Permissions on Grafana Labs

Dashboard and Folder Permissions

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:53:36 -0800

Dashboard and Folder Permissions

For dashboards and dashboard folders there is a Permissions page that make it possible to remove the default role based permissions for Editors and Viewers. On this page you can add and assign permissions to specific Users and Teams.

You can assign and remove permissions for Organization Roles, Users and Teams.

Permission levels:

Admin: Can edit and create dashboards and edit permissions.
Edit: Can edit and create dashboards. Cannot edit folder/dashboard permissions.
View: Can only view existing dashboards/folders.

Restricting Access

The highest permission always wins so if you for example want to hide a folder or dashboard from others you need to remove the Organization Role based permission from the Access Control List (ACL).

You cannot override permissions for users with the Org Admin Role. Admins always have access to everything.
A more specific permission with a lower permission level will not have any effect if a more general rule exists with higher permission level. You need to remove or lower the permission level of the more general rule.

How Grafana Resolves Multiple Permissions - Examples

Example 1 (`user1` has the Editor Role)

Permissions for a dashboard:

Everyone with Editor Role Can Edit
user1 Can View

Result: user1 has Edit permission as the highest permission always wins.

Example 2 (`user1` has the Viewer Role and is a member of `team1`)

Permissions for a dashboard:

Everyone with Viewer Role Can View
user1 Can Edit
team1 Can Admin

Result: user1 has Admin permission as the highest permission always wins.

Example 3

Permissions for a dashboard:

user1 Can Admin (inherited from parent folder)
user1 Can Edit

Result: You cannot override to a lower permission. user1 has Admin permission as the highest permission always wins.

Summary

View: Can only view existing dashboards/folders.
You cannot override permissions for users with Org Admin Role
A more specific permission with lower permission level will not have any effect if a more general rule exists with higher permission level.

For example if “Everyone with Editor Role Can Edit” exists in the ACL list then John Doe will still have Edit permission even after you have specifically added a permission for this user with the permission set to View. You need to remove or lower the permission level of the more general rule.

You cannot override permissions for users with Org Admin Role
A more specific permission with lower permission level will not have any effect if a more general rule exists with higher permission level. For example if “Everyone with Editor Role Can Edit” exists in the ACL list then John Doe will still have Edit permission even after you have specifically added a permission for this user with the permission set to View. You need to remove or lower the permission level of the more general rule.

Datasource Permissions

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:53:36 -0800

Data Source Permissions

Data source permissions is only available in Grafana Enterprise. Read more about Grafana Enterprise.

Data source permissions allows you to restrict access for users to query a data source. For each data source there is a permission page that makes it possible to enable permissions and restrict query permissions to specific Users and Teams.

Restricting Access - Enable Permissions

By default, permissions are disabled for data sources and a data source in an organization can be queried by any user in that organization. For example a user with Viewer role can still issue any possible query to a data source, not just those queries that exist on dashboards he/she has access to.

When permissions are enabled for a data source in an organization you will restrict admin and query access for that data source to admin users in that organization.

To enable permissions for a data source:

Navigate to Configuration / Data Sources.
Select the data source you want to enable permissions for.
Select the Permissions tab and click on the Enable button.

Allow users and teams to query a data source

After you have enabled permissions for a data source you can assign query permissions to users and teams which will allow access to query the data source.

Assign query permission to users and teams:

Navigate to Configuration / Data Sources.
Select the data source you want to assign query permissions for.
Select the Permissions tab.
click on the Add Permission button.
Select Team/User and find the team/user you want to allow query access and click on the Save button.

Restore Default Access - Disable Permissions

If you have enabled permissions for a data source and want to return data source permissions to the default, i.e. data source can be queried by any user in that organization, you can disable permissions with a click of a button. Note that all existing permissions created for data source will be deleted.

To disable permissions for a data source:

Navigate to Configuration / Data Sources.
Select the data source you want to disable permissions for.
Select the Permissions tab and click on the Disable Permissions button.

Organization Roles

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:53:36 -0800

Organization Roles

Users can be belong to one or more organizations. A user’s organization membership is tied to a role that defines what the user is allowed to do in that organization.

Admin Role

Can do everything scoped to the organization. For example:

Add and Edit data sources.
Add and Edit organization users and teams.
Configure App plugins and set org settings.

Editor Role

Can create and modify dashboards and alert rules. This can be disabled on specific folders and dashboards.
Cannot create or edit data sources nor invite new users.

This role can be tweaked via Grafana server setting editors_can_admin. If you set this to true users with Editor can also administrate dashboards, folders and teams they create. Useful for enabling self organizing teams.

Viewer Role

View any dashboard. This can be disabled on specific folders and dashboards.
Cannot create or edit dashboards nor data sources.

This role can be tweaked via Grafana server setting viewers_can_edit. If you set this to true users with Viewer can also make transient dashboard edits, meaning they can modify panels and queries but not save the changes (nor create new dashboards). Useful for public Grafana installations where you want anonymous users to be able to edit panels and queries but not save or create new dashboards.

Overview

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:53:36 -0800

Permissions Overview

Grafana users have permissions that are determined by their:

Organization Role (Admin, Editor, Viewer)
Via Team memberships where the Team has been assigned specific permissions.
Via permissions assigned directly to user (on folders, dashboards, data sources)
The Grafana Admin (i.e. Super Admin) user flag.

Grafana Admin

This admin flag makes a user a Super Admin. This means they can access the Server Admin views where all users and organizations can be administrated.

Organization Roles

Users can be belong to one or more organizations. A user’s organization membership is tied to a role that defines what the user is allowed to do in that organization. Learn more about Organization Roles.

Dashboard and Folder Permissions

Dashboard and folder permissions allows you to remove the default role based permissions for Editors and Viewers and assign permissions to specific Users and Teams. Learn more about Dashboard and Folder Permissions.

Data source permissions

Per default, a data source in an organization can be queried by any user in that organization. For example a user with Viewer role can still issue any possible query to a data source, not just those queries that exist on dashboards he/she has access to.

Data source permissions allows you to change the default permissions for data sources and restrict query permissions to specific Users and Teams. Read more about data source permissions.

Permissions on Grafana Labs

Dashboard and Folder Permissions

Dashboard and Folder Permissions

Restricting Access

How Grafana Resolves Multiple Permissions - Examples

Example 1 (user1 has the Editor Role)

Example 2 (user1 has the Viewer Role and is a member of team1)

Example 3

Summary

Datasource Permissions

Data Source Permissions

Restricting Access - Enable Permissions

Allow users and teams to query a data source

Restore Default Access - Disable Permissions

Organization Roles

Organization Roles

Admin Role

Editor Role

Viewer Role

Overview

Permissions Overview

Grafana Admin

Organization Roles

Dashboard and Folder Permissions

Data source permissions

Example 1 (`user1` has the Editor Role)

Example 2 (`user1` has the Viewer Role and is a member of `team1`)