How to Add a Guest to a Team in Microsoft Teams (External Users)

A client, a contractor or a supplier needs to work in your team, but they don't have an account in your organisation. That's what guest access is for. They sign in with their own email address and see only the team you invite them to.

1. Click Teams on the left and find the team.
2. Click ⋯ next to the team name and choose Add member.
3. Type the person's full email address.
4. Teams shows Add [email] as a guest. Click it.
5. Click the pencil icon to give them a friendly display name.
6. Click Add, then Close.

They get an email invitation. The first time, they'll be asked to create a free Microsoft account with that email (if they don't already have one) and accept the invitation.

Guests can chat, join meetings, post in channels, share and edit files in the team, and use most tabs and apps. They appear with (Guest) after their name so everyone knows.

Guests can't see other teams, browse your organisation's address book, create teams, or see files outside the team. Team owners can tighten things further under Manage team > Settings > Guest permissions, for example stopping guests creating channels.

In Teams, the guest clicks their profile picture, and your organisation appears in the list of accounts and orgs. One click switches over; another switches back to their own.

1. Click ⋯ next to the team and choose Manage team.
2. On the Members tab, find the guest and click X.

They lose access to the team and its files immediately.

You don't need to make someone a guest just to join a meeting. Anyone with the link can attend a meeting. Guest access is for ongoing work in a team.

"Add as a guest" doesn't appear. Guest access is switched off for your organisation, or for this team. Your IT admin can enable it in the Teams admin centre.

The guest says the invitation link doesn't work. Ask them to open it in a private browser window, or sign out of other Microsoft accounts first.

They can't see older files. Guests see what's in the team's channels, but not files shared in private chats before they joined. Re-share anything they need.

⋯ > Add member, type their email, click Add as a guest. They work alongside you in that one team and nothing else, and when the project is over, Manage team > Members > X takes them out again.