# Difference between active and approved
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-active-and-approved/132558
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 4, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-active-and-approved/132558 "2019-11-04T17:59:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hosna](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hosna)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-active-and-approved/132558/1 "2019-11-04T17:59:05Z")
what is the difference between `active` and `approved` parameters in the following api call? what do they do?
> **[Discourse API Docs](https://docs.discourse.org/#tag/Users/paths/~1users/post)**
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-active-and-approved/132558/2 "2019-11-04T18:19:51Z")
Active is whether the user has activated their email. You should only set active to true if you’ve already validated the email previously.
Approved only applies on sites where the `must approve users` site setting is enabled. If `must approve users` is enabled, setting this to true will be as if site staff approved the user in the review queue. If set to false, the user will be placed into the review queue for staff approval.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2023, 7:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-active-and-approved/132558/4 "2023-07-24T07:50:06Z")