Add and manage B2B collaboration users in the Microsoft Entra admin center

  • How-to

Applies to: Green circle with a white check mark symbol. Workforce tenants White circle with a gray X symbol. External tenants (learn more)

As a user who is assigned any of the limited administrator directory roles, you can use the Microsoft Entra admin center to invite B2B collaboration users. You can invite guest users to the directory, to a group, or to an application. After you invite a user through any of these methods, the invited user's account is added to Microsoft Entra ID, with a user type of Guest. The guest user must then redeem their invitation to access resources. An invitation of a user doesn't expire.

After you add a guest user to the directory, you can either send the guest user a direct link to a shared app, or the guest user can select the redemption URL in the invitation email. For more information about the redemption process, see B2B collaboration invitation redemption.

Important

You should follow the steps in How-to: Add your organization's privacy info in Microsoft Entra ID to add the URL of your organization's privacy statement. As part of the first time invitation redemption process, an invited user must consent to your privacy terms to continue.

Instructions in this topic provide the basic steps to invite an external user. To learn about all of the properties and settings that you can include when you invite an external user, see How to create and delete a user.

Prerequisites

Make sure your organization's external collaboration settings are configured such that you're allowed to invite guests. By default, all users and admins can invite guests. But your organization's external collaboration policies might be configured to prevent certain types of users or admins from inviting guests. To find out how to view and set these policies, see Enable B2B external collaboration and manage who can invite guests.

Add guest users to the directory

Tip

Steps in this article might vary slightly based on the portal you start from.

To add B2B collaboration users to the directory, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.

Screenshot of the All users page.

  1. Select New user > Invite external user from the menu.

Screenshot of the invite external user menu option.

Basics

In this section, you're inviting the guest to your tenant using their email address. If you need to create a guest user with a domain account, use the create new user process but change the User type to Guest.

  • Email: Enter the email address for the guest user you're inviting.

  • Display name: Provide the display name.

  • Invitation message: Select the Send invite message checkbox to customize a brief message to the guest. Provide a Cc recipient, if necessary.

Screenshot of the invite external user Basics tab.

Either select the Review + invite button to create the new user or Next: Properties to complete the next section.

Properties

There are six categories of user properties you can provide. These properties can be added or updated after the user is created. To manage these details, go to Identity > Users > All users and select a user to update.

  • Identity: Enter the user's first and last name. Set the User type as either Member or Guest. For more information about the difference between external guests and members, see B2B collaboration user properties

  • Job information: Add any job-related information, such as the user's job title, department, or manager.

  • Contact information: Add any relevant contact information for the user.

  • Parental controls: For organizations like K-12 school districts, the user's age group may need to be provided. Minors are 12 and under, Not adult are 13-18 years old, and Adults are 18 and over. The combination of age group and consent provided by parent options determine the Legal age group classification. The Legal age group classification may limit the user's access and authority.

  • Settings: Specify the user's global location.

Either select the Review + invite button to create the new user or Next: Assignments to complete the next section.

Assignments

You can assign external users to a group, or Microsoft Entra role when the account is created. You can assign the user to up to 20 groups or roles. Group and role assignments can be added after the user is created. The Privileged Role Administrator role is required to assign Microsoft Entra roles.

To assign a group to the new user:

  1. Select + Add group.
  2. From the menu that appears, choose up to 20 groups from the list and select the Select button.
  3. Select the Review + create button.

Screenshot of the add group assignment process.

To assign a role to the new user:

  1. Select + Add role.
  2. From the menu that appears, choose up to 20 roles from the list and select the Select button.
  3. Select the Review + invite button.

Review and create

The final tab captures several key details from the user creation process. Review the details and select the Invite button if everything looks good. An email invitation is automatically sent to the user. After you send the invitation, the user account is automatically added to the directory as a guest.

Screenshot showing the user list including the new Guest user.

External user invitations

When you invite an external guest user by sending an email invitation, you can check the status of the invitation from the user's details. If they haven't redeemed their invitation, you can resend the invitation email.

  1. Go to Identity > Users > All users and select the invited guest user.

  2. In the My Feed section, locate the B2B collaboration tile.

    • If the invitation state is Pending acceptance, select the Resend invitation link to send another email and follow the prompts.
    • You can also select the Properties for the user and view the Invitation state.

    Screenshot of the My Feed section of the user overview page.

    Note

    Group email addresses aren’t supported; enter the email address for an individual. Also, some email providers allow users to add a plus symbol (+) and additional text to their email addresses to help with things like inbox filtering. However, Microsoft Entra doesn’t currently support plus symbols in email addresses. To avoid delivery issues, omit the plus symbol and any characters following it up to the @ symbol.

    The user is added to your directory with a user principal name (UPN) in the format emailaddress#EXT#@domain. For example: john_contoso.com#EXT#@fabrikam.partner.onmschina.cn, where fabrikam.partner.onmschina.cn is the organization from which you sent the invitations. (Learn more about B2B collaboration user properties.)

Add guest users to a group

If you need to manually add B2B collaboration users to a group after the user was invited, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Groups > All groups.

  3. Select a group (or select New group to create a new one). It's a good idea to include in the group description that the group contains B2B guest users.

  4. Under Manage, select Members.

  5. Select Add members.

  6. Complete the following set of steps:

    • If the guest user is already in the directory:

      a. On the Add members page, start typing the name or email address of the guest user.

      b. In the search results, choose the user, and then choose Select.

    You can also use dynamic membership groups with Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration. For more information, see Dynamic groups and Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration.

Add guest users to an application

To add B2B collaboration users to an application, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.

  3. On the All applications page, select the application to which you want to add guest users.

  4. Under Manage, select Users and groups.

  5. Select Add user/group.

  6. On the Add Assignment page, select the link under Users.

  7. Complete the following set of steps:

    • If the guest user is already in the directory:

      a. On the Users page, start typing the name or email address of the guest user.

      b. In the search results, choose the user, and then choose Select.

      c. On the Add Assignment page, choose Assign to add the user to the app.

  8. The guest user appears in the application's Users and groups list with the assigned role of Default Access. If the application provides different roles and you want to change the user's role, do the following:

    a. Select the check box next to the guest user, and then select the Edit button.

    b. On the Edit Assignment page, choose the link under Select a role, and select the role you want to assign to the user.

    c. Choose Select.

    d. Select Assign.

Related content