Add an account for a new user

For organizations with Google Workspace or Cloud Identity

Choose how your organization or team signed up for Google Workspace:

Domain verified—You verified ownership of your organization's domain
Email verified—You verified your business email address

For someone to use your team's email-verified Google service (such as Google Workspace Business or Essentials, or Chrome Enterprise), you need to invite them to join your team. They can join with an existing Google Account, or they can create one when they join. You can invite one user at a time (easiest), or you can invite several users at once using a CSV text file.

Tip: If you're using Essentials Starter edition, you can do these steps here, but you might find it easier to add users from your Team dashboard.

Before you begin

If an invitee doesn't already have a Google Account using the email address you sent the invitation to, they'll be prompted to create one.
After a user joins your Google service, it might take a few hours for changes in their Google Account to take affect.

If you're using Essentials Starter edition

You can invite up to 99 other users to your team.
If users are required to sign in using single sign-on (SSO) with Microsoft (OIDC), invited users need a Microsoft account to accept your invitation. Learn more about managing SSO with Microsoft in the Admin console or the Team dashboard.

If you're using a Business edition or Enterprise Essentials edition

(Annual Plan customers) Before you add users—either one at a time or in bulk using a CSV file—make sure you have enough licenses for your account. Learn how to get more licenses.
(Flexible Plan customers) Adding user accounts automatically increases your monthly payment.

Step 1: Invite people to your team's Google service

Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
In the Admin console, go to Menu DirectoryUsers.
At the top of the page, click Invite new user.
Enter the user's email address and click Send invite.
Important: Everyone's email address must be at the same domain.
Repeat these steps for each user you want to invite.

Step 2: Tell each invited user to...

Open their email invitation.
Click the link to join your team.
Steps for creating their Google account opens.
Follow the steps to create a Google Account, using the address you invited them with.
Important: If their address is already used with Google services, like YouTube or Google Analytics, they'll keep using the same Google Account. But it will be converted to a managed account. They might lose access to some services. For details, see one of the following:
- Join Google Workspace
- Welcome to your Chrome organization
Sign in to their Google Account using the email address you invited them with, and a password they'll create themselves.

Step 3: See or cancel pending invitations

To see who hasn't yet responded to your invitation:

Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
In the Admin console, go to Menu DirectoryUsers.
At the top right, click More Pending invites.
(Optional) To cancel an invitation, hover over the user's address and click Cancel invite.
To see all users again, click Clear filters.

Verify your domain for more controls

Currently with your email-verified Google service, you control who can join your team's Google service. If you’re the owner or IT admin for your team's domain name, you can verify you own your domain to get more controls over users' accounts and profiles. For example, you can add profile photos, set passwords, and add employee information to a global directory.

Domain owner or IT admin can:

Invite several users at once

If you have a lot of users, you can invite them all at once from a .csv file:

Step 1: Create your .csv file

Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
In the Admin console, go to Menu DirectoryUsers.
At the top of the page, click Bulk update users.

The Bulk invite users dialog box opens.
Download the CSV template from the Bulk invite users dialog box.
Open the downloaded file with a text editor to create a file that lists each email address on a separate line.
Your text file should look like this:

Email Address [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Save the file as a CSV file (ends in .csv), as in myusers.csv.

Step 2: Upload your file to the Admin console

In the Bulk invite users dialog box, click Select CSV file.
Select your new users CSV file and click Open.
On the Bulk invite users dialog box, click Upload. If there's an error, enter the missing information in your CSV file and upload the file again. For more information, see common errors below.
Your Tasks list opens automatically and shows the progress of the upload. When processing is complete, you'll get an email report.

If there's a processing error, download the log file in your Tasks list. For troubleshooting, see common errors below.

Common errors with CSV uploads

Errors when you upload your CSV file

File is empty—Your file contains no information.
Incorrect file format or unknown column name—The first line in your file should be Email Address.
File must have the "column name" column—The first line in your file should be Email Address.
File is too large to upload—The CSV file is over 35 MB or there are more than 150,000 records in the file. Open the file and split the table into separate files. Save each one as a CSV file. Make sure you include the Email Address row in all CSV files.
"Email Address [Required]" contains reserved username in row nn—Certain accounts are reserved and can't be created—for example, abuse and postmaster.

Errors in the log file

ACTION FAILED - Validation—An entry contains unsupported characters. For help, see Username and group name guidelines.
ACTION FAILED: UNKNOWN ERROR— Most likely a temporary error occurred. Try uploading the CSV file again.
ACTION FAILED: INSUFFICIENT LICENSES—Your organization's Google account doesn't have enough licenses for all the new users in your CSV file. Accounts are added starting from the top row until there are no more licenses available. You can purchase more licenses and then upload the remaining users in the CSV file.
RESERVED USERNAME - Email address—Certain accounts are reserved and can't be created—for example, abuse and postmaster.

Errors in your Tasks list

Internal error—Please try again later. If you continue to receive this error, contact support.
Formatting or other errors—Visit our Google Workspace Administrator Community for quick answers from fellow administrators.

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