Members of a project (FREE ALL)

Members are the users and groups who have access to your project.

Each member gets a role, which determines what they can do in the project.

Membership types

Users can become members of a group or project in different ways, which define their membership type.

flowchart RL
  subgraph Group A
    A(Direct member)
    B{{Shared member}}
    subgraph Project A
      H(1. Direct member)
      C{{2. Inherited member}}
      D{{4. Inherited member}}
      E{{3. Shared member}}
    end
    A-->|Direct membership of Group A\nInherited membership of Project A|C
  end
  subgraph Group C
    G(Direct member)
  end
  subgraph Group B
    F(Direct member)
  end
  F-->|Group B\nshared with\nGroup A|B
  B-->|Inherited membership of Project A|D
  G-->|Group C shared with Project A|E

Inherited membership

When your project belongs to a group, project members inherit their role from the group.

In this example:

• Three members have access to the project.
• User 0 is a Reporter and has inherited their role in the project from the demo group, which contains the project.
• User 1 belongs directly to the project. In the Source column, they are listed as a Direct member.
• Administrator is the Owner and member of all groups. They have inherited their role in the project from the demo group.

If a user is:

• A direct member of a project, the Expiration and Max role fields can be updated directly on the project.
• An inherited member from a parent group, the Expiration and Max role fields must be updated on the parent group.

Membership and visibility rights

Depending on their membership type, members of groups or projects are granted different visibility levels and rights into the group or project.

In the following example, User is a:

• Direct member of subgroup.
• Inherited member of subsubgroup.
• Indirect member of subgroup-2 and subgroup-3.
• Indirect inherited member of subsubgroup-2 and subsubgroup-3.

graph TD
  classDef user stroke:green,color:green;

  root --> subgroup --> subsubgroup
  root-2 --> subgroup-2 --> subsubgroup-2
  root-3 --> subgroup-3 --> subsubgroup-3
  subgroup -. shared .-> subgroup-2 -. shared .-> subgroup-3

  User-. member .- subgroup

  class User user

Add users to a project

• Changed in GitLab 13.11 from a form to a modal window with a flag. Disabled by default.
• Modal window enabled on GitLab.com and self-managed in GitLab 14.8.
• Generally available in GitLab 14.9. Feature flag invite_members_group_modal removed.
• Expiring access email notification introduced in GitLab 16.2.

Add users to a project so they become direct members and have permission to perform actions.

Prerequisite:

• You must have the Owner or Maintainer role.

To add a user to a project:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.

2. Select Manage > Members.

3. Select Invite members.

4. If the user:

   • Has a GitLab account, enter their username.
   • Doesn't have a GitLab account, enter their email address.

5. Select a role.

6. Optional. Select an Access expiration date. From that date onward, the user can no longer access the project.

   If you selected an access expiration date, the project member gets an email notification seven days before their access expires.

   WARNING: If you give a member the Maintainer role and select an expiration date, that member has full permissions for the time they are in the role. This includes the ability to extend their own time in the Maintainer role.

7. Select Invite. If you invited the user using their:

   • GitLab username, they are added to the members list.
   • Email address, an invitation is sent to their email address, and they are prompted to create an account. If the invitation is not accepted, GitLab sends reminder emails two, five, and ten days later. Unaccepted invites are automatically deleted after 90 days.

Which roles you can assign

The maximum role you can assign depends on whether you have the Owner or Maintainer role for the group. For example, the maximum role you can set is:

• Owner (50), if you have the Owner role for the project.
• Maintainer (40), if you have the Maintainer role on the project.

In GitLab 14.8 and earlier, direct members of a project have a maximum role of Maintainer. The Owner role can be added for the group only.

Add groups to a project

• Changed in GitLab 13.11 from a form to a modal window with a flag. Disabled by default.
• Modal window enabled on GitLab.com and self-managed in GitLab 14.8.
• Generally available in GitLab 14.9. Feature flag invite_members_group_modal removed.

When you add a group to a project, every group member (direct or inherited) gets access to the project. Each member's access is based on the:

• Role they're assigned in the group.
• Maximum role you choose when you invite the group.

If a group member has a role in the group with fewer permissions than the maximum project role, the member keeps the permissions of their group role. For example, if you add a member with the Guest role to a project with a maximum role of Maintainer, the member has only the permissions of the Guest role in the project.

Prerequisites:

• You must have the Maintainer or Owner role.
• Sharing the project with other groups must not be prevented.

To add a group to a project:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Manage > Members.
3. Select Invite a group.
4. Select a group.
5. Select the highest role for users in the group.
6. Optional. Select an Access expiration date. From that date onward, the group can no longer access the project.
7. Select Invite.

The members of the group are not displayed on the Members tab. Private groups are masked from unauthorized users. The Members tab shows:

• Members who are directly assigned to the project.
• If the project was created in a group namespace, members of that group.

Import members from another project

You can import another project's members to your own project. Imported project members retain the same permissions as the project you import them from.

Prerequisite:

• You must have the Maintainer or Owner role.

If the importing member's role in the target project is:

• Maintainer, then members with the Owner role in the source project are imported with the Maintainer role.
• Owner, then members with the Owner role in the source project are imported with the Owner role.

To import users:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Manage > Members.
3. Select Import from a project.
4. Select the project. You can view only the projects for which you're a maintainer.
5. Select Import project members.

After the success message displays, refresh the page to view the new members.

Remove a member from a project

If a user is:

• A direct member of a project, you can remove them directly from the project.
• An inherited member from a parent group, you can only remove them from the parent group itself.

Prerequisites:

• To remove direct members that have the:
  • Maintainer, Developer, Reporter, or Guest role, you must have the Maintainer role.
  • Owner role, you must have the Owner role.
• Optional. Unassign the member from all issues and merge requests that are assigned to them.

To remove a member from a project:

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Manage > Members.
3. Next to the project member you want to remove, select Remove member.
4. Optional. On the confirmation dialog, select the Also unassign this user from related issues and merge requests checkbox.
5. To prevent leaks of sensitive information from private projects, verify the member has not forked the private repository or created webhooks. Existing forks continue to receive changes from the upstream project, and webhooks continue to receive updates. You may also want to configure your project to prevent projects in a group from being forked outside their group.
6. Select Remove member.

Ensure removed users cannot invite themselves back

Malicious users with the Maintainer or Owner role could exploit a race condition that allows them to invite themselves back to a group or project that a GitLab administrator has removed them from.

To avoid this problem, GitLab administrators can:

• Remove the malicious user session from the GitLab Rails console.
• Impersonate the malicious user to:
  • Remove the user from the project.
  • Log the user out of GitLab.
• Block the malicious user account.
• Remove the malicious user account.
• Change the password for the malicious user account.

Filter and sort members

• Introduced in GitLab 12.6.
• Improved in GitLab 13.9.
• Feature flag removed in GitLab 13.10.

You can filter and sort members in a project.

Display inherited members

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Manage > Members.
3. In the Filter members box, select Membership = Inherited.
4. Press Enter.

Display direct members

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Manage > Members.
3. In the Filter members box, select Membership = Direct.
4. Press Enter.

Search

You can search for members by name, username, or email.

Sort

You can sort members by Account, Access granted, Max role, or Last sign-in in ascending or descending order.

Request access to a project

GitLab users can request to become a member of a project.

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find the project you want to be a member of.
2. By the project's name, select Request Access.

An email is sent to the most recently active project maintainers or owners. Up to ten project maintainers or owners are notified. Any project owner or maintainer can approve or decline the request. Project maintainers cannot approve Owner role access requests.

If a project does not have any direct owners or maintainers, the notification is sent to the most recently active owners of the project's group.

If you change your mind before your request is approved, select Withdraw Access Request.

Prevent users from requesting access to a project

You can prevent users from requesting access to a project.

Prerequisite:

• You must be the project owner.

1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand Visibility, project features, permissions.
4. Under Project visibility, select Users can request access.
5. Select Save changes.

Share a project with a group

Instead of adding users one by one, you can share a project with an entire group.