Grant and remove access to Confluence spaces
15 min
Intermediate
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Configure space permissions
- Add and remove users and groups to a Confluence space
- Restrict pages in spaces
- Enable anonymous access to a Confluence space
How to configure space permissions to manage users and groups?
Granting permissions in Confluence is a straightforward process that ensures everyone has appropriate access to your space's content.
👇 Click to explore how to manage user access in a Confluence space.
👇Here are the space permissions in Confluence.
👇 Here are the permissions set for the Collaborator role.
Set page-level access to restrict access to specific pages in your space
In addition to managing permissions for your whole space, you can also restrict access to individual content within that space for viewing and editing.
👉 For example: You might want to keep a page private between you and a co-worker as you work on it but open access when it’s ready for others to view or edit. On the page itself, you can add restrictions for individuals or for Confluence groups.
There are two levels of access for content:
- Open: Anyone in this space
- Restricted: Only specific people
👇 Click the tabs to explore each level of access.
The Open (Anyone in this space) means anyone having access to the space via space level permissions. You can set restrictions at this level to Can edit (Can view and edit content) or Can view (Can only view content).
👉 For example: Alana Grant has view and edit content permissions at the space level. However, the Meeting notes - 06 June 2025 page has Open access with Can view restriction. This means Alana Grant can view the page because of her View content space permission, but cannot edit the page because of the page restriction.
The default content restriction level is set to Open (Anyone in this space) with Can edit access, which means anyone having permission to view/edit pages in a space can view/edit the content.
Page restrictions work differently from space permissions
Content restrictions work a little differently from global and space permissions. Content is open to viewing or editing by default, but you can restrict either viewing or editing to certain users or groups if necessary. Page restrictions can be applied to published or draft pages and blog posts.
Confluence will automatically add you to the list when you apply a restriction. You can't remove yourself from this list.
Users can set restrictions on a content-by-content basis, which is different from setting space permissions where admins define what people can see and do inside a whole Confluence space.
You can check if a user is allowed or denied permissions for each level of the content, space, and app hierarchy by selecting Inspect permissions under the More menu (represented by •••) in the content restrictions window.
👇Here's how to check the page restrictions.
Spot page restrictions
The restrictions icon is the one that looks like a lock at the top of a content or page. It tells you what restrictions the content has. Selecting the icon opens the restrictions dialog and provides more details.
👇Content restrictions are found at the top right of the content.
👇Click the boxes to learn about what the lock icons represent.
View all restricted content in a space
Space admins can view all of the pages that have restrictions in a space from space settings. This makes it easier to troubleshoot permissions for multiple pages in a space.
To view all restricted pages in a space:
- From the sidebar, select More actions (represented by •••), then Space settings.
- Expand Content from the sidebar, and then select Restricted.
👇See all restricted pages in a space in space settings.
How space permissions and page restrictions interact
There are two things that can affect who can view a page: the space permissions and view restrictions on any parent pages that are being inherited. Keep in mind:
- Every content in Confluence lives within a space, and space permissions allow the space admin to revoke permission to view content for the whole space.
- Restrictions don't override a person's space permission.
- If you specify a person 'can view' in the restrictions dialog and they don't have 'view' permissions for the space, they won't be able to see the page.
Page restrictions can be inherited
👇Click the boxes to learn about inheritance for pages with view and edit restrictions.
Make a space public with anonymous access
Anonymous access allows users who are not logged into Confluence to view content. This can be useful for sharing information like in an open knowledge base or support documentation. However, it is essential to carefully consider the security implications and ensure that only non-sensitive information is made available.
Anonymous access to content can be controlled at different levels:
- Site: At the site level (in global permissions), the Confluence admin or site admin decides whether to grant anonymous users any access to the site.
- Space: If anonymous access is allowed at the site level, it’s up to the space admins to decide whether to grant anonymous users access to their space. If space access is granted, anonymous users will have access to all pages in the space unless restricted to the pages themselves.
- Page: Anonymous users are restricted from viewing a page when its access setting is “Only specific people can view or edit” or when one of its parent pages has been set so that only specific people can access it. This means that the view restriction inherits down to all of its nested pages.
Spaces have their own level of control for anonymous users, which is independent of whatever access is granted at the site level. Unlike logged-in users, who get access to everything unless manually restricted, anonymous users start with no access and must be manually given access.
Although space permissions can be granted to anonymous users at any time, anonymous access must be enabled at the site level for anonymous users to successfully access the space.
👇Here you see the site's Anonymous access permissions.
To grant anonymous access to a space, first enable anonymous access, then assign the appropriate permissions to anonymous users.
To give anonymous users space access:
- Navigate to the space you want to make public.
- Select Space settings from the space pop-out menu in the sidebar.
- Expand Space access and select Anonymous access.
- Enable the Allow anonymous access in this space option. This will enable anonymous access in your space.
- Select Users from the space settings sidebar.
- Assign a role to Anonymous users. It’s recommended to only allow them the View permission. This will make space view-only for anonymous users.
- Alternatively, click the More menu (represented by •••), then select Manage access.
- Check boxes under any of the available space permissions you want to give to anonymous users.
- Select Done.
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next lesson
Explore Confluence permissions
- Confluence permissions overview
- Types of users in Confluence
- Licensed user permissions
- Inspect permissions