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Google Chat guest accounts let a Workspace user invite someone outside the organization, such as a contractor or client who has no Google account tied to that email address, into a chat or a space. Google announced general availability on March 30, 2026 in a Workspace Updates post, and its Chat Help page gives the user steps. A separate admin page covers the controls. This guide explains how Google Chat guest accounts work, how to invite a guest, how an administrator switches the feature off, and where Google’s pages give different answers.
What Google Chat guest accounts are
Google says Workspace creates a guest account when a person in the organization invites an external user to chat, and the same account type is used for client-side encrypted email. The guest receives an invitation, accepts the Google Workspace Terms of Service, and acknowledges that the organization owns the data the account can reach. The table summarizes the points Google makes about Google Chat guest accounts.
| Item | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Editions with guests in Chat | Business Starter, Standard, and Plus; Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus |
| Admin rollout | March 26 to April 10, 2026 |
| End-user rollout | April 14 to 20 on Rapid Release; April 27 to May 8 on Scheduled Release |
| Default invitation setting | On for everyone who can chat externally |
| Where guests sit | An organizational unit named Workspace Guests, which does not inherit from the Root unit |
| Free guest allowance | Five guest accounts for each paid Business or Enterprise license |
| API creation of guests | Open beta by May 2026, per the March post |
How to invite a guest to Google Chat
The Chat Help page gives two entry points. A person can start a direct message, or add the guest to a space that allows external members.
- In Google Chat, select New chat, enter the guest’s email address, and select Start chat.
- To add the guest to a space, open the space, select the space name, choose Manage members, and select Add.
- Wait for the guest to accept the invitation. A guest may need to send or receive a message request before an internal user can message them.
Chat marks the difference between account types with a label. A teal External label means a guest account, and a yellow External label means an external Workspace user. If the administrator has switched invitations off, the invite fails with an error that reads “Can’t invite user. This type of external invite isn’t enabled by your administrator.” Google’s admin page adds that a guest invitation cannot go to an email address already tied to a Google account.
How an administrator turns off Google Chat guest accounts
Because Google Chat guest accounts default to on, an administrator who does not want guests has to act. The admin page gives these steps.
- Sign in to the Google Admin console with an administrator account.
- Go to Menu, then Security, then Access and data control, then External sharing, then Guest invitations.
- Clear the box labeled “Allow users to send guest invitations to people outside your organization.”
- Select Save.
Two related Chat settings also matter. Google’s page on chatting with external users says the Chat externally setting controls whether users can chat with people outside the organization, and the External spaces setting controls whether users can create or join external spaces. Space members and Chat apps can invite external users and guests only if External spaces is on. A space must be marked as external when it is created, and that choice cannot be changed later.
What Google Chat guest accounts can and cannot do
| Area | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Spaces | Guests browse and search only the spaces they were added to |
| Messaging internal users | Only after a message request is sent or received |
| Unsupported actions | Creating spaces, joining internal spaces, adding people, emoji reactions, and starting Meet calls |
| Needs permission | Uploading files to external spaces or direct messages, and using @All, need admin or Space Manager permission |
| Other Workspace apps | No Gmail, Calendar, or Gemini in Workspace, and no membership in Dynamic Groups |
| Chat apps and webhooks | Guests cannot add or remove them or interact with them |
| Third-party SAML apps | Guests are not provisioned automatically |
Device and directory controls for Google Chat guest accounts
An administrator can apply device policies to the Workspace Guests unit, where every one of the Google Chat guest accounts sits, and Google says a remote wipe removes the guest account and organizational data from a device without touching personal data or apps. Guest accounts cannot be moved to another organizational unit. The March post adds that the Directory API has an is_guest_user field, so guests can be told apart from other users in reports. Google’s admin page does not describe how to view, suspend, or delete a guest, and the Chat Help page does not cover removing a guest either.
Google Chat guest accounts and visitor sharing in Drive
Drive has an older way to share with outsiders, called visitor sharing, and the two interact. The table shows how Google describes the result.
| Setting | Result |
|---|---|
| Guest accounts on | External users invited through Chat get a guest account, and new Drive shares default to that account |
| Guest accounts on | An external user who receives a Drive file directly keeps visitor access |
| Guest accounts on | An existing visitor who is invited through Chat gets a guest account and keeps visitor access to earlier shares |
| Guest accounts off | Users can use visitor sharing for Drive only |
Where Google’s pages differ
The three Google pages do not line up on several points about Google Chat guest accounts. The March post says guests cannot create or own new Drive files, the Chat Help page says guests can join huddles and Meet and edit shared Drive files, and the admin page lists no supported Drive capabilities and says guests cannot start Meet calls. The March post gives no maximum number of guests, while the admin page sets a free allowance of five per paid license. A team that depends on a particular guest ability should test it with a real guest before relying on it.
Jolt Journal’s checklist
These steps are the Jolt Journal’s own suggestions and are not Google’s instructions.
- Open the Guest invitations setting and decide whether the default of on for Google Chat guest accounts matches the organization’s policy.
- Count current Google Chat guest accounts against the allowance of five per paid license before a large project starts.
- Review the Workspace Guests unit for device and password rules, because it does not inherit settings from the Root unit.
- Test one invitation end to end with a spare external address, including the message request and a shared Drive file.
Readers who use Gemini inside Chat can see the Jolt Journal’s guide to Gemini’s in-chat file editing, and the report on Grok in Google Workspace covers another assistant that works across the same apps. Google lists Gemini in Workspace among the services that guests cannot use.
Editor’s take
Google Chat guest accounts give small teams a sanctioned way to work with outside contributors, and the default of on means the first decision belongs to the administrator and not to the employee. Google Chat guest accounts are limited by design, and the differences between Google’s pages are the main risk. An organization that handles sensitive files should settle the invitation setting before the first guest arrives.
This is general information based on Google’s published pages. Features and limits vary by edition and can change, and Google’s own pages have the final word.
