Please be aware that we're introducing a new permission management system. Learn more about the upcoming changes in the corresponding article.
In this article, you'll learn about project contributors and their permissions.
Contributors and team users
In Lokalise, there are two types of users:
Team users
Teams in Lokalise can include many users, and a single user can belong to multiple teams.
Each team user has one of four roles: owner, admin, biller, or member. You can find more details about these roles in the Teams and roles article.
Important: Being part of a team does not automatically give a user access to all team projects. Only team owners are added to all projects by default; other users must be explicitly invited to specific projects.
To make it easier for company members to join, you can use the team visibility feature.
Project contributors
A contributor is someone who has access to a specific Lokalise project.
When a person becomes a project contributor, they are automatically added to the corresponding team as well.
By default, only people with the "Manage contributors" permission can invite contributors, but if you enable the public signup feature (found under More > Settings in your project), anyone with the signup link can join.
This article focuses on project contributors.
Managing contributors
To manage project contributors, click Contributors in the top menu:
You will be presented with a list of all currently added contributors:
For each contributor, you can see:
Avatar — their profile picture.
Name — the contributor's full name.
E-mail — the email address associated with their account.
Editable languages — a list of languages that the contributor can read and modify. Click on this list to adjust the languages.
Readable languages — a list of project languages that the contributor can read but not modify. Click on this list to adjust the languages.
Role — the current contributor role. Lokalise provides predefined roles with specific permissions, but you can also create custom roles with virtually any combination of permissions.
Actions — options to edit the contributor's permissions or remove them from the project.
Team users quota
Each contributor counts toward your total team users quota, meaning every new user takes up one team seat. The number of available seats depends on your subscription plan.
Quota flexibility:
The quota is not strict. Even if you've reached the limit, you can still invite more users to the team (unless you're paying via invoices, in which case this feature is unavailable).
When a new user is invited, they get a 7-day trial period during which your team won’t be charged for additional seats.
If you remove these users within the 7-day grace period, you won’t be billed for extra seats.
The grace period details are displayed in the Team settings under each user profile.
After the trial ends:
Users will not be automatically removed from your team.
They’ll occupy a seat, which could result in additional charges depending on your plan.
Adding contributors
To add a new or an existing user to the project, click the Add contributor button. You'll see the following dialog:
Invite new user tab allows you to add new contributors to the project. These contributors will also become members of your team and will occupy team seats (remember that different subscription plans provide different numbers of team seats). You'll need to provide an email, a name, choose a role (see below for details), and finally choose the editable and readable languages.
Add existing users tab allows you to add the existing team users to the current project. You'll be able to choose one or more users and adjust their permissions.
Under the user groups tab you'll be able to add one or more existing groups of team users to the current project. Learn more about groups in the User groups article.
If a user is added to a project through multiple groups, they will receive all the permissions from each group.
If a user is added to a project individually, they will only have the permissions assigned to them as an individual contributor. Permissions from user groups won’t apply in this case.
Importing contributors from another project
You can also import contributors from another project. To achieve that, click the Import from project button and choose one of the projects from the dropdown.
Please note that the users who already exist in the current project will be left intact and their permissions won’t be affected. Also, if a user from the chosen source project has permission to access only a specific language, but this language is not present in your current project, that user won’t be added as a contributor.
Contributors and professional translation orders
When you create a professional translation order and choose Lokalise as the provider, a translator and/or editor will be added to your project and your team automatically. However, these new users will not occupy a team seat.
Available roles and permissions
Editing contributor permissions
To edit a contributor's permissions:
Make sure you have "Manage contributors" permission within the project.
Open your project and navigate to the Contributors page.
Click on the Actions icon next to the contributor name.
Select Edit permissions from the dropdown menu.
You'll see a dialog with the following options:
Left side — choose a predefined role to start with, or select Custom to assign specific permissions manually.
Right side — adjust specific permissions as needed.
Built-in roles
We offer five predefined roles, each with its own set of permissions:
Translator — the most restrictive role, providing basic access:
Can see translations for readable languages and edit translations for editable languages.
If they lack the Contribute to master branch permission, changes are restricted to non-master branches.
Can view basic project details (base words, completion percentage, total keys).
Can read, create, and delete their own comments.
Can view glossary entries.
Can create personal API tokens.
Reviewer — Focused on reviewing and approving translations. Permissions include everything a translator can do, plus:
Review — toggle the review status of translations.
Change custom status — modify custom translation statuses.
Content creator — manages keys and languages. Permissions include:
Manage keys — adjust key names, descriptions, tags, and other options.
Manage screenshots — modify and upload screenshots, link keys to screenshots.
Manage languages — work with project languages and adjust settings.
View activity — view project activity and undo bulk actions.
Developer — manages translation keys and handles file uploads/downloads. Permissions include:
Manage keys.
Manage screenshots.
View activity.
Upload files.
Download files.
Manager — the most powerful role. Managers can perform all actions within the project.
Custom roles
You can assign virtually any combination of permissions to a contributor. In this case, their role will be set to Custom.
List of available permissions
Manage keys
Allows the user to create, edit, or delete translation keys. This includes modifying key names, descriptions, tags, and other options that define how keys are used in the project.Manage screenshots
Grants the ability to upload, edit, or delete screenshots, as well as link screenshots to keys.Review
Lets the user toggle the review status.Change custom status
Allows the user to set or modify custom statuses for translations.Manage tasks
Enables the creation, editing, or deletion of tasks within the project.Manage project settings
Gives the user control over project configuration.Manage contributors
Allows the user to invite, remove, or modify permissions for contributors within the project.Manage languages
Lets the user add, edit, or remove languages from the project and configure language-specific settings, such as pluralization rules.Add and edit glossary terms
Allows the user to create or modify glossary entries, which provide consistent terminology across the project.Delete glossary terms
Grants the ability to remove glossary entries from the project.View activity
Provides access to the project’s activity log, where users can track changes, view user actions, and undo bulk edits.View statistics
Enables the user to see detailed project statistics.Upload files
Lets the user upload translation files to the project.Download files
Grants permission to download translation files in various supported formats.Create branches
Allows the user to create branches within the project. Branches are useful for working on separate versions of the project without affecting the master branch. Please note that the branching feature must be enabled in the project settings.Merge branches
Grants the ability to merge changes from one branch into another, often used to integrate completed translations or updates back into the main project.Contribute to master branch
Allows the user to make direct changes to the master branch.