How to Share a Looker Studio Report (Viewer vs Editor)

You built a Looker Studio report, and now a client, your boss or a teammate needs to see it. To share a Looker Studio report, open it, click Share, add the person’s email address and set them to view or edit. That part takes a minute. The part that trips people up is the data behind the report: who can see it, and why a viewer sometimes gets an error instead of charts.

One thing first: in April 2026 Google renamed Looker Studio back to its old name, Data Studio. It is the same tool, with the same reports and the same sharing. I use both names in this guide, because most people still search for Looker Studio.

Viewer vs Editor: What Each Role Can Do

A report has one owner, and the owner can share it with viewers and editors. In the Share window the roles appear as Can view and Can edit.

A viewer can still change the date range or click a filter while they look at the report. Those changes only affect their own view. On Pro reports there is also a Can create schedules permission, which lets a viewer set up their own email delivery without being an editor.

My rule is simple: give viewer access unless the person will edit the report this week. Editor access is easy to give and easy to forget. I usually see it spread to people who left the project months ago.

Editor Access Is More Powerful Than It Looks

If a report’s data source uses the owner’s credentials (more on this below), an editor can add new charts using any field in that data source. For a Google Analytics 4 data source, that means they can explore the whole property’s data through the report, not just the charts you built. So treat editor access to a report like partial access to the data underneath it.

How to Share a Looker Studio Report With Specific People

This is the method I use most. Only people you add can open the report, and you control each person’s role.

1. Sign in to Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) and open the report.
2. Click the Share icon (a person with a plus sign) at the top right.
3. In the Share with people and groups window, type names, email addresses or Google Groups under Add people.
4. Set the role to view or edit. Use the role drop-down next to each name if people need different roles.
5. Leave Notify people ticked to send them an email with the link. Untick it if you will send the link yourself.
6. Click Send.

You need to be the owner or an editor to share a report. You can also share from the home page: find the report in the list, click the three-dot More menu and choose Share. A single report can be shared with up to 1,500 people and groups.

Does the Person Need a Google Account?

Yes, for email-based sharing. Anyone you share with by email or group has to sign in with a Google account to view or edit. They do not need a Gmail address, though. Any existing work email can be linked to a Google account.

If someone will not make a Google account, you still have two options. Use a link setting that does not need sign-in (covered next), or send them a PDF by scheduled delivery. Editing always needs a Google account.

Link Sharing Settings Explained

In the Share window, the Link settings drop-down decides who can open the report with just the link. A standard account has five choices:

• Off – Only specific people can access: only the people and groups you added can open it. This is the safest option.
• Anyone with the link can view: anyone who has the link can open it, with no sign-in needed. It will not show up in search.
• Anyone with the link can edit: same, but they can change the report.
• Anyone on the Internet can find and view: the report is public and can be found in search.
• Anyone on the Internet can find and edit: public and editable by anyone.

On a Google Workspace account you may also see an option limited to people in your company domain, and your admin may block outside or public sharing. If so, those options are missing or you get an error when you share with an outside email. After you pick a setting, click Copy link.

I never use either “edit” link option. Anyone who gets a forwarded email could change or wreck your report.

A Warning About Public Links

“Anyone with the link” is handy for a client who will not sign in. But there is a side effect many people miss. If the report uses an embedded data source (one that lives inside the report rather than as a separate reusable data source), people with the link can reach that data source too. Google suggests making the data source reusable to avoid this.

For client data, I keep link sharing off and add named viewers. I only use link sharing for reports that show data I would be happy to publish anyway.

Data Source Credentials: Why Viewers Sometimes See Errors

This is the section most guides skip, and it is the reason behind most “the report is broken” messages. A report does not hold your data. It asks a data source for the data each time someone opens it. The data source decides whose permission to use for that request. This setting is called data credentials.

Owner’s Credentials

With owner’s credentials, the data source uses the access of the credential owner, usually the person who created it. Viewers see the data even if they have no access to the GA4 property, Search Console property or Google Sheet behind it.

This is the default where a connector supports it, and it is what you want for client reporting. Your client sees the charts without you adding them to every tool.

Viewer’s Credentials

With viewer’s credentials, each person uses their own access. If a viewer has no access to the dataset, they cannot see its data in the report. Use this when the report should be a window, not a key. For example, a company BigQuery report where each person should only see what they are already allowed to see.

Business accounts can also use service account credentials (a non-human Google Cloud account) for BigQuery data sources. Most marketers will never need it, but it helps when company policy blocks owner’s credentials.

How to Check or Change the Credentials

1. Open the report in edit mode and go to Resource > Manage added data sources.
2. Click Edit next to the data source.
3. Click Data credentials at the top of the screen.
4. Choose Owner’s Credentials or Viewer’s Credentials, or click Make me the owner to power it with your own account.
5. Click Update, then Done.

Only editors of the data source can change this. Google’s help page on data credentials lists the options and the limits for specific connectors.

Common Reasons Viewers See Errors

• The data source uses viewer’s credentials. The viewer has no access to the GA4 property or Sheet, so charts show a configuration or permission error. Fix: switch to owner’s credentials, or give the viewer access to the tool behind it.
• The credential owner lost access. If the person whose credentials power the data source is removed from the GA4 property, or their account is deleted, the data stops loading for everyone. Fix: an editor clicks Make me the owner under Data credentials, using an account that has access.
• The person was never added. They see a permission page with a Request access button. For free reports the request goes to the owner. For Pro reports in a team workspace it goes to the workspace managers. Fix: add them as a viewer.
• They are signed in with the wrong Google account. Very common with people who use a personal Gmail and a work account in the same browser. Fix: ask them to open the link in a private window and sign in with the email you shared with.
• Links and images are missing. Hyperlinks and images in table fields are not shown when a data source uses viewer’s credentials. Fix: use owner’s credentials if those links matter.
• A company policy blocks the connection. Some Workspace security rules block requests to Google Sheets or BigQuery and show a “Credential settings are incorrect” message. Fix: this needs your Workspace admin.

When a client says the report is broken, the first thing I check is whose credentials each data source uses. Most of the time the answer is right there.

How to Transfer Ownership of a Looker Studio Report

Ownership matters when someone leaves the company, or when an agency hands reports back to a client. If the owner’s account is deleted, their free reports can be deleted with it. I always make sure the business, not one person, owns the reports it relies on.

1. Share the report with the new owner first, as a viewer or editor.
2. Open the report and click Share.
3. Open the role drop-down next to the new owner’s name and choose Make owner.
4. Click Yes to confirm. It can take a few minutes to update.

Keep these rules in mind:

• You cannot take it back. Once you make someone owner, you cannot transfer it again yourself. You stay an editor unless the new owner removes you.
• The domain must match. Workspace users can only transfer to someone in the same organisation. Personal Google accounts can only transfer to other personal accounts. This is why I build client reports in an account the client can own from day one.
• Data sources are separate. Transfer each reusable data source from its own Share menu, while editing the data source.
• Credentials stay the same. After the transfer, the data source still uses the old credentials. The new owner should reconnect with their own so the report does not break when the old owner leaves.
• CSV upload data sources cannot be transferred. The new owner has to upload the file again.

If someone has already left a Workspace company, an admin can move their reports to another user during the account deletion process in the Admin console. With Pro, content belongs to the organisation, and team workspaces avoid the problem altogether.

Scheduled Email Delivery

Many clients never open a dashboard link. Scheduled delivery puts the report in their inbox instead. Recipients get a PDF, a preview of the first page and a link to the live report.

1. Open the report and click Share, then choose Schedule delivery.
2. In the Create schedule window, add recipients. You are always included. On Pro, click Add schedule first and set Destination to Email.
3. Choose which pages to include, if you do not want all of them.
4. Set the start date and time, and pick how often it runs under Repeat. Use Custom for patterns such as every two weeks.
5. Click Schedule.

To change or stop a schedule later, go back to Share > Schedule delivery, open the More menu and choose Edit or Delete schedule.

A few things I watch:

• The PDF uses the default date range and filters. Set the report’s default date range to “last month” or “last 7 days” before you schedule. You can also change control values in the schedule’s Filters tab.
• The PDF is not access control. Anyone who gets the email can read and forward the PDF. The link inside still needs report access to open.
• Broken reports are not sent. Download a PDF by hand first to test it.
• Schedules have an owner too. If the person who made a schedule loses access, an editor must edit and save it, or create a new one.
• Limits differ by plan. Without Pro you get one schedule per report, sent at most daily, to up to 50 addresses. Pro allows up to 200 schedules per report, hourly sending, and delivery to Google Chat or Slack. Each account also has daily email limits.

How to Embed a Looker Studio Report on a Website

Embedding puts the live report inside another page, such as a client portal, an intranet or a Google Site.

1. Open the report in edit mode.
2. Set the sharing first. For a public page, use an “Anyone with the link” or public setting. For a private page, share with named people or your company domain.
3. Go to File > Embed report, or click the Embed icon at the top right.
4. Tick Enable embedding. To embed one page, go to that page first.
5. Choose Embed Code for a normal website (an iframe, a small piece of HTML that shows one page inside another) or Embed URL for Google Sites.
6. Set the width and height, click Copy to clipboard, and paste it into your page’s HTML.

The normal share link will not work in an iframe. You must use the code from the Embed dialog. It looks roughly like this:

<iframe width="600" height="450"
  src="EMBED_URL_COPIED_FROM_THE_DIALOG"
  frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Embedding does not bypass sharing. On a private report, visitors must be signed in with a Google account you shared with, or they see a sign-in or permission message. That is the most common “embed not working” problem I see. To stop embedding, go back to File > Embed report and untick Enable embedding.

How to Remove Access or Change Someone’s Role

I review report access every few months and whenever a project ends.

1. Open the report and click Share.
2. Find the person in the list.
3. Open the role drop-down next to their name.
4. Pick a new role, or choose Remove to take away access completely.
5. Click Save.

Then check three more things:

• Link settings. If link sharing was on, removing a person does nothing. Set it to Off – Only specific people can access.
• Reusable data sources. If you shared a data source directly with someone, remove them there too.
• Scheduled deliveries. Removing a person from the report does not remove them from a schedule. Edit the schedule and delete their address.

Two Settings I Turn On for Every Client Report

In the Share window, open the sharing settings (Manage access, or the gear icon). You will find two checkboxes:

• Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people. Only the owner can share the report. This stops it spreading.
• Disable options to download, print, and copy for viewers. Viewers cannot make their own copy, which could keep using your data source.

Security Tips Before You Share a Looker Studio Report

• Never share passwords. Do not log in as someone else to “fix” a report. Every person should use their own Google account.
• Share with Google Groups for teams. When someone leaves, you update the group once instead of every report.
• Let the business own its reports. Agencies and freelancers should build in, or transfer to, the client’s account.
• Keep tool access in step. If you use viewer’s credentials, the person also needs access to GA4 or Search Console. See my guides on how to give access to Google Analytics 4 and adding a user to Google Search Console.

What Has Changed Recently

These are the confirmed changes since early 2025 that affect how you share reports, based on Google’s release notes:

• Looker Studio is now Data Studio (April 2026). Only the name changed. Your reports, sharing and roles work the same, but help pages and menus now say Data Studio.
• Viewers can refresh data, if you allow it (June 2026). Editors can turn on manual refresh for viewers in report settings.
• Hide charts from some viewers (January 2026). You can hide a chart or component from all viewers or a subset of them. It is a display setting, not a replacement for proper data access control.
• Links to a single chart (February 2026). You can now share a link that jumps to a specific chart or control. The person still needs access to the report.
• Policy User for Pro team workspaces (April 2026). A designated Policy User’s account decides which company sharing rules apply. If outside sharing fails on a Pro asset, check this in the advanced sharing settings.
• More scheduling for Pro (September to December 2025). Up to 200 schedules per report, hourly sending, and delivery to Slack channels and users.
• Viewer’s credentials changes (May and September 2025). BigQuery data sources with viewer’s credentials now ask for consent to log viewers’ emails, and hyperlinks and images in fields are no longer shown with viewer’s credentials.

Conclusion

To share a Looker Studio report well, start with view access, keep link sharing off, and check whose credentials each data source uses. Make sure the business owns the report, and use scheduled delivery for people who will never open a dashboard. Most errors come from credentials or the wrong Google account, not from the report itself.

If you are building a report for a local business, my guide to local SEO reporting covers which numbers are worth putting in it before you share it.