This guide explains how to invite multiple users to your Discourse instance using a bulk invite feature.
Required user level: Administrator
Inviting a large number of users to your Discourse instance can be time-consuming if done individually. Fortunately, Discourse offers a bulk invite feature that allows you to invite multiple users at once. This guide will walk you through the process of sending bulk invites.
It is not possible to invite users to predefined groups such as, trust level groups, admin, mod or staff groups. As a work around, you can configure a custom group to automatically set a users trust level in the Effects section of the group’s configuration page. Doing this will allow you to set the trust level of invited users to a trust level other than what is set by your site’s
default invitee trust levelsetting
Overview
- Enable the
Allow bulk invitesite setting - Prepare a CSV file with user information
- Upload the CSV file to your Discourse instance
- Monitor the bulk invite progress
Enable the Allow bulk invite site setting
- Navigate to your site settings at Admin >
All site settings, and search for bulk invite. Or go to{your.domain.com}/admin/site_settings/category/all_results?filter=bulk%20invite - If not already enabled, tick the box beside
Allow bulk inviteand click the check mark to save the site setting.
Preparing the CSV file
The first step is to create a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file containing the information of the users you want to invite. Here’s what you need to know:
- Each line represents one user
- The email address is required and must be in the first column
- Group assignments (optional) go in the second column
- A specific topic ID (optional) goes in the third column
Here’s the structure of the CSV file:
email,groups,topic_id
CSV file guidelines
- Email addresses must be valid
- Separate multiple groups with semicolons (e.g.,
group_1;group_2;group_3) - You can include existing users if you want to add them to groups
- Only the email is mandatory; groups and topic ID are optional
max_bulk_inviteswhich allows 50k rows in a CSV by default
CSV file examples
user1@example.com,group_1;group_2,topic_id
user2@example.com,group_3,
user3@example.com,,
Just be sure to save the file as CSV when you’re done.
Uploading the CSV file
Once you’ve prepared your CSV file, follow these steps to upload it:
-
Navigate to the Invites tab on your Admin user’s profile.
{your.domain.com}/my/invited/pending -
Click the “Bulk Invite from File” button
-
In the modal that appears, upload your CSV file
-
Confirm the upload
After uploading, you’ll receive a confirmation message stating that you’ll be notified when the process is complete.
Monitoring bulk invite progress
Once the CSV file is processed, you’ll receive a personal message notification with a progress report. This report will include:
- Total number of invites sent
- Number of invites not sent (if any)
- Any errors that occurred during the process
You can check your invites page on your user profile to see a list of successfully sent invites.
What happens next
Each email address in your CSV file will receive an invite email. The email will include:
- The name of the person who sent the invite
- Your community’s title
- A brief description of your community (from the
site descriptionsetting) - An invitation link
When an invited user clicks the confirmation link:
- Their account will be immediately activated and associated with their email address
- They will be added to the specified groups (if any were included in the CSV)
- They will be directed to the target topic (if a topic ID was specified)
Customizing invite emails
If you wish to customize the text of the invite emails:
- For general invites, edit the “Invite Forum Mailer” email template
- For invites that include a specific topic ID, edit the “Invite Mailer” email template
Additional resources
Last edited by @MarkDoerr 2025-09-23T02:11:51Z
Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-11T04:21:44Z
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