Adding a guest to a team in Microsoft Teams

Want to work with a customer, supplier or freelancer in Microsoft Teams? Add that person as a guest to your team. A guest can take part in channels, open and edit files and join meetings, just like a colleague, but with limited rights. This article shows how to add a guest, what the guest sees, what an administrator has to allow, and how it differs from external access and shared channels.

Guest, external or shared channel?

MethodWhat can the external person do?Best for
Guest accessMember of your team: channels, files, meetingsLonger collaboration in one team
External access (federation)Chat and call with you from their own Teams; no access to your teams or filesQuick contact with another organization
Shared channelAccess to one channel, without switching accountsProjects with another organization that also uses Microsoft 365
Meeting invitationJoin only that meetingOne-off meetings

Add a guest to a team

You need to be an owner of the team.

  1. In Teams, go to the team, click ... next to its name and choose Add member.
  2. Type the guest's full e-mail address, for example an@customer.com, and choose to add them as a guest.
  3. Optionally click the pencil to enter a clear name, such as An Peeters (Customer).
  4. Click Add.

Don't see the option, or get an error? Then guest access is turned off in your organization (see below).

Adding a guest to a team in Microsoft Teams

What does the guest see?

  1. The guest gets an e-mail with the invitation and a button to open the team.
  2. They sign in with their own work account or Microsoft account. If they have neither, they get a one-time code by e-mail.
  3. The first time, they have to accept the permissions.
  4. In Teams the guest switches to your organization through their profile picture (top right). In the new Teams app your organization also appears as a separate account with its own notifications.

In the team, the label (Guest) appears next to the guest's name so everyone knows they are external.

What can't a guest do?

For administrators: turn on guest access

Guest access depends on three places:

  1. Teams admin center > Users > Guest access: turn on Guest access and choose what guests may do (calls, meetings, editing messages).
  2. Microsoft Entra admin center > External Identities > External collaboration settings: decide who may invite guests and whether you only allow certain domains.
  3. SharePoint admin center > Policies > Sharing: external sharing must be at least New and existing guests, otherwise guests can't open the team's files.

An administrator can also turn off guest sharing per team with a sensitivity label, for example for an HR team.

Clean up guests

Guests keep access until you remove them. Remove a guest from the team when the project is done: ... next to the team > Manage team > Members > the cross next to the guest. Organizations with Entra ID P2 can set up access reviews, so owners regularly confirm which guests are still needed.

Read also

How to create a free Microsoft Teams account
How to create a distribution list in Microsoft 365 and use it in Teams
How to schedule a chat message in Microsoft Teams

Nederlandstalige versie: Externe gasten toevoegen in Microsoft Teams

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