# YouTube channel permissions for your team and an outside agency

In YouTube Studio, invite each person by email with a role such as Manager, Editor or Viewer. No one needs the password, and removal is on the same screen.

Updated: October 16, 2026

A YouTube channel is run from a Google account. To work on it with several people, you can share that account's password, or you can invite people through channel permissions in YouTube Studio (the channel's admin screen). Invited people sign in with their own Google accounts and act within the role the owner picks. This is a form of [delegated access](/guides/agency-accounts/what-is-delegated-permission).

## What sharing the password means

YouTube Help says channel permissions are "safer than sharing your password or other sensitive sign in details." Anyone with the password signs in as the owner. They can do everything the owner can, including deleting the channel and changing who has access.

Each person who knows the password is also one more way in for an attacker. YouTube Help lists harmful software (malware) and fake emails posing as a familiar service (phishing) among the ways channels get hijacked. When a password is shared, malware on any one person's computer or a phishing email to any one person's inbox can give it away.

## Roles in channel permissions

There are seven roles. Two of them are limited versions that hide revenue data. The table picks the main actions from YouTube Help's role list.

| Role | Main things it can do | What it can't do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner | Everything, including deleting the channel | Hand the owner role to someone else |
| Manager | Manage permissions; create, publish and delete content; manage live streams | Delete the channel |
| Editor | Edit channel details, upload and publish videos, manage live streams | Delete published videos or the channel; manage permissions |
| Editor (limited) | The same as Editor | Also can't see revenue data |
| Subtitle editor | Add, edit, publish and delete subtitles | Edit or upload anything else; see revenue data |
| Viewer | See channel details and revenue data | Edit anything; manage live streams |
| Viewer (limited) | The same as Viewer | Also can't see revenue data |

A Manager can add people and delete published videos. So one sensible split is to keep Manager for a lead inside your company and give agency staff Editor. If they don't need revenue figures, choose Editor (limited).

## Inviting people, and channels on a Brand Account

The owner or a manager sends invitations in YouTube Studio. Open Settings, then Permissions, choose Invite, enter the person's email address and role, and send. An invitation expires after 30 days.

A Brand Account is a Google account for a brand that several people manage, each through their own Google account. If your channel is on a Brand Account, it first has to move to channel permissions, and only the Brand Account's primary owner can do that. Existing Brand Account users are copied into channel permissions. The owner then sets each person's role and sends the invitations.

## Who should be the owner

In channel permissions, the owner can't hand the owner role to anyone. Moving ownership takes the work below, so keep the owner at your company rather than at the agency. Then nothing about ownership changes when an agency contract ends.

### A channel not on a Brand Account

YouTube Help says that on such a channel "you can change channel managers, but not owners." To transfer ownership, Help says to remove everyone's roles in channel permissions, which turns the channel into a Brand Account. After that, the Brand Account steps below apply.

### A channel on a Brand Account

A Brand Account has its own roles, separate from channel permissions: a primary owner, other owners and managers. The primary owner changes on the Brand Account side. If channel permissions are on, Help says you may need to turn them off first, and then everyone has to be invited again.

1. In YouTube Studio's Permissions settings, turn off channel permissions.
2. Invite everyone again to the Brand Account.
3. The person taking over makes themselves primary owner, after being an owner for at least 7 days.

Finish this before a primary owner leaves your company and their Google account is deleted. Deleting the primary owner's account also deletes the channel, and Help recommends at least one owner besides the primary owner.

## Removing people and handing over

To remove someone, the owner or a manager opens the same Permissions screen, selects the person, and chooses Remove. That person signed in with their own Google account, so no password needs changing.

When the person running your channel changes, invite the successor first and remove the predecessor after the successor accepts. Invitations need the other person to accept and expire after 30 days, so this order avoids a gap with no one able to work on the channel.

Review the list of people now and then so no one is left on it by mistake. Only the owner and managers can see the names and email addresses of people with access, so this check belongs to the lead at your company.

If you used to share the password, change it when you move to channel permissions. Until then, anyone who knew it can still sign in as the owner. Also turn on 2-Step Verification for the owner's account. YouTube Help recommends a passkey as the second step, which is a sign-in confirmed with your fingerprint, face or phone screen lock.

## What channel permissions don't cover

Invited users can't use YouTube Music, the YouTube Kids app or YouTube APIs, the connections other tools use to work with YouTube. The owner, signing in as themselves, can. So connecting an outside scheduling or analytics tool through those APIs is a job for the owner at your company.

Don't hand over the password for that job. YouTube Help's advice on recovering hijacked channels says "Don't share passwords or sign-in info with anyone else," and to make sure only authorized accounts reach the channel.

There is also a limit on records. Public actions by an invited person, such as publishing a video or commenting as the channel, are attributed to the channel. Private actions, such as searching, watching or buying, happen on that person's own account. The channel permissions page doesn't describe a way to see later which person did something as the channel. After a mistaken post, you may have to work it out from who was assigned which task.


## Frequently asked questions

**Does our agency need the YouTube password?**

No. Invite the agency staff's email addresses under channel permissions, and they sign in with their own Google accounts. Removing them later needs no password change either.

**Which role fits agency staff?**

Editor is one option. It can publish videos and manage live streams, but it can't delete published videos or the channel, or manage permissions. Editor (limited) also hides revenue.

**What do we do when the person running our channel changes?**

An owner or manager invites the successor under Settings, then Permissions, waits for them to accept, and then removes the predecessor. There's no password to change.

**Does this work for a channel on a Brand Account?**

Yes. The Brand Account's primary owner first moves the channel to channel permissions. Existing users are copied over, but each one's role has to be set and an invitation sent.

**Can channel ownership be transferred?**

Not directly, because the owner role can't be handed over. The steps depend on whether the channel is on a Brand Account, and both routes mean removing permissions and inviting people again.

## Sources

- [YouTube Help: Manage your channel permissions](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9481328?hl=en)
- [YouTube Help: Move from Brand Account user access to channel permissions](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9367690?hl=en)
- [YouTube Help: Change channel owners & managers with a Brand Account](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/4628007?hl=en)
- [YouTube Help: Manage your Brand Account](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7001996?hl=en)
- [YouTube Help: Recover a hijacked YouTube channel](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/76187?hl=en)
- [YouTube Help: Secure your YouTube channel](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9701986?hl=en)

## 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** For YouTube, use channel permissions, as YouTube Help advises. Junify is for the other social and ad accounts the same staff work in, where everyone uses one password. Agree with the client to change that password at setup so only Junify holds it. Staff sign in without seeing it, and each use is recorded under the person's name. When someone leaves, you remove their access in Junify instead of sending a new password around.

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=youtube-channel-permissions)
- [Book a 30-minute demo](https://www.junify.com/bpo/demo)

## More on this topic

- [Account clauses an agency should propose in its client contract](/guides/agency-accounts/account-clauses-for-service-providers): Propose five: account handover, who may use accounts, records, incident notice, and offboarding. Keep your own promises apart from what the client must do.
- [How to write client account handling into your agency's security policy](/guides/agency-accounts/agency-security-policy-for-clients): Write a short public policy, an internal policy for staff, and an access summary for each client. Rewrite template rules for logins the client owns.
- [Amazon Seller Central user permissions, and how to give an agency access](/guides/agency-accounts/amazon-seller-central-user-permissions): Seller Central Help says not to share logins. On a Professional plan, the seller invites staff as employees and authorizes your agency as a Service Provider.