# Giving an agency access to Klaviyo or Mailchimp without sharing your login

Mailchimp lets an agency connect its own account to yours at a level you choose. In Klaviyo, an Owner or Admin adds each agency person as a user with a role.

Updated: November 10, 2026

Neither platform needs you to hand over a password. Mailchimp lets an agency link its own account to yours, and you choose the highest level of access the agency may have. In Klaviyo, you add each agency person as a user with a role. Both are forms of [delegated access](/guides/agency-accounts/what-is-delegated-permission), and both let you remove the agency later without changing your own login.

## Mailchimp: approve a request from the agency's account

Mailchimp has a route built for agencies: the agency connects from its own account, and no seat or login is shared.

The request starts on the agency's side. The agency joins Mailchimp & Co, Mailchimp's partner program, and sends a connection request to the email address of your account's Owner or Admin. You open that email, log in to the account the agency will work in, and set the highest level of access the whole agency may have. Mailchimp's agency pages don't say whether your plan limits the level you can approve. A request expires after 7 days if nobody approves it.

After you approve, the agency manages its own people. It can add colleagues to your account at the level you approved or lower, each with a Mailchimp login of their own. No one there can hand out a role above the one they hold. So a staff change at the agency is the agency's job.

You can also invite an agency person as a regular user. An Owner or Admin opens Account & billing, then Settings, then Users, and sends an invitation with a user level. Unlike the agency route, this one takes a user seat in your plan, and the person has 7 days to use the emailed link before it expires.

## Mailchimp user levels, and which one to approve

Which levels you can give an invited user depends on your plan. The table shows which plans offer each level and what each level can do. The Owner row comes from Mailchimp's description of the Owner, who "can perform all actions in the account"; the other rows come from its permission tables.

| Level | Plans Mailchimp lists it for | Create emails | Send emails | Export an audience | Invite users |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Owner | Any plan | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Admin | Essentials, Standard or Premium | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manager | Premium | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Author | Standard or Premium | Yes | No | No | No |
| Viewer | Standard or Premium | No | No | No | No |

For an agency that builds and sends campaigns, weigh Manager first if your plan has it. Mailchimp lists Manager for Premium only. On Standard, the next level down from Admin is Author, which can build emails but not send them, so an agency that sends for you needs Admin. On Essentials the table lists only Owner and Admin. Author fits an agency that only designs emails for you to send.

Manager stops short of Admin in a few places. Mailchimp's description says a Manager has no view of billing and can't export audiences or close the account. For an agency, exports matter most. The permission table gives a Manager audience import, but not audience export or account export. The same table lets a Manager view audiences and add or access API keys, the codes that let other apps into the account without a password. So a Manager loses the export feature but still works with your subscriber data.

Every account must have an Owner at all times, and that should be someone at your company.

## Klaviyo: add each agency person as a user

In Klaviyo, adding a user is a job for the Owner, an Admin, or someone whose custom role includes editing user management.

1. Select your account name in the lower-left corner and go to Settings, then Users.
2. Select Add new user, type the person's email address and choose a language.
3. Under User Role, choose a standard role or a custom role.
4. Select Add User. The invitation link expires after 24 hours, so tell the person to expect Klaviyo's email that day.

Klaviyo's standard roles besides Owner are Admin, Manager, Analyst, Support, Social Media Manager, Campaign Coordinator and Content Creator. Three of them come up most with agencies.

| Role | What Klaviyo's role reference says |
| --- | --- |
| Admin | Full account access, including adding or deleting users and changing payment plans |
| Manager | All core features, with limits on exports and no editing of users |
| Analyst | Analytics, segments and reporting, with campaigns to view but not build |

Admin is the role an agency needs if it will add its own staff. Klaviyo's role reference calls these built-in roles static, and it says "Among static user roles, only Owners and Admins can add new users to an account." With Manager, your team adds each agency person.

Manager also limits exports. The reference says a Manager can export aggregate analytics "but cannot export email addresses or recipient activity." Klaviyo's API key page says Managers can create private API keys, as Owners and Admins can, and the charts give Managers the Integrations settings. So Manager does not stop new connections.

Analyst isn't the tighter choice for data either. The charts give Analysts the Downloads page and the export of recipient activity from flows, which Managers don't get.

If neither role fits, build one. Klaviyo offers custom roles on all plans: you pick product areas and a level for each, from View up to Edit + publish. API keys and integrations is its own product area, so a custom role can leave it out or hold it at View. Klaviyo's best practices mention agencies by name: if an outside agency only needs to look at your data and content, give it Content View, not Edit. They also say to give Billing Edit to as few users as possible. For the same question in online stores, see [limiting order and customer data exports](/guides/agency-accounts/ec-order-data-download-control).

## Removing an agency

| | Mailchimp, connected agency | Mailchimp, invited user | Klaviyo user |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Who handles the agency's staff changes | The agency | You | You |
| How you end access | Change or revoke the agency's access, which Mailchimp says you can do at any time | Revoke Access for each person on the Users page | Delete user for each person under Settings, then Users |

Revoking a Mailchimp user has a side effect: "any API keys they created in the account are removed," so a connection that runs on one of those keys will stop. Ask the agency which connections it set up with its keys before the last day.

In Klaviyo, open each user on the Users page to see when they were added and when they last logged in. Check when the contract ends, and again a few weeks later, to confirm nobody from the agency remains.

Klaviyo also has portfolios, which group several accounts in one view. An agency that is Owner or Admin on your account can add it to its own portfolio, and Klaviyo emails the account's Owner when that happens. You don't have to wait for the agency to undo it. The account's Owner can take the account out of a portfolio, as long as one other account stays in it. Do that when the work ends.

## Check who the Owner is before the agency leaves

If the agency created the account for you, one of its employees may be the Owner, so check while you still work together.

A Klaviyo account has one Owner, and the transfer page says "Only the current account Owner can assign a new Owner," so you can't take ownership without the agency's person. After the transfer that person stays on as an Admin. If they have already left the agency and can't be reached, Klaviyo's guidance is to contact support and go through a verification process. Doing the transfer while the agency still answers email avoids that.

In Mailchimp, an Owner or Admin can transfer ownership at any time. The outgoing Owner drops to Admin, and the new Owner can then revoke that access.

The [account handover checklist](/guides/agency-accounts/handover-checklist) lists what else to collect when the engagement ends.


## Frequently asked questions

**Does our email agency need our Mailchimp password?**

No. Mailchimp Help says agencies and freelancers can connect to a client's account without sharing login information. The agency sends a request from its own account, and you approve it at a level you choose.

**Does an agency take up a user seat in Mailchimp?**

Not when it connects through an access request. Mailchimp Help says "An agency user will not count as a user seat on your Marketing plan." A person you invite as a regular user does use a seat.

**Which Klaviyo role should an agency get?**

Admin has full access, including adding users. Klaviyo says a Manager can't export subscriber addresses or edit users, but its charts give Managers the Integrations and API keys settings. A custom role can be narrower than either.

**How do we remove an agency from Klaviyo?**

An Owner or Admin opens Settings, then Users, opens the three-dot menu next to each agency person, and selects Delete user. The Owner can't be deleted until ownership is transferred.

**The agency set up our account and is the Owner. What should we do?**

Ask for a transfer while you're still working together. In Klaviyo only the current Owner can assign a new one. In Mailchimp an Owner or Admin can, so if someone at your company is an Admin, they can do it.

## Sources

- [Mailchimp Help: Grant Agency Access to Your Account](https://mailchimp.com/help/grant-account-access/)
- [Mailchimp Help: Connect Your Clients' Accounts](https://mailchimp.com/help/connect-client-accounts/)
- [Mailchimp Help: Manage User Levels in Your Account](https://mailchimp.com/help/manage-user-levels-in-your-account/)
- [Klaviyo Help Center: How to add or delete users and manage permissions](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053547071)
- [Klaviyo Help Center: User management and privileges reference for Static User Roles](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005231648)
- [Klaviyo Help Center: How to create a custom user role](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/40493034144795)
- [Klaviyo Help Center: How to transfer account ownership](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051946112)
- [Klaviyo Help Center: Getting started with portfolios](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/24656917054747)
- [Klaviyo Help Center: How to create or clone a private API key](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/7423954176283)

## How Junify handles this

**Doing this by hand** You agree with each client on how access is handed over, add and remove people platform by platform whenever staff change, and keep track of which staff member used which client's account.

**With Junify** Klaviyo and Mailchimp give each agency person their own way in, so use that. Junify is for an agency that still shares one login to a client's other accounts, where every staff change means asking for a new password. Junify recommends changing that password with the client at setup, so only Junify holds the new one. Staff sign in without seeing it, each use is recorded under the person's name, and a person who leaves is removed in Junify.

Junify is an access management service for handing work in your web accounts to employees, contractors and outside teams without giving them the password. Each person verifies on their own phone and clicks a card to sign in. The password is never shown, and Junify records who used which account and when.

- [Try the demo](https://www.junify.com/bpo/try?lang=en&scenario=marketing-ops&from=guide&cluster=agency-accounts&slug=klaviyo-mailchimp-agency-access)
- [Book a 30-minute demo](https://www.junify.com/bpo/demo)

## More on this topic

- [Giving an agency access to Google Merchant Center](/guides/agency-accounts/google-merchant-center-agency-access): An admin adds each agency person by Google Account. Where Merchant Center for Agencies is available, the agency can request a link instead. No login is shared.
- [Giving an SEO agency access to Google Search Console, and removing it](/guides/agency-accounts/google-search-console-agency-access): A property owner adds each agency person by Google Account as a full or restricted user. If the agency verified the site itself, removal takes one more step.
- [Giving an agency access to a LinkedIn Page and ad account](/guides/agency-accounts/linkedin-page-ad-account-agency-access): A LinkedIn Page has no password to share. A super admin gives each agency person a Page role, and an Account manager on the ad account adds them there.