What is a SharePoint Group?

A SharePoint group is basically a collection of users grouped together to simplify permission management within a SharePoint site.

SharePoint groups make it easy for site owners to manage access control by assigning permissions to an entire group, instead of having to assign permissions to individual users.

Each group is associated with a set of permission levels (such as Read, Contribute, or Full Control), and members of the group inherit those permissions. Common default SharePoint groups include Owners, Members, and Visitors.

SharePoint groups are scoped to a specific site—meaning they exist only within the site they were created in and do not apply across all SharePoint or Microsoft 365 environments. Each group can be assigned one or more permission levels, such as:

  • Read – view content without editing.
  • Contribute – add or edit content.
  • Full control – full administrative rights over the site.

When you create a new site, SharePoint automatically creates three standard groups:

  • Site owners – users with Full Control permissions.
  • Site members – users with Contribute permissions.
  • Site visitors – users with Read-only access.

Using groups gives you a flexible and centralized way to manage access while also improving transparency and reducing the risk of privilege creep, where users accumulate more access than they need over time.

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