Roles and permissions

Access to Looker Studio assets (reports and data sources) is based on the Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) system. With IAM, you manage access to Looker Studio assets by assigning users to a predefined role. A role is a collection of permissions that allows users to perform certain actions while preventing them from performing other actions.

Learn more about IAM.

Basic roles

The following basic roles are available to all Looker Studio users. Basic roles apply to individual assets. For example, you can grant a user the Editor role on a particular report and the Viewer role on the data source that is added to that report.

Role

General capabilities

Viewer

  • Can view the report and interact with controls
  • Can view the data source schema

Editor

All the capabilities of the Viewer role, plus the following capabilities:

  • Can modify the report
  • Can modify the data source
  • Can share the report
  • Can share the data source

Owner

All the capabilities of the Editor role, plus the following capabilities:

  • Can delete the report or data source
  • Can make someone else the owner of the report or data source

See Role details for more granular capabilities.

Team workspace roles

The following roles are available to users of Looker Studio Pro whose organization has a Google Cloud project linked through the Admin console. Team workspace roles are applied at the workspace level and govern access to the assets that are contained in that workspace.

Role

General capabilities
Viewer
  • Can view existing assets in the team workspace
  • Can view folders in the team workspace
  • Can view the team workspace Trash

Contributor

All the capabilities of the Viewer role, plus the following capabilities:

  • Can edit existing assets in the team workspace
  • Can create new assets in the team workspace
  • Can create new folders in the team workspace
  • Can move assets to team workspaces and folders in team workspaces
  • Can view workspace members and roles
  • Can add editors and viewers directly to an asset inside a workspace
  • Can restore assets from the Trash
  • Can move assets from Sandbox/Owned by me to a team workspace

Content manager

All the capabilities of the Contributor role, plus the following capabilities:

  • Can add/remove contributors to/from the workspace
  • Can move assets in a team workspace between folders that are located in the same team workspace
  • Can rename folders in the team workspace
  • Can remove assets to the Trash

Manager

All the capabilities of the Content manager role, plus the following capabilities:

  • Can add/remove Contributors and Content managers to/from the workspace
    • ( Note : A workspace must have at least one Manager.)
  • Can change member access levels for a team workspace
  • Can move an asset from one folder in a team workspace to a folder in a different team workspace
  • Can move assets out of a team workspace to Sandbox/Owned by me
  • Can permanently delete a folder in a team workspace
  • Can permanently delete an asset, a folder, or a team workspace

Role details

The following tables show the granular capabilities of each role according to feature area.

Feature area: Reports

Capability

Basic roles

Team workspace roles

Viewer

Editor

Owner

Viewer

Contributor Content manager Manager
Create the report ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Remove the report (move to Trash) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Restore from Trash ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Delete the report ✔ ✔

View the report

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Copy the report

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Download data from the report

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Modify the report

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Use data from added data sources

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Modify data from added data sources

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Add and remove data sources

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Prevent report copying for viewers

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Prevent report sharing for viewers

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Prevent downloading data for viewers

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Transfer ownership

✔

n/a

n/a n/a n/a

Feature area: Data sources

Capability

Basic roles

Team workspace roles

Viewer

Editor

Owner

Viewer

Contributor Content manager Manager

Add the data source to reports

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

View the data source schema

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔

Modify the data source

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

Copy the data source

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔ ✔
Remove the data source (move to Trash) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Restore from Trash ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Permanently delete the data source ✔ ✔

Change data source credentials

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

Prevent data source copying

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

Transfer ownership

✔

n/a n/a n/a n/a

Feature area: Sharing

These capabilities apply to both reports and data sources, unless otherwise specified.

Capability

Basic roles

Team workspace roles

Viewer

Editor

Owner

Viewer

Contributor

Content manager

Manager

Share the asset directly

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Stop sharing the asset directly

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Create and edit schedules on reports ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Feature area: Team workspaces

These capabilities apply only to Looker Studio Pro team workspace roles. Basic roles are not applicable.

Capability

Team workspace roles

Viewer

Contributor

Content manager

Manager

View workspace membership

✔

✔

✔

View workspace assets

✔

✔

✔

✔

View workspace folders ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Edit workspace and folder assets

✔

✔ ✔
Create new workspace assets ✔ ✔ ✔
Create new workspace folders ✔ ✔ ✔
View the workspace Trash ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Restore workspace and workspace folder assets from the Trash ✔ ✔ ✔
Move assets from Sandbox/Owned by me to a team workspace or workspace folder ✔ ✔ ✔
Move assets out of a team workspace or workspace folder to Sandbox/Owned by me , to a different team workspace, or to a folder in a different workspace ✔*
Move assets between a team workspace and its child folders ✔ ✔
Add members to / remove members from the team workspace ✔** ✔
Change member roles for the team workspace ✔
Permanently delete a workspace folder ✔
Permanently delete the workspace ✔

  • If a Manager is moving an asset from one team workspace to another team workspace, they must have one of the three roles in the target team workspace.

** Content managers can add or remove Contributors.