What's the difference between the "Group Membership" in Sharepoint and the permission groups in "Site Permissions"?

Dan 20 Reputation points
2026-08-27T17:20:26.2566667+00:00

On the homepage of the sharepoint site, I see "14 Members" where I have some members and some owners. Then under settings, I see "Site Permissions" where I also have Owner, Member and now also Visitors.

  1. What's the difference between these two memberships? In other words, what's the difference between an "Owner" in the sharepoint membership list vs an "Owner" in the site permissions
  2. When would I use one or the other? They seem very redundant
  3. How can I sync the "14 Members" with a list or permission group instead of managing membership manually?

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2026-08-27T17:20:49.29+00:00

For a modern SharePoint team site, those two areas are related but not the same:

  1. “14 Members” on the site home page refers to the Microsoft 365 group membership.
    • That group has Owners and Members.
    • When someone is added as a group owner or group member, that access also flows to the connected SharePoint site.
    • Group owners become site owners.
    • Group members become site members.
  2. “Site Permissions” shows the SharePoint site permission groups.
    • Typical default groups are:
      • Owners = Full Control
      • Members = Edit or Contribute, depending on the site/context
      • Visitors = Read
    • These are SharePoint-specific permission groups for the site.

So the difference between an Owner in the membership list and an Owner in Site Permissions is:

  • Group Membership Owner = owner of the Microsoft 365 group and its connected services.
  • Site Permissions Owner = owner of the SharePoint site.

On a group-connected team site, adding someone to the Microsoft 365 group as an owner usually also makes that person a SharePoint site owner. But the reverse is not true: adding someone directly to the SharePoint Owners group does not make that person an owner of the Microsoft 365 group.

When to use each:

  • Use Microsoft 365 group membership for normal management of a team site connected to Microsoft 365 services. This is the simplest model and is the recommended approach.
  • Use Site Permissions when SharePoint access must be managed separately from the Microsoft 365 group, such as:
    • giving someone read-only access through Visitors
    • giving site-only access without access to other group services

This is why they can feel redundant: the Microsoft 365 group drives the main Owners/Members access, while SharePoint permission groups still exist for site-specific access control.

About Visitors:

  • Microsoft 365 groups do not have a view-only role.
  • If someone needs read-only access to the SharePoint site, that person must be added directly to the site’s Visitors group.

About syncing the “14 Members” with a permission group:

  • The built-in sync already works one way from the Microsoft 365 group to SharePoint:
    • Group Owners → SharePoint Owners
    • Group Members → SharePoint Members
  • There is no flow back from SharePoint groups to the Microsoft 365 group.
  • So if the goal is to keep the homepage membership and site access aligned, manage Owners and Members in the Microsoft 365 group rather than manually maintaining the SharePoint Owners/Members groups.
  • For Visitors, that remains a separate SharePoint permission group because the Microsoft 365 group has no visitor/read-only role.

In short:

  • Manage Owners/Members in Group Membership for a connected team site.
  • Use Site Permissions mainly for Visitors or special SharePoint-only access.
  • Do not expect SharePoint permission groups to sync back to the “14 Members” list.
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  1. Ryan-N 15,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-08-27T18:06:18.0266667+00:00

    Hi Dan,

    Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    I would like to provide the following information:

    Group Membership manages permissions through a Microsoft 365 Group and affects all associated services. In contrast, Site Permissions only control access to a SharePoint site and can be used to grant additional permissions or view-only access without adding users to the Microsoft 365 Group.

    Example:

    When a Microsoft 365 Group is created, the system can automatically create and associate resources such as:

    • Shared Outlook Inbox
    • Shared Calendar
    • SharePoint Document Library
    • OneNote Notebook
    • Planner (task management)
    • Microsoft Teams (if created from Teams)

    Example scenario:

    1. You create a group called "Marketing Team".
    2. You add 10 employees to the group.
    3. All 10 members automatically gain access to the group email, group calendar, SharePoint files, Planner plans, and the associated Team.

    You may refer to the following documentation for more information:

    Learn about Groups in Outlook | Microsoft Support

    Microsoft 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

    For Site Permissions, you can directly add users and grant them access to the SharePoint site. However, these users will not become members of Teams or other Microsoft 365 Group services.

    In practice, Owners in both lists have the same level of permission on the SharePoint site itself. The only difference is that a Group Owner can access and manage other Microsoft 365 Group services (such as Teams, Planner, Outlook, etc.), whereas a Site Owner has permissions limited to the SharePoint site.

    You may refer to the following documentation for more details:

    Site permissions after Microsoft 365 group connection | Microsoft Learn

    Sharing & permissions in the SharePoint modern experience - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft…

    I recommend managing membership through the Microsoft 365 Group whenever possible. Site Permissions should only be used for exception scenarios, such as Visitors, users who only need access to SharePoint, or cases that require special permissions.

    In your case, the 14 members have already been synchronized as follows:

    1. Group Owner > Site Owner
    2. Group Member > Site Member

    You can manage Group Owners and Members using the following methods:

    1. Through Outlook

    Step 1: Open Outlook and navigate to Groups.

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    Step 2: Select the Group associated with your SharePoint site.

    Step 3: Click Members.

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    From there, you can assign and manage member roles.

    1. Through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

    Note: The steps below require an account with administrator privileges in the tenant. If you do not have administrator access, please contact your IT department or tenant administrator for assistance.

    Step 1: Go to admin.microsoft.com.

    Step 2: Select Teams & Groups.

    Step 3: Search for the Microsoft 365 Group that you want to manage.

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    Step 4: Select Membership to manage the roles and permissions of Group members.

     I hope this information is helpful.

    If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

    I look forward to continuing the conversation.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes" and kindly upvote it.

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  2. Dan 20 Reputation points
    2026-08-27T17:31:57.76+00:00

    Follow up: how do I manage Owners and Members in the Microsoft 365 group?

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