Guide to sharing and permissions

In this article, we'll cover all the ways you can share resources in Figma. Your Figma team or plan will determine what access and permissions are available.

What can you share?

You can share different kinds of assets in Figma: files, prototypes, projects and teams. If you're part of an organization, you can also invite people to the organization.

You can think of these as different levels of sharing—with the team or organization as the highest level and a file or prototype as the lowest or most granular.

In most circumstances, giving someone access at one level gives them access to the level below it.

For example: if you invite someone to a team they get access to all the projects (and files) in that team. If you invite someone to a specific file, but not the team, they get access to just that file but no other team projects and files.

How can you share?

There are three main methods for sharing resources in Figma:

• Share a link to a resource
• Invite people to a specific resource
• Embed a file or prototype outside of Figma

Method	Organization	Team	Project	File	Prototype
Invite	Only if domain capture is off	✓	✓	✓	✓
Share link	Members only	✓	✕	✓	✓
Embed	Members only	✕	✕	✓	✓

Share links

The fastest way to share your work with collaborators is to send them a link. You can copy and share links to files and prototypes, projects, and teams.

If they already have access to the team, project, or file they can interact with it based on those permissions. If they don't, the default link sharing settings will determine their access. Share files and prototypes →

Send invitations

You can invite someone to a file, a project, a team, or an entire organization. You’ll need the person's email address to invite them. They’ll receive an email invitation and a notification in their Figma account. To access the file, project, or team, they just need to accept the invitation.

• Invite to files and projects to give them access to a single file, or all the files in a specific project.
• Invite people to a team to give them access to all files and projects in the team.
• Add members and guests to an organization, or specific assets within the organization.

Embed outside Figma

Embed files and prototype in a website or browser-based applications to bring your designs and prototypes to your team.

• Add style and component libraries in your design system documentation
• Include detailed feature designs and explorations in a PRD, spec document, or user story
• Keep your FigJam files alongside meeting notes
• Embed or share prototypes in testing environments
  

People can interact with embeds based on their permissions on that file. They’ll be prompted to log in to their Figma account if it’s a private file. Embed files and prototypes →

What permissions are there?

There are a few settings that control access in Figma. Your team or organization plan will determine which permissions are available.

One key concept to understand is the difference between can view and can edit access. People with can edit access can make changes to files and projects, while people with can view access can only perform certain 'read only' actions, like inspecting properties, following, and commenting.

These permissions have a different purpose between plans:

• On free plans: can view and can edit permissions control a person's ability to edit team files.
• On paid plans: A person's seat type determines if they can edit design or FigJam files. While their can view and can edit permissions determine which files and projects they can edit.

Select your plan to explore the permissions for each type of resource:

• Starter plan permissions
• Education plan permissions
• Professional plan permissions
• Organization plan permissions
• Enterprise plan permissions

What happens if you have conflicting permissions?

It's possible for people to have different permissions on teams, projects, and files. These can be explicit permissions or inherited permissions. If there are conflicting permissions, Figma will honor the more permissive option.

• If you invite someone to a team, their permissions on team projects and files are inherited from their team permissions.
• If you invite someone to a specific resource — like a file or project — you are giving them explicit permissions on that resource.
• If someone gets access to a file by opening the link, they'll get the file's default permissions. These permissions are similar to inherited permissions.

In some circumstances, you can override someone's inherited permissions by giving them explicit permissions on a resource. This only works for situations where the explicit permission gives them more access.