---
path: docs/sharing-and-collaboration/sharing-a-map
title: "Sharing a Map"
desc: "Who can open and edit a map, and how to publish a public link."
date: "Oct 19, 2026"
---

# Sharing a Map

There are two ways to share a map: give people access inside your workspace, or publish a public link that anyone can open.

## Access inside your workspace

Access to a map comes from two places:

- **Workspace membership.** Every member of the workspace has a baseline role.
- **Project grants.** A map can grant a role to one person, or to the whole workspace.

## Roles

- **Viewer** can open the map, pan and zoom, query features, and read the data table.
- **Editor** can do everything a viewer can, and edit layers, styles and annotations, add datasets, and invite people.
- **Owner** can do everything an editor can, and publish, unpublish and delete the map.

## Inviting people

Invite someone by email. The invitation creates a pending grant, and their role takes effect once they accept it.

## Publishing a public link

An owner presses **Publish** to get a public link:

```
https://app.gisowl.com/map/{slug}
```

- Anyone with the link can open the map without signing in.
- The link is not listed anywhere.
- The link has no password and no expiry date.
- A published map is a snapshot. Edits you make afterwards appear on the public link only after you publish again.
- Unpublishing removes the public copy immediately.

## Next Steps

- [Embedding](/docs/sharing-and-collaboration/embedding) — Share a map outside your workspace.
- [Workspaces & Projects](/docs/administration/workspaces-and-projects) — How workspaces hold maps, data and members.