Group access tokens

Group access tokens provide authenticated access to a group and its projects. They are similar to personal access tokens and project access tokens, but are attached to a group rather than a user or project. You cannot use group access tokens to create other group, project, or personal access tokens.

You can use a group access token to authenticate:

• With the GitLab API.
• With Git over HTTPS. Use:
  • Any non-blank value as a username.
  • The group access token as the password.

Create a group access token

With the UI

To create a group access token:

1. On the top bar, select Search or go to and find your group.
2. Select Settings > Access tokens.
3. Select Add new token.
4. In Token name, enter a name. The token name is visible to any user with permissions to view the group.
5. Optional. In Token description, enter a description for the token.
6. In Expiration date, enter an expiry date for the token.
   • The token expires at midnight UTC on that date.
   • If you do not enter a date, the expiry date is set to 365 days from today.
   • By default, the expiry date cannot be more than 365 days from today. On GitLab 17.6 and later, administrators can modify the maximum lifetime of access tokens.
7. Select a role for the token.
8. Select one or more scopes for the token.
9. Select Create group access token.

A group access token is displayed. Save the group access token somewhere safe. After you leave or refresh the page, you cannot view it again.

All group access tokens inherit the default prefix setting configured for personal access tokens.

With the Rails console

If you are an administrator, you can create group access tokens in the Rails console:

1. Run the following commands in a Rails console:

   # Set the GitLab administration user to use. If user ID 1 is not available or is not an administrator, use 'admin = User.admins.first' instead to select an administrator.
   admin = User.find(1)
   
   # Set the group you want to create a token for. For example, group with ID 109.
   group = Group.find(109)
   
   # Create the group bot user. For further group access tokens, the username should be `group_{group_id}_bot_{random_string}` and email address `group_{group_id}_bot_{random_string}@noreply.{Gitlab.config.gitlab.host}`.
   random_string = SecureRandom.hex(16)
   service_response = Users::CreateService.new(admin, { name: 'group_token', username: "group_#{group.id}_bot_#{random_string}", email: "group_#{group.id}_bot_#{random_string}@noreply.#{Gitlab.config.gitlab.host}", user_type: :project_bot }).execute
   bot = service_response.payload[:user] if service_response.success?
   
   # Confirm the group bot.
   bot.confirm
   
   # Add the bot to the group with the required role.
   group.add_member(bot, :maintainer)
   
   # Give the bot a personal access token.
   token = bot.personal_access_tokens.create(scopes:[:api, :write_repository], name: 'group_token')
   
   # Get the token value.
   gtoken = token.token

2. Test if the generated group access token works:

   1. Use the group access token in the PRIVATE-TOKEN header with GitLab REST APIs. For example:

      • Create an epic in the group.
      • Create a project pipeline in one of the group’s projects.
      • Create an issue in one of the group’s projects.

   2. Use the group token to clone a group’s project using HTTPS.

Rotate a group access token

Rotate a token to create a new token with the same permissions and scope as the original. The original token becomes inactive immediately, and GitLab retains both versions for audit purposes. You can view both active and inactive tokens on the access tokens page.

On GitLab Self-Managed and GitLab Dedicated, you can modify the retention period for inactive tokens.

To rotate a group access token:

1. On the top bar, select Search or go to and find your group.
2. Select Settings > Access tokens.
3. For the relevant token, select Rotate ( ).
4. In the confirmation dialog, select Rotate.

Revoke a group access token

Revoke a token to immediately invalidate it and prevent further use. Revoked tokens are not deleted immediately, but you can filter token lists to show only active tokens. By default, GitLab deletes revoked group and project access tokens after 30 days. For more information, see inactive token retention.

To revoke a group access token:

1. On the top bar, select Search or go to and find your group.
2. Select Settings > Access tokens.
3. For the relevant token, select Revoke ( ).
4. In the confirmation dialog, select Revoke.

Group access token scopes

Scopes define the actions available when you authenticate with a group access token.

Restrict the creation of group access tokens

To limit potential abuse, you can restrict users from creating tokens for a group hierarchy. This setting is only configurable for a top-level group and applies to every downstream subgroup and project. Any existing group access tokens remain valid until their expiration date or until manually revoked.

To restrict the creation of group access tokens:

1. On the top bar, select Search or go to and find your group. This group must be at the top level.
2. Select Settings > General.
3. Expand Permissions and group features.
4. Under Permissions, clear the Users can create project access tokens and group access tokens in this group checkbox.
5. Select Save changes.

Access token expiration

Whether your existing group access tokens have expiry dates automatically applied depends on what GitLab offering you have, and when you upgraded to GitLab 16.0 or later:

• On GitLab.com, during the 16.0 milestone, existing group access tokens without an expiry date were automatically given an expiry date of 365 days later than the current date.
• On GitLab Self-Managed, if you upgraded from GitLab 15.11 or earlier to GitLab 16.0 or later:
  • On or before July 23, 2024, existing group access tokens without an expiry date were automatically given an expiry date of 365 days later than the current date. This change is a breaking change.
  • On or after July 24, 2024, existing group access tokens without an expiry date did not have an expiry date set.

On GitLab Self-Managed, if you do a new install of one of the following GitLab versions, your existing group access tokens do not have expiry dates automatically applied:

• 16.0.9
• 16.1.7
• 16.2.10
• 16.3.8
• 16.4.6
• 16.5.9
• 16.6.9
• 16.7.9
• 16.8.9
• 16.9.10
• 16.10.9
• 16.11.7
• 17.0.5
• 17.1.3
• 17.2.1

Group access token expiry emails

GitLab runs a check every day at 1:00 AM UTC to identify group access tokens that are expiring in the near future. Members of the group with the Owner role are notified by email when these tokens expire in a certain number of days. The number of days differs depending on the version of GitLab:

• In GitLab 17.6 and later, group Owners are notified by email when the check identifies their group access tokens as expiring in the next 60 days. An additional email is sent when the check identifies their group access tokens as expiring in the next 30 days.
• Group Owners are notified by email when the check identifies their group access tokens as expiring in the next seven days.
• In GitLab 17.7 and later, members with the inherited role of Owner in the group can also receive notification emails. You can configure this by changing:
  • The group setting for the group or any parent group.
  • On GitLab Self-Managed, the instance setting.

Your expired access tokens are listed in the inactive group access tokens section until they are automatically deleted.

Bot users for groups

When you create a group access token, GitLab creates a bot user and associates it with the token.

Bot users have the following properties:

• They are granted permissions that correspond with the role and scope of the associated access token.
• They are members of the group and inherit membership in subgroups and projects, but cannot be added directly to any other groups or projects.
• They are non-billable users and do not count towards your license limit.
• Their contributions are associated with the bot user account.
• When removed, their contributions are moved to a ghost user.

When the bot user is created, the following attributes are defined:

Related topics

• Personal access tokens
• Project access tokens
• Group access tokens API