How to Share Google Sheets (Permissions & Links)

Learn how to share Google Sheets with specific people, shareable links, and embed options. Covers permission levels, access controls, and sharing best practices.

Sharing a Google Sheets spreadsheet gives other people access to view, comment on, or edit your data. You control who can see the sheet and what they can do with it, whether that’s a specific coworker or anyone with a link.

This guide covers the three ways to share a Google Sheet: sharing with specific people by email, creating a shareable link, and embedding a spreadsheet in a webpage. You’ll also learn how each permission level works and how to revoke access when needed.

Permission Levels Explained

Every person you share with gets one of three permission levels:

Level	Can View	Can Comment	Can Edit
Viewer	Yes	No	No
Commenter	Yes	Yes	No
Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes

Editors can change cell values, add or delete sheets, modify formatting, and share the spreadsheet with others. Commenters can leave notes on cells without changing data. Viewers can only read.

⚠ Important

Editors can re-share the spreadsheet with other people by default. If you need to restrict this, uncheck the box that says “Editors can change permissions and share” in the Share dialog settings (gear icon).

Click the Share button

The green Share button sits in the top-right corner of the spreadsheet. Click it to open the sharing dialog.

Add email addresses

Type an email address in the Add people, groups, and calendar events field. To add multiple people, type each address separated by a comma. Choose the permission level from the dropdown to the right (Viewer, Commenter, or Editor).

Send the invite

Add an optional message in the text box, then click Send. Each person receives an email with a link to the spreadsheet. They’ll see the sheet at the permission level you assigned.

Link sharing gives access to anyone who has the URL, without requiring individual email invites.

Open the Share dialog.
Under General access, click Restricted and change it to Anyone with the link.
Choose the permission level for link holders (Viewer, Commenter, or Editor).
Click Copy link.

Anyone with the URL can now open the sheet. This is useful for sharing with large groups, external partners, or people whose email addresses you don’t know.

⊘ Warning

“Anyone with the link” means exactly that. If the link is forwarded, posted publicly, or leaked, anyone who finds it can access the sheet. Use this setting for non-sensitive data only. For confidential spreadsheets, share with specific email addresses instead.

Embed a Spreadsheet

You can embed a live Google Sheet in a webpage or intranet page.

Go to File > Share > Publish to web.
Choose the sheet tab to publish (or the entire document).
Select Embed and copy the iframe HTML code.
Paste the code into your webpage.

The embedded sheet updates automatically when the source data changes. Viewers see a read-only version.

ℹ Note

Publishing to the web is different from link sharing. A published sheet is publicly visible to anyone on the internet, even without the link. Only publish non-sensitive data.

Change or Remove Access

To change someone’s permission level:

Open the Share dialog.
Find the person in the list.
Click the dropdown next to their name and choose a new level (Viewer, Commenter, Editor) or select Remove access.

To turn off link sharing, change General access back to Restricted. The existing link stops working immediately.

Activity Dashboard: See Who Viewed

Google Sheets tracks who opens a shared spreadsheet.

Go to Tools > Activity dashboard.
Click the Viewers tab to see who opened the file, when, and whether they viewed or edited.

The dashboard only tracks users with Google accounts who have direct access. If you shared via link with “Anyone with the link,” anonymous viewers are counted but not individually identified.

Tips and Best Practices

Default to Viewer access. Give people the minimum access they need. You can always upgrade to Editor later.
Restrict re-sharing for sensitive data. Click the gear icon in the Share dialog and uncheck “Editors can change permissions and share.”
Use IMPORTRANGE instead of sharing tabs. If collaborators need one tab’s data, pull it into a separate sheet and share that.
Protect sensitive tabs. If you must share the whole spreadsheet but some tabs contain confidential data, use sheet protection (Data > Protect sheets and ranges) to restrict editing.
Review access periodically. Open the Share dialog every few months and remove people who no longer need access. Stale permissions are a security risk.

IMPORTRANGE in Google Sheets — Pull data from one spreadsheet into another, useful for sharing specific data without full file access
Data Validation in Google Sheets — Add input rules to cells in shared sheets so collaborators enter data correctly
How to Freeze Rows and Columns — Lock headers in place so collaborators see column labels while scrolling through shared data
Conditional Formatting in Google Sheets — Apply visual rules that help multiple editors understand the data at a glance

FAQ

Click the Share button in the top-right corner. Enter the email addresses of the people you want to share with, choose their permission level (Viewer, Commenter, or Editor), and click Send.

What are the permission levels in Google Sheets?

There are three permission levels. Viewer can see the data but cannot change anything. Commenter can view and leave comments but cannot edit cells. Editor can make changes to the spreadsheet.

Open the Share dialog, click Change to anyone with the link under General access, choose a permission level, then click Copy link. Anyone with that URL can access the sheet at the permission level you set.

Not through the Share dialog. Google Sheets shares the entire spreadsheet, not individual tabs. To share one tab, use IMPORTRANGE to pull that tab’s data into a separate spreadsheet and share that instead. Or protect the other tabs so they’re view-only.

Open the Share dialog, click the permission dropdown next to the person’s name, and select Remove access. For link sharing, change General access back to Restricted. Existing links stop working immediately.

Can I see who has viewed my Google Sheet?

Go to Tools > Activity dashboard. The Viewers tab shows who opened the spreadsheet and when. This only tracks users with Google accounts who have access. Anonymous viewers from link sharing are not individually identified.

How to Share Google Sheets (Permissions & Links)

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