The Notion Sharing Hierarchy

With Notion’s immense versatility comes the ability to share pages with many types of users, at various levels of access.

Fully understanding sharing is essential to keeping your information safe and your productivity at its highest. The nuances can be difficult to grasp, however. Below, we explain them simply and comprehensibly. If you’re left with any lingering questions, feel free to respond to the newsletter or tweet @WilliamNutt.

Start with the video or dive into the text.

The Sharing Hierarchy

At the highest level, you can share Notion pages publicly or with individual users. Among those individual users, you can share pages with guests or members of your workspace. Within those members, you can share with all members, specific members or groups.

Based on who has access, a page will fall into one of three categories: Private, Shared and Workspace.

You’ll understand each of these terms in no time.

Know What You’re Sharing

Keep in mind that when you share a page, you share all of it’s sub-pages, or the Page blocks within it. This does not include Link to Page blocks.

Similarly, when you share a database view or linked database, you share the full original database.

Share Publicly

Granting Public Access to a page makes it accessible to anyone on the Internet. Each public page has a unique URL that makes it easy to share. You can also make them discoverable through search engines.

Make a Page Public

1. Open the Share menu at the top-right.
2. Toggle Public Access.
3. Using the dropdown menu, specify an access level. By default, visitors Can Read, or only view the contents of your page. Choosing Can Comment allows any signed-in Notion user to comment on the content.

Allow Search Engines

When you share a page publicly, you can opt to Allow Search Engines. This lets Google and other search engines index your page, then display it within search results for relevant queries.

Control Duplication

By default, your page can be duplicated by other Notion users for adaptation within their own workspaces. You can disable duplication by toggling Allow Duplicate as Template.

Share Your URL

With your settings configured, you can use the Copy Page Link button to copy your page’s unique URL, then paste it wherever you’d like to share your page.

Modify Share Settings

To modify the share settings for a public page, return to the Share menu to toggle and reselect options as you wish.

Share with Specific People

Rather than publishing your page publicly, you can share it with specific Notion users. To access your page, those users must be signed in to their Notion accounts. Those without existing accounts are prompted to create one.

Users with access to any page in a workspace can be selected within the Person properties of databases.

Two Types of Users

Guests

When you share a page with a someone outside your workspace, that user becomes a guest of the workspace.

In a business context, guests typically include contractors, partners and clients.

Members

Members are available on Team and Enterprise plans and typically include the team or group for which the workspace was created, such as your colleagues.

Like guests, members can be invited to specific pages. Unlike guests, members can access all pages that you grant Workspace Access.

Groups

Admins can group members to make it easy to share pages with them as units. For example, you might share all marketing-centric pages with a “Marketing” group rather than sharing those pages with each member of the marketing team individually.

Three Types of Shared Pages

Each shared page falls into one of three categories: Private, Shared or Workspace. The pages at the top level of your hierarchy (containing no “parent” pages) are grouped within your sidebar by these categories.

A page’s category refers to the way it’s shared with members rather than guests or the public. For example, a Private page may be shared with a guest, but as soon as it’s shared with a member, it becomes Shared.

Private

Private pages might be shared with a guest, or even publicly, but not with specific workspace members.

Shared

When you share a Private page with specific members or groups, it becomes Shared. Shared pages might also be accessible by guests or even publicly.

Workspace

You can also make pages available to your entire workspace, which moves it into the Workspace category for all members. These pages might also be available to guests or the public.

Access Levels

When you invite guests, members and groups to a page, you’ll specify an access level:

Full Access

The user can edit the page and share it with other users.

Can Edit

The user can edit the page but not share it with others.

Can Comment

The user can view the page and add comments, but neither edit nor share the page.

Can Read

The user can only view the page. No commenting, editing or sharing.

Share a Page with Members, Guests and Groups

Invite Individual Members and Guests

1. Open the Share menu at the top-right.
2. Click Invite a Person.
3. Choose an existing name or enter an email address.
4. If the email address is associated with an existing Notion account, you’ll see the user’s name and avatar to select; otherwise, you can click the email address.
5. Next to the name or email address, choose an access level.
6. Click Invite. The user will receive your invitation by email.

If your page is at the top level of your workspace, it will appear within the Shared category of your sidebar.

Share with All Members

Within a page’s Share menu, you can toggle Workspace Access to grant access to all members of your workspace. You can also choose an access level; the default is Full Access.

Workspace-shared pages appear within the sidebar’s Workspace category for all members.

Share with a Group

When an admin creates a group, the group is added to the Share menu of all pages below Workspace Access. There, you can toggle sharing and specify an access level for each group.

As with pages shared with individual members, those shared with groups appear within the Shared category of your sidebar.

View and Modify a Page’s Users

View User Avatars

When an invited user views the page for the first time, their avatars are added to the top-right — next to the Share menu. Hover over an avatar to see the user’s name, email address, and time of last visit.

Avatars remain faded unless their users are actively viewing the page. As users edit the page, their avatars follow them from block to block.

Control Users from the Share Menu

Along with groups, a page’s guests and members appear within the Share menu. Each user includes a dropdown menu, where you can adjust the access level or Remove access entirely.

Admin Settings

Manage All Guests

Within Settings & Members → Members, admins can see guests for all pages across the workspace. For each guest, a dropdown menu allows the admin to view the accessible pages, Remove the guest, or convert the guest to a member (on Team and Enterprise plans).

Manage Members

On Team and Enterprise plans, admins can manage workspace members within Settings & Members.

Add New Members Individually

1. Under Settings & Members → Members, click Add a Member.
2. Select among the guests or enter one or more email address.
3. Optionally use the dropdown menu to make the users admins, who can manage workspace settings, members and groups.

Enable Auto-Joining

Admins can also allow any user with an email address containing an approved domain, e.g., company.com, to join the workspace. Enter your approved domains under Settings & Members → Settings → Allowed Email Domains.

With the domain configured, users with applicable email addresses will see the option to join your workspace when they create their account. Existing users can choose Create or Join Workspace from the the dropdown where they switch workspaces.

You can also share your workspace URL, which you can view and modify within Settings & Members → Settings → Allowed Email Domains.

Manage Existing Members

Within Settings & Members → Members, admins will see a list of existing members. For each, they can use a dropdown menu to convert the member to an admin or Remove from Team.

Manage Groups

Admins can create and modify groups by clicking the Groups tab in Settings & Members → Members.

Add a New Group

1. Click Create a Group.
2. Give the group a name.
3. Optionally add a group icon.

Add Members to a Group

1. Below the group name, click Add a member.
2. Choose the new member(s) and click Add.

Remove a Group Member

Next to the member, click Remove.

Rename or Delete a Group

Next to the group name, click ••• and choose Rename or Delete.

Disable Sharing

Admins also have the ability to disable particular share settings. Within Settings & Members → Security and SAML, they can:

• prevent members from sharing pages publicly; and
• disable guests to prohibit sharing pages with any non-member of the workspace.

That covers the full scope of the Notion Sharing Hierarchy. If you hit any roadblocks, we’re just a tweet away.