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The Groups tool enables you to scale your account by granting blanket permission to a sub-set of your users. You can decide to designate key people to be group admins to help you manage and monitor these clusters of users. A good group admin candidate is someone who needs oversight into a subset of users without needing to make changes to the account as a whole. Potential group admins are:
  • Department Heads
  • Team Leads/Project Managers
  • HR Personnel
  • Regional Leads
For example, if you have a group called “Marketing,” the head of the department would be a good choice for a group admin so they could manage the group’s folder access and monitor their activity.
A user cannot be both a group admin and the main admin or co-admin of your Box account. If a group admin is elevated to the main admin/co-admin, they will lose the status of group admin.
Designate a user as a group admin if they need to manage only a subset of your users.

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Group admin permissions

Every group admin has the general group admin permissions, which you can’t turn off. The other four permissions are off by default, so a new group admin gets only the general permissions. This default is the same whether you assign the role from the user’s profile, from the group’s member list, or while creating a group. To give a group admin more access, turn on individual permissions with Set Permissions, as described in Customizing group admin permissions.
Permission TypePermissions Given
General group admin permissions
  • Access only the Groups page within the Users & Groups tab.
  • Add and remove members of the group.
  • Add and remove folders for the group.
  • Change folder permissions for the group.
Create new user accounts
  • Access only the Managed Users page in the Users & Groups tab.
  • In the Managed Users tab, see only managed users who are members of the group.
  • Add new managed users to the enterprise.
  • Cannot edit user details for managed users.
  • Cannot enable co-admin permissions.
  • Cannot delete users.
Manage group member accounts
  • Edit non-admin user accounts in the Managed Users tab, including user name, email, storage, and settings.
  • Cannot edit admin or co-admin permissions.
  • Cannot enable co-admin permissions.
  • Cannot delete users.
Run reports on group activity
  • Access the Reports tab.
  • Access User Activity, User Statistics, Folders and Files, Collaborations, Outbound Collaboration, User Details, Disposition.
  • Generate reports on activity for the group.
  • Generate reports on activity for individual members of the group.
  • Cannot access the Security Report.
Instant login to group member accounts
  • Instant-login to the accounts of non-admin group members.

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Appointing group admins

You can make a user a group admin from their user profile, from the group’s member list, or while creating a group. In each case, the new group admin gets the same default permissions. To appoint a group admin from the user’s profile:
  1. Go to Admin Console > Users and Groups.
  2. Select the Managed Users tab.
  3. Select the user name of the user you want to designate as a group admin.
  4. In the Groups section, select Edit.
  5. In the Access Level column, select the down arrow and select Group Admin.
  6. Select Save.
To appoint a group admin from the group’s member list:
  1. Go to Admin Console > Users and Groups.
  2. Select the Groups tab.
  3. Select the name of the group.
  4. In the Members section, select Edit.
  5. In the Access Level column for the user, select their current access level and select Group Admin.
  6. Select Save.
A group admin has a miniature version of the Admin Console that only affects the users inside their group. Log in as the primary admin to view and manage all the users in your enterprise.

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Customizing group admin permissions

This feature is available only to Business Plus customers or above.
  1. Go to Admin Console > Users and Groups.
  2. Select the Managed Users tab.
  3. Select the user name of the user you want to designate as a group admin.
  4. In the Groups section, select Edit.
  5. Select Select Groups.
  6. Select the checkbox for the chosen group, then set the Access Level as Member (default) or Group Admin.
    • If you select Group Admin, you can select Set Permissions to turn each of the listed group admin permissions on or off.
  7. Select Save.
In a group’s member list, the Access Level column displays how many permissions are applied to each group admin, for example, 0 permissions applied. Select it to open Set Group Admin Permissions.
Group admins can’t change the permissions of other group admins.
Last modified on October 27, 2026