How to give someone read only access?

[JamieJ1]

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Is it possible to give someone read-only access to a private repo. Under Settings > Collaborators i can add a collaborator but i see no option to give them specific permissions. I'm on a free account currently. If this is a premium feature what would be the cheapest plan i could sign up to to access it? thanks

[AlphaC137]

So collaborators on private repositories are granted write access by default, If you require more granular control over collaborator permissions, such as assigning read-only access to specific users, you would need to upgrade to a GitHub Team or Enterprise Cloud plan. GitHub Team is priced at $4 per user/month,

[AlphaC137]

Or, you could just use deploy keys.

[nataliapaulino]

If you're using GitHub Free, here's what you need to know:

GitHub Free does not support assigning specific permissions to collaborators on private repositories. All collaborators added through
Settings > Manage Access > Invite Collaborator
are given write access by default.

They will be able to:

• Push changes
• Create branches
• Open pull requests

Options for Read-Only Access

1. Upgrade to GitHub Team Plan

To control permissions more precisely, you can upgrade to the GitHub Team plan:

• Price: $4 per user/month
• Allows setting specific roles such as read-only access
• Recommended for team environments

More details at: https://github.com/pricing

2. Use Deploy Keys

If you need to give read-only access to a system or user without adding them as a collaborator, you can use deploy keys.

Steps to set up:

1. Go to your repository
2. Open Settings > Deploy keys
3. Click "Add deploy key"
4. Provide a title and paste the public SSH key
5. Make sure "Allow write access" is unchecked

This method is commonly used for automation tools and CI/CD pipelines.

For more information, visit the GitHub documentation: https://docs.github.com

[JamieJ1]

Thanks Natalia. I signed up to Teams;
When I go to Repo > Settings > Collaborators > Add people ; I dont see an option to set that collaborator to read-only access. Do you know how I can do this?