Share SharePoint Site With External Users and Anonymous Users

Many organizations use SharePoint for collaboration, document management, and team productivity. One of its key features is the ability to share content not just within your organization, but also with people outside it—commonly referred to as “external sharing.” In this tutorial, I will explain how to share a SharePoint site with external users.

You will learn here:

• Anonymous access means in SharePoint Online
• SharePoint guest access
• How does external sharing work in SharePoint Online?
• Enable anonymous access to SharePoint files or folders
• Share a SharePoint site with external users
• How to add users to a SharePoint Online site

What is SharePoint Guest Access?

Guest access in SharePoint allows you to invite people outside your organization—such as clients, vendors, or partners—to collaborate on documents, lists, or even entire sites. These guests can view, edit, or contribute content, depending on the permissions you grant.

Guest access is a secure way to extend your organization’s collaboration capabilities beyond internal users, without giving external people full access to your company’s resources.

Anonymous Access in SharePoint

In SharePoint Online, anonymous access refers to allowing individuals outside your organization to view specific content without requiring them to sign in. This is helpful when you need to make documents or folders available to anyone without requiring a Microsoft 365 account or guest access.

SharePoint doesn’t support full anonymous access to entire sites, but you can share individual files or folders with “Anyone with the link” permissions. This method lets users access shared content directly, without authentication.

External Sharing in SharePoint Online

External sharing in SharePoint Online allows you to share content, including documents, folders, or entire sites, with individuals outside your organization. This includes partners, vendors, clients, or anyone who isn’t part of your Microsoft 365 tenant. They are known as the SharePoint external users.

It provides flexibility to collaborate securely while maintaining control over what is shared and how.

SharePoint Online supports three main types of external sharing:

1. Anyone with the link: No sign-in required. Anyone who has the link can view or edit the file, depending on the permissions you choose.
2. People in your organization: Only users within your Microsoft 365 tenant can access the link.
3. People with existing access: No new access is granted; instead, a link is sent to someone who already has access.
4. Specific people: Only the people you specify (by email) can access the file. They must verify their identity via sign-in or a one-time code.

Check Out: Send an Approval to a Microsoft 365 Group in Power Automate

How to Enable External Sharing in SharePoint?

To allow content sharing with users outside your organization, you must configure external sharing at three levels:

1. Microsoft 365 Admin Center (organization-wide setting)
2. SharePoint Admin Center (global SharePoint settings)
3. Individual SharePoint site (site-level setting)

Let’s go through each step in detail.

Enable External Sharing at the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
2. In the left navigation, expand Settings, and click Org settings.
3. Select Security & privacy, then click Sharing.

3. Make sure Let users add new guests to the organization is enabled.
4. Click Save.

This setting allows users to invite and share content with guests. If this option is disabled, no external sharing will be possible; only admins will be able to add guests.

Enable External Sharing in the SharePoint Admin Center

1. In the SharePoint Admin Center, click Policies > Sharing.
2. Under SharePoint and OneDrive, adjust the sharing slider to one of the following:
   • Anyone (most open – allows anonymous sharing links)
   • New and existing guests (requires users to authenticate)
3. Click Save.

If you want to allow anonymous access (Anyone links), ensure that you select ‘Anyone’.

Learn: Connect to SharePoint Online Using PowerShell

Enable External Sharing at the SharePoint Site Level

Even if external sharing is enabled globally, it must also be allowed at the site level.

1. In the SharePoint Admin Center, click Sites > Active sites.
2. Select the site you want to allow external sharing on.
3. Click the Sharing button in the toolbar.

4. Choose the appropriate sharing option:
   • Anyone (for anonymous links)
   • New and existing guests (for authenticated users only)

5. Click Save.

Note:

If the site’s sharing setting is more restrictive than the global policy, it will override it. For example, if the site allows “Only people in your organization,” external users won’t be able to access it.

Once these steps are complete, you can share individual files or folders from that SharePoint site with external users or anonymous users, depending on your configuration.

Check Out: Save A SharePoint Site As A Template

Share SharePoint Site with External Users

While SharePoint Online doesn’t allow anonymous access to an entire site, you can invite specific external users (such as partners, clients, or vendors) to access your site by adding them as guests. These users will be required to authenticate using a Microsoft account or a one-time passcode.

Before sharing a site, confirm that external sharing is turned on.

Here’s how to share your SharePoint Online site with external users:

1. Go to the SharePoint Online site you want to share. Click the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner.
2. Select Site permissions.

3. Then, click on “Add members” and select “Share site only.”

4. Enter the external user’s email address.
5. Choose the appropriate permission level:
   • Read for view-only access
   • Edit to allow them to update site content
   • Full control admin-level permissions (use with caution)
6. If needed, add Send email.
7. Click Add

The user will receive an email to access the SharePoint Online site.

This way, you can share a SharePoint Online site with external users.

Check out Replace a File in SharePoint using Power Automate

Share SharePoint Files or Folders Anonymously (Anyone with the Link)

Once external sharing is enabled at the organization, SharePoint admin, and site levels, you can share individual files or folders with anyone, without requiring them to sign in.

Follow these steps to create an anonymous link (also known as an “Anyone” link):

1. Open the SharePoint site where your file or folder is stored. Go to the Document Library. Select the file or folder you want to share.
2. Click the Share button (or right-click and select Share).

3. In the sharing pop-up, click the List settings.

7. Choose Anyone with the link.
8. Select permissions:
   • View: for read-only access
   • Edit: to allow editing (be careful with this)
9. If needed, ‘Set expiration date‘ and add the Set password.
10. Click Apply.

11. Click Copy link. Please share the link via email, website, or wherever your audience needs to access it.

Always be careful when sharing sensitive data. Use expiration dates and avoid enabling edit permissions unless necessary.

More: Lock a File in a SharePoint Document Library

Conclusion

SharePoint Online makes it easy to share content with people outside your organization. While you can’t give anonymous access to an entire site, you can still share individual files or folders using “Anyone with the link”. You can also invite specific people as guests to give them access to a SharePoint site.

By enabling external sharing at the appropriate levels, Microsoft 365, SharePoint Admin Center, and the site itself, you maintain control while allowing others to view or work on your content.

Always double-check what you’re sharing and with whom you’re sharing it, especially if the content is private or sensitive.

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• SharePoint List Title Column
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Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.