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How to Share Looker Studio Dashboard

Cody Schneider•

Creating a beautiful and insightful dashboard in Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is only half the battle. To have a real impact, you need to get those insights into the hands of your team, clients, or stakeholders. This guide walks you through the different ways to share your Looker Studio dashboard, from secure invites to automated email reports.

Before You Share: Understanding Viewer vs. Editor Roles

Before you send your dashboard out into the world, it’s critical to understand the two main access levels you can grant. Choosing the wrong one can lead to accidental changes or collaborators messing up your carefully crafted charts. Think of it as giving someone the keys to your car versus giving them a photo of your car.

  • Viewer: This is the most common and safest role to assign. A Viewer can see the report, interact with filters and date range controls, and hover over data points to see more detail. They cannot modify the dashboard in any way - they can't add or remove charts, change formatting, or edit the data sources. This is perfect for sharing finished reports with clients, department heads, or the wider company.

  • Editor: Assign this role with care. An Editor has near full control over the dashboard. They can do everything a Viewer can, plus edit existing charts, add new pages, change the layout and theme, connect new data sources, and even invite other people to view or edit the report. This role is best for colleagues who are actively collaborating with you on building or maintaining the dashboard.

There is also an Owner role, which is automatically assigned to the creator of the report. The Owner can do everything an Editor can, plus delete the report entirely. You can also transfer ownership to another user if needed.

Method 1: Invite Specific People or Google Groups

The most secure and controlled way to share a Looker Studio report is by inviting people directly using their email addresses. This ensures only specific, named individuals have access.

This method is ideal for:

  • Sharing confidential data with a small, defined team.

  • Collaborating with another analyst to build a dashboard.

  • Sending a report to a specific client.

How to Invite by Email:

  1. With your report open, click the blue "Share" button in the top right corner.

  2. In the dialog window that appears, find the box labeled "Add people and groups."

  3. Type the Google account email addresses of the people you want to share with. If you want to share with a whole team at once, you can use a Google Group email address.

  4. To the right of the input box, you'll see a dropdown menu. Here is where you assign their role: Viewer or Editor. Choose wisely!

  5. By default, the "Notify people" box is checked. This will send an email invitation to the recipients letting them know you've shared a report with them. You can add a short, custom message if you like - for example, "Here is the Q3 Marketing Performance dashboard we discussed."

  6. Finally, click "Send." The people you invited will now be able to access the dashboard using the link in their invitation.

Method 2: Share via a Public or Unlisted Link

Sometimes you need to share a dashboard more broadly, like with your entire company or in a public-facing blog post, without having to add every single person's email address. For this, link sharing is the most efficient option.

Understanding Link Sharing Options

In the same "Share" menu, you'll find the "Link settings" section just below the area where you add people. This controls who can access the report with a direct link.

  • Restricted: This is the default setting. It means that even if someone gets the link to your dashboard, they can't see it unless you have specifically granted them access via the email invitation method described above.

  • Unlisted: This option makes the report accessible to anyone within your organization who has the link. They will need to be logged into their company Google account to view it. This is a great way to "soft-publish" a dashboard for internal teams without making it fully public. Note: This option is only available if you are using a Google Workspace account.

  • Public: This setting makes the dashboard visible to anyone on the internet who has the link. There is no sign-in required. Be extremely careful with this option. Do not use it for any report containing sensitive or proprietary business data. It’s best suited for dashboards using public data, like a dashboard embedded in a portfolio or a marketing blog post.

How to Use Link Sharing

  1. Click the "Share" button.

  2. Go to the "Link settings" section and click the dropdown menu (it will likely say "Restricted").

  3. Choose the desired setting: "Unlisted" or "Public."

  4. After selecting, simply click the "Copy link" button and you can paste it into an email, a Slack channel, or any other communication platform.

Advanced Sharing Techniques

Beyond direct invites and link sharing, Looker Studio offers a few more powerful methods for distributing your reports.

Send a Static PDF Copy

Need a snapshot of your dashboard for a presentation or an archive? Downloading a PDF is the way to go.

To do this:

  1. Look for the down arrow icon next to the "Share" button and click it.

  2. Select "Download report."

  3. A configuration panel will pop up with several options:

    • Select pages: Choose to download all pages or just specific ones.

    • Ignore custom background color: Good for printing to save ink.

    • Add a link back to the report: Helpful so the PDF recipient can easily access the live interactive version.

    • Password protect the report: Add an extra layer of security for static reports sent via email.

  4. Once you’ve set your preferences, click "Download." Keep in mind the PDF is a static screenshot and will not be interactive like the live dashboard.

Automate Reporting with Scheduled Email Delivery

This is one of the most powerful features in Looker Studio. You can set up your dashboard to be automatically emailed as a PDF to key stakeholders on a regular schedule. This automates your weekly or monthly reporting process and ensures everyone stays updated.

How to Schedule Email Delivery:

  1. Click the down arrow next to the "Share" button.

  2. Select "Schedule delivery."

  3. In the scheduling menu:

    • To: Add the email addresses of the recipients.

    • Subject & Message: Customize the email that gets sent with the report. You can use a subject like "Weekly Marketing KPI Report."

    • Pages: Choose which pages of the dashboard to include in a PDF attachment.

    • Start time: What time of day the email should send.

    • Repeat: This is the magic. Set the frequency: Daily, Weekly, every Tuesday and Thursday, or the first Monday of the month. The options are quite flexible.

  4. Click "Schedule." Looker Studio will now handle the rest, delivering up-to-date reports automatically based on your customized schedule.

Embed Your Dashboard on a Website

If you want to display your dashboard on a company intranet, a client portal, or a blog, you can embed it directly into the page.

  1. First, make sure your link sharing permissions are set correctly. For most embedded reports on a public site, you will need to set the link sharing option to "Public." For an internal site like a Google Site or Notion page, setting it to "Unlisted" might be more appropriate.

  2. Click the downward arrow next to "Share" (or find the <, >, icon in the main toolbar) and choose "Embed report."

  3. Check the "Enable embedding" box.

  4. You can choose to embed using an iFrame code or just the Embed URL. You can also adjust the width and height to fit your website's layout.

  5. Copy the code and paste it into the HTML of your website. Voila! Your interactive Looker Studio dashboard is now a seamless part of your web page.

Managing and Auditing Dashboard Access

Sharing is great, but it’s also important to manage access over time. Employees might change roles, or clients might complete a project. Periodically reviewing who can see your dashboards is a good data hygiene practice.

To manage who has access:

  1. Click the "Share" button again.

  2. In the dialog box, you will see a list under "People with access."

  3. To change a person's role, click the dropdown next to their name (e.g., from "Editor" to "Viewer").

  4. To remove someone's access completely, click their current role and select "Remove access."

  5. To completely disable link sharing, go back to the "Link settings" section and change the setting back to "Restricted."

Final Thoughts

Sharing your Looker Studio dashboard effectively is just as important as building it. By understanding the difference between Viewers and Editors and choosing the right method - from specific invites to scheduled emails - you can ensure your hard-earned insights reach the right audience in the most convenient way.

We know how much time goes into building and sharing reports across different platforms. That's why we built Graphed to streamline the entire process. At Graphed you can use plain language to create real-time dashboards from all your marketing and sales sources in seconds, then securely share them with your team, giving everyone the live insights they need without the manual setup.