what each one means in practice, based on Google’s own role definitions.

A few points that are easy to miss:

• Key events are what GA4 used to call conversions (the actions you count as success, like a form submission or a purchase). Google renamed them in 2024. Creating or changing key events needs the Marketer role or higher.
• An exploration is a custom report you build in the Explore section. Viewers can make their own, but only Analysts and above can share them with others.
• Older guides from the Universal Analytics days talk about “Manage Users”, “Edit”, “Collaborate” and “Read & Analyze”. Those map to Administrator, Editor, Analyst and Viewer in GA4. Marketer is new.

Which Role Should You Choose?

I always start from the lowest role that lets the person do their job, then raise it only if they hit a wall. Some typical cases:

• An SEO consultant reviewing organic traffic: Viewer is usually enough. If they will build and share explorations with your team, Analyst.
• An agency running Google Ads: Marketer, so they can manage key events and audiences. They do not need Editor.
• A developer setting up tracking or linking GA4 to other tools: Editor on the one property they work on.
• Your boss or a client who wants to see results: Viewer.

In my experience, agencies often ask for Administrator “to make things easier”. I don’t give it. An Administrator can remove you, the owner, from your own account. Editor or Marketer covers almost every task an outside partner needs.

Data Restrictions: Hiding Cost and Revenue Metrics

When you add a user, GA4 also lets you tick two data restrictions. These sit on top of the role and hide sensitive numbers.

• No Cost Metrics: hides cost data, such as Google Ads cost and return on ad spend.
• No Revenue Metrics: hides revenue data, such as purchase revenue and total revenue.

Google says the restriction applies to these metrics in reports, explorations, audiences, insights and alerts. It also covers metrics worked out from them and any custom metrics you have flagged as cost or revenue. The restriction applies in the GA4 interface and through the API too.

Here is what a restricted user actually sees. In standard reports, restricted values show as zero. In explorations, the metrics can still be picked, but no results appear. That surprises people, so I tell them up front.

When would you use this? A good example is a content writer or an SEO contractor on an ecommerce site. They need traffic and engagement data, but they do not need to see your sales figures. Tick No Revenue Metrics and they still get everything else.

Restrictions also follow the account-to-property rule. A restriction set at the account level applies to every property, and you cannot remove it at one property. Note that an Administrator can always change restrictions, including their own, so restrictions are not a way to limit admins.

How to Give Access to Google Analytics 4, Step by Step

These are the steps in the current GA4 interface. I’m using property-level access as the example, because that is what I recommend most of the time.

1. Sign in to Google Analytics with an Administrator account and pick the right account and property from the selector at the top.
2. Click Admin (the gear icon at the bottom left).
3. Under Property settings, open Property and click Property access management. For account-level access, use Account settings, open Account and click Account access management instead. Google’s help pages now call both links just “Access Management”.
4. Click the blue + button at the top right and choose Add users.
5. Enter the email address of the person’s Google account. You can add more than one email at a time if they all need the same role.
6. Tick Notify new users by email, so they know they have access. Google treats this as optional, but I always leave it on.
7. Choose a role under Direct roles and data restrictions, and tick No Cost Metrics or No Revenue Metrics if needed.
8. Click Add at the top right.

That’s it. There is no invite to accept. The person can sign in to Google Analytics with that email and see the property right away. Google’s own help page on adding, editing and deleting users covers the same flow if you want to check a detail.

After I add someone, I ask them to sign in and confirm they can see the property while we are still talking. It takes one minute and catches the wrong-email problem straight away.

How to Change or Remove a User’s Access

Change a Role

1. Go to Admin and open Account access management or Property access management, depending on where the person was added.
2. Search for the user by name or email.
3. Click their row to open their details.
4. Pick a new role or change the data restrictions.
5. Click Save.

Remove a User

1. Open the same access management screen.
2. Tick the checkbox next to the user, or open their row and use the menu.
3. Click Remove and confirm.

Remember the levels. If someone has account-level access, removing them from one property will not work. You have to remove them at the account level. And GA4 will not let the last Administrator remove themselves, which is a useful safety net.

On Google Analytics 360 subproperties and roll-up properties, users work the same way. Google says removing someone from a source property also removes them from its subproperties.

I also use the None role in one specific case: when a person should keep access to some properties but not one sensitive property. Setting None on that property only works if their access comes from the property level, not from the account.

User Groups for Larger Teams

If you manage access for many people, adding each email by hand gets messy. GA4 supports user groups: you create a group, give the group a role, and then add or remove people from the group.

The catch is that user groups need your GA4 account to be linked to an organization in Google Marketing Platform. Without one, the option is not there. Google’s setup flow can help you create and link an organization if you need it.

The basic steps in the current interface are:

1. In access management, click + and choose Add user groups.
2. Click Add group, then +, enter a name and description and click Create.
3. Choose the group’s role and any data restrictions, then click Add.
4. To add people, find the group in the list, click the More icon (three dots) and choose View group’s organization details.
5. Open Members, click +, enter the email addresses and click Add. Close the panels and click Save.

Larger teams with staff joining and leaving often can now also manage groups through code with Google’s User Groups Admin API.

For a small business with five or ten users, I would skip groups. Direct access is simpler to check.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

“This Email Doesn’t Match a Google Account”

The email has no Google account behind it. Ask the person to create a Google account using their existing email address. On the Google sign-up page they can choose to use their current email instead of creating a new Gmail. Once that is done, add them again.

The Invite Email Never Arrived

This is less of a problem than it looks. The email is only a notice. Access is active the moment you click Add. Ask the person to go to Google Analytics, sign in with that exact email and check the account selector. The notice may also be in their spam folder.

They Signed In but See “No Access” or a Different Account

Almost always, they are signed in to a different Google account. Ask them to switch to the email you added, or use a private browser window. Also check you added them to the right property, especially if your account has several with similar names.

Someone Sent You an Access Request

Google says that if someone opens a link to Analytics data they can’t see, they can click Request access and pick a level. GA4 emails the request to the Administrators.

The request does not give access by itself. An Administrator still adds the person. I only do that if I know who they are, and I give the role I think fits, not always the one they asked for. Google’s page on requesting access to Analytics shows what the requester sees.

You Can’t See the “+” Button or “Add Users”

Your own role is not Administrator at that level. Check your role in access management. If you are an Editor, ask an Administrator to add the person or to raise your role.

You Can’t Lower Someone’s Role on a Property

Their role comes from the account level. Change or remove it in Account access management, then give them the property access you want.

A User Says Revenue Shows as Zero

Check their data restrictions. If No Revenue Metrics is ticked, at the property or the account level, revenue values show as zero for them. That is working as designed.

An Agency Can’t Create Key Events or Audiences

They are probably Viewer or Analyst. Creating key events and audiences needs at least Marketer. Raise the role on that one property only.

The Previous Agency or Employee Was the Only Admin

This is the problem I most want you to avoid. If the only Administrator leaves and does not hand over access, getting control back can be slow and painful. Ask them to add you as an Administrator before they go. That is why I always keep at least two Administrators, and at least one of them is the business owner.

If no one is left who can help, Google has a recovery process. You prove you own every site or app that sends data, usually with a small analytics.txt file on your domain using Google’s exact wording, then fill in a contact form. Google explains the full process on its page for when no one has administrative access.

Security Tips for GA4 User Access

• Never share your Google password. Every person should have their own login. Shared logins hide who changed what and are a security risk.
• Use the least access needed. Start with Viewer and move up only when there is a clear reason.
• Prefer property-level access for outside partners, so they only see the site they work on.
• Keep two Administrators, and make sure the business owns at least one of them through a company account, not a staff member’s personal Gmail.
• Review users regularly. I check the user list every quarter and whenever an agency contract ends or someone leaves. Old access is easy to forget.
• Use data restrictions for people who do not need cost or revenue data.
• Check Change History under Admin if a setting changes unexpectedly. It shows which user made the change.

Access is part of a healthy measurement setup. If you are working through a wider list, the tracking step in my SEO checklist for 2025 covers what else to have in place.

What Has Changed Recently

The way you add and remove users has not changed. These smaller updates still matter when you share access. Each comes from Google’s What’s new in Google Analytics page.

• Google Business Profile links (June 2026): you can link a GA4 property to a Google Business Profile from Admin. It is a settings change, so I’d have an Editor or Administrator do it.
• AdMob links in Admin (July 2026): AdMob can be linked from Product links in Admin. Google says this needs Editor or Administrator in GA4 plus Administrator in AdMob, so a Viewer can’t set it up.
• User Groups Admin API (September to October 2026): user groups and members can be managed through code, with User Admin or Org Admin permission on the organization. It helps large teams with frequent staff changes; small businesses can ignore it.

Conclusion

To give access to Google Analytics 4, an Administrator adds the person’s Google account email in access management, picks a role and, if needed, hides cost or revenue data. The real skill is choosing the right level and the lowest role that does the job: Viewer for people who look, Marketer for agencies running campaigns, Editor for whoever maintains the setup, and Administrator for the owner and one backup.

Take ten minutes today to open your access management screen and check who is there. Remove anyone who no longer needs access and make sure you have a second admin. If you also run a local business, it is worth doing the same check for the people who manage your Google Business Profile.