To add a user to your Google Business Profile, sign in at business.google.com as an owner, select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access, select Add, enter the person’s email, choose Owner or Manager and select Invite. They can accept straight away, and Google emails you when they do.
That takes about a minute. The part worth slowing down for is the role you pick, because an owner can remove you and a manager can’t. This guide covers which role to give an employee, a freelancer or an agency, how to remove someone, what the 7-day waiting period blocks, and what to do when the Add button isn’t there. Everything here is checked against Google’s Business Profile help pages as of November 2026.
Before you start
Three things have to be true before the invite will work.
- You’re an owner. Google’s owners and managers help page says only owners can add or remove users. Managers can’t add or remove anyone.
- The profile is verified. Google’s verification page says that if a third party helps you manage the profile, you can add them after verification. If you haven’t done that yet, our verification guide covers every method.
- The other person has their own Google Account. Google says each user needs their own account. You can’t add a Google Group, such as a shared team mailing list, as an owner or manager.
That last rule matters more than it looks. Don’t share one login with your whole team or your agency. Give each person their own access, so you can take it away from one person without changing a password everyone uses.
How to add a user, step by step
These steps follow Google’s manage owners and managers help page.
- Sign in at business.google.com with the Google Account that owns the profile.
- Open settings. Select More, then Business Profile settings.
- Go to People and access.
- Select Add at the top left.
- Enter the email address of the person’s Google Account.
- Choose the role. Under Access, pick Owner or Manager.
- Select Invite.
Step 6 is the one to get right. If you’re unsure, choose Manager. You can upgrade someone to owner later in a few clicks, but taking owner access back from someone who doesn’t want to give it up is much harder, because they can remove you first.
Until the person accepts, they show under Pending on the People and access page. To cancel an invite you sent to the wrong address, find it there and select Cancel invitation. Google’s help page doesn’t say how long an invitation stays open, so if someone says the link isn’t working, cancel it and send a fresh one.
Owner vs manager: which role to give
A profile has three levels of access. There’s one primary owner, any number of owners, and any number of managers. Managers used to be called “site managers”, which is why older guides use that name.
Managers can do almost everything day to day. The differences are all about control of the profile itself. Here’s how the roles compare, from Google’s owners and managers and transfer primary ownership pages.
| Can they… | Primary owner | Owner | Manager |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit hours, photos, posts and products | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reply to reviews and use messaging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Download performance insights | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add or remove users | Yes | Yes | No |
| Change other users’ roles | Yes | Yes | No |
| Transfer primary ownership | Yes | No | No |
| Remove themselves right away | No, must transfer first | Yes | Yes |
A simple rule for small businesses:
- The business owner is the primary owner, signed in with an account the business controls, not an employee’s personal Gmail.
- A partner or co-owner can be an owner.
- Staff, freelancers and agencies are managers.
Managers can reply to reviews, post updates, change hours and pull reports, which is everything an employee or marketer needs. What they can’t do is lock you out.
How agencies should get access
If you’re an agency or freelancer, ask clients to add you as a manager and keep the business as primary owner. If the client stops working with you, they remove you in two clicks and keep their reviews, photos and history. If your agency owns the profile instead, the client has to ask you for their own listing back, which is a bad position for both sides.
Agencies with more than a handful of clients can go further and register as an agency at business.google.com/agencysignup. Google says you need a Google Account tied to your company email that doesn’t own or manage any Business Profiles. You get an organization account with business groups (sets of locations), user groups (sets of your staff) and a dashboard for invites.
With an organization account, clients share profiles with your agency’s groups rather than with one employee’s email. Google’s agency invites page gives two routes:
- The client invites you. For one profile, the owner invites one of your business groups by its business group ID. For a whole group of locations, the group owner invites your organization by its organization ID.
- You request access. In Business Profile Manager, select Manage invites, then Request access, search for the business, choose which of your business groups it should join and follow the prompts. Track it under the Requests sent tab.
Either way, the client stays primary owner of their profile, which is the point.
How to change a role or remove someone
Owners can change other users’ roles or remove them from the same page. From Google’s help page:
- Go to People and access.
- Select the person.
- To change the role, select Edit next to Access, pick the new role and select Save.
- To remove them, select Remove person.
The person gets an email saying they’ve been removed. Their past review replies and posts stay on the profile, so you don’t lose any work when a staff member leaves.
To remove yourself, select your own name and choose Stop managing, then Confirm. A primary owner can’t do this until they’ve handed primary ownership to someone else.
Make removing access part of your offboarding checklist. When an employee or agency leaves, take them off the profile the same day.
How to transfer primary ownership
If you sold the business or the wrong person ended up as primary owner, transfer it. Google’s transfer primary ownership page gives these steps:
- Make sure the new primary owner is already on the profile as an owner or manager. If not, add them first.
- Go to People and access and select that person.
- Next to Access, select Edit.
- Choose Primary owner and select Save.
Only the current primary owner can do this. Google also recommends transferring primary ownership, rather than deleting the profile and starting a new one, because a transfer keeps the profile’s info, including its reviews. If you’re weighing the two, our guide on deleting a Google Business Profile explains what deleting would cost you.
The 7-day waiting period
New owners and managers can’t do everything straight away. For their first 7 days on a profile, Google blocks them from:
- deleting or restoring the profile,
- removing other owners or managers,
- transferring primary ownership, to themselves or anyone else.
If they delete their own Google Account in that week, they’re removed from the profile and have to be invited again. In practice, someone who has just been given access can’t lock the existing owners out.
Plan around it. If you’re buying a business and need to become primary owner, get added as an owner a week before the handover, not on the day.
When you can’t add anyone
If the Add button is missing or greyed out, work through these in order.
- You’re a manager, not an owner. Google’s help page says that if you can’t select a user on People and access, you may have manager-level access. Ask an owner to upgrade you.
- You’re signed in to the wrong Google Account. Many businesses have two or three Google Accounts. Sign out and check which one is actually on the profile.
- The profile isn’t verified yet. Verify first, then add people.
- You were added in the last 7 days. You can add people, but you can’t remove anyone or transfer ownership until the week is up.
- You’re trying to add a Google Group. Invite each person’s own account instead.
If nobody you know has access at all, for example the profile was set up by a former employee or an old agency that has gone quiet, you can request ownership. Go to business.google.com/add, enter the business name and address, pick the listing and select Request Access when you see “Someone else may manage this Business Profile.” The current owner has 3 days to respond. If they don’t, you may get a Claim or Verify option through the link in your confirmation email, though Google says that isn’t always available. Service-area businesses without a storefront use Google’s contact form instead and choose Transfer ownership of listing.
Profiles in a business group
If you manage several locations in Business Profile Manager, they may sit in a business group (Google used to call these business accounts). Groups have their own primary owner, owners and managers, separate from the roles on each profile. A group manager can add, edit and delete every profile in the group but can’t add or remove users. You change group roles under Group settings, then Manage users.
The two systems don’t replace each other. You can still invite someone to manage one profile without adding them to the whole group, which is the safer choice for a contractor who only works on one location.
FAQ
How do I give someone access to my Google Business Profile?
Sign in at business.google.com as an owner, open More, Business Profile settings, People and access, select Add, enter their email, pick Manager or Owner and select Invite. They need their own Google Account.
What's the difference between an owner and a manager?
Managers can edit the profile, reply to reviews, post and download insights. Only owners can add or remove users and change roles, and only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership, according to Google’s help page.
How many owners and managers can a Google Business Profile have?
A profile can have only one primary owner. Google’s help pages don’t list a limit for other owners or managers, but in practice keep the list short and remove people when they leave.
Why can't I see the option to add users?
Usually you’re a manager rather than an owner, you’re signed in to a different Google Account, or the profile isn’t verified yet. Ask an owner to upgrade you, or verify the profile first.
The short version
Keep the business as primary owner, add everyone else as a manager, and remove people the day they stop working with you. That one habit avoids most of the access disputes, lockouts and ownership requests that small businesses end up fighting with Google over. With access sorted, the next job is the profile itself. Our guide to editing your Google Business Profile covers which changes are safe and which can trigger a re-review.
