How to Give Access to Google Analytics 4

Adding a new user to your Google Analytics 4 property is simple once you know where to look. Whether you're bringing a new team member onboard, collaborating with an agency, or giving a stakeholder dashboard access, granting permissions is a fundamental task. This guide will walk you through the entire process, covering the GA4 user roles, the difference between account and property access, and step-by-step instructions for adding and managing users.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Understanding User Roles and Permissions in GA4

Before you add anyone to your Google Analytics 4 property, it’s important to understand the different roles you can assign. Each role comes with a specific set of permissions that dictate what a user can see and do. Giving out the wrong level of access can lead to accidental changes or data security issues, so familiarize yourself with these options first.

The Main User Roles in GA4

• Administrator: This is the highest level of access. Administrators have full control over the GA4 property. They can add and remove users, manage all settings, edit permissions, and have full rights to all other roles. This role should be reserved for only a few trusted individuals, like the business owner or the head of marketing.
• Editor: Editors can do almost everything an administrator can, except manage users. They have full control over the property's settings, including creating and editing events, conversions, audiences, and measurement settings. This is a common role for team members who actively manage the analytics setup or digital marketing specialists who need to configure tracking.
• Marketer: This role is designed for advertisers and marketers. Marketers can create, edit, and delete audiences, conversions, attribution models, and events. They can also see all data in reports and explorations, but they cannot configure property settings like data streams or filters. It’s the perfect permission level for someone running Google Ads campaigns who needs to set up audiences for retargeting.
• Analyst: An analyst has slightly fewer editing capabilities than a marketer. They can create, edit, and share custom reports, explorations, and assets within the property. However, they cannot edit things like audiences or conversion events. This role is ideal for data analysts or team members who need to dig into the data and build reports without changing the underlying configuration of the property.
• Viewer: This is the most restrictive role. Viewers can see all reports and settings, create and share explorations, and look at shared assets, but they cannot make any changes. This is the perfect "read-only" permission for stakeholders, executives, or clients who need to see the data but shouldn't have the ability to alter anything.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Data Restrictions

In addition to the main roles, GA4 allows you to apply data-based restrictions for any role except Administrator.

• No Cost Metrics: Applying this restriction hides all cost-related data from marketing campaigns (like your Google Ads cost-per-click).
• No Revenue Metrics: This restriction hides all revenue-related data, such as e-commerce purchase revenue, revenue from in-app purchases, and total ad revenue.

These restrictions are useful when you want to give someone, like a contractor focused on SEO, access to traffic data without revealing sensitive financial performance metrics.

Account vs. Property Level Access: What’s the Difference?

In the world of Google Analytics, your assets are organized into a hierarchy. Understanding this structure is key to giving people access to the right things.

• Account: This is the highest level in the hierarchy. An organization typically has one Google Analytics account that houses all of its analytics properties. Access granted at the Account level is inherited by all properties within that account.
• Property: A property represents a single website or application that you are tracking. You can have multiple properties within one account (e.g., one for your main corporate website, another for your mobile app, and a third for your blog). Access granted at the Property level only applies to that specific property.

Think of it like this: granting account-level access is like giving someone a key to the entire office building, while granting property-level access is like giving them a key to just one specific office suite within that building.

When to use which level:

• Give account-level access to a Marketing Director who oversees all of the company's digital assets.
• Give property-level access to a marketing agency that only manages your main public-facing website, not your internal employee app.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

How to Add a User to a GA4 Property (Step-by-Step)

When you want to grant a user access to just one specific website or app, you'll add them at the property level. Here’s exactly how to do it.

1. Navigate to the Admin Panel Log in to your Google Analytics account. On the bottom-left corner of the screen, click on the gear icon labeled Admin. This will take you to the settings backend for your account.
2. Select the Correct Account and Property The Admin screen has two main columns: "Account" and "Property." In the "Property" column, make sure the correct GA4 property is selected from the dropdown menu. This is a common trip-up, if you manage multiple sites, double-check that you're in the right one before proceeding.
3. Open Property Access Management Still in the "Property" column, a little ways down, you’ll see the option for Property Access Management. Click on this to open the user management screen for that specific property.
4. Add a New User In the top-right corner, you’ll see a blue “+” button. Click on it and select Add users from the dropdown menu.
5. Enter Email and Assign Permissions Now you can add the user's information.
6. Click Add Once you've configured the roles and settings, click the blue Add button in the top-right corner. That's it! The user has been added and will now have access based on the permissions you provided.

How to Add a User at the GA4 Account Level

If you need to give someone access to all the properties within your GA4 account, the process is very similar but starts in a different place.

1. Go to the Admin Panel: Just like before, click the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left.
2. Select Account Access Management: This time, look in the "Account" column on the left. Click on Account Access Management.
3. Add New Users: Click the blue "+" button in the top-right and select Add users.
4. Assign Role and Add: Enter the user's email address and assign them a predefined role. Remember, this role will apply to every property inside this account. Once finished, click Add.

How to Manage and Remove Existing Users in GA4

Managing users doesn't stop after you've added them. It's good practice to periodically review who has access to your data and remove anyone who no longer needs it, like former employees or agencies you no longer work with.

To edit or remove a user:

1. Navigate to either Account Access Management or Property Access Management, depending on where the user was originally added.
2. You'll see a list of all users who have access.
3. To change a user's permissions, simply click on their name to open the settings panel and assign them a new role.
4. To remove a user completely, click the three vertical dots to the far right of their name and select Remove access. A confirmation box will appear - click "Remove" again to permanently revoke their access.

Best Practices for Managing GA4 User Access

Here are a few quick tips to ensure you’re managing your GA4 access securely and effectively.

• Apply the Principle of Least Privilege: This security industry concept means you should only give a user the absolute minimum level of access they need to perform their job duties. Don't give everyone Administrator access "just in case." Start with the lowest possible permission (like Viewer) and only upgrade if they have a specific need.
• Use Property-Level Access as Your Default: Unless someone truly needs access to every single property in your account, it's safer to grant them access on a property-by-property basis. This prevents them from accidentally viewing or changing data for an unrelated website or app.
• Conduct Regular Audits: At least once a quarter, go through your user list in GA4. If you see names you don't recognize or people who have left the company, remove them immediately. This simple housekeeping practice is one of the best ways to keep your data secure.
• Use Google Groups for Team Management: If you are managing access for a large team, consider using Google Groups. Instead of adding ten individual marketers by email, you can create a marketing@yourcompany.com Google Group, add everyone there, and then grant the entire group access to GA4. When someone leaves the team, you only have to remove them from the Google Group, and their GA4 access is revoked automatically.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Final Thoughts

Managing who can see and interact with your Google Analytics 4 data is a critical responsibility. By understanding the different user roles, the distinction between account and property permissions, and the simple steps to add or remove users, you can keep your analytics environment secure, organized, and collaborative.

Streamlining access is a great first step, but the real goal is to make your data useful for everyone. Often, teams rely on one or two people to dig into GA4, export reports, and answer questions for everyone else. With so many platforms to manage - from GA4 and Google Ads to Shopify and Salesforce - this manual reporting work can become a huge time sink. At Graphed, we automate all of that. We connect directly to your data sources, allowing anyone on your team to create dashboards and get performance insights in seconds, just by asking questions in plain English. It's like having a friendly data analyst on hand 24/7, turning complex data into clear answers so you can get back to growing your business.