> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.surnex.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Roles and permissions

> What owners, admins, and members can each do in an organization.

Every member of an organization holds exactly one of three roles. Roles are per organization — you can be an owner in your own and a member in a client's.

## The three roles

**Owner** — assigned to whoever creates the organization. Only an owner can change the plan or delete the organization. Owner *can* be granted to someone else through the role dropdown; what can't happen is the organization ending up with none, so the **last owner can't be demoted or removed**.

**Admin** — full operational control. Manages projects and members, but can't change billing or delete the organization.

**Member** — the default. Full access to the work itself: view and edit every project, add keywords, run audits, build reports. Can't manage other members or delete projects.

<Note>
  There is no read-only or per-project role. Every member can edit every project in the organization. If someone needs access to one project but not another, put those projects in separate [organizations](/organizations/overview).
</Note>

## Permissions in full

### Projects and data

| Action                                     | Owner | Admin | Member                  |
| ------------------------------------------ | ----- | ----- | ----------------------- |
| View projects and all collected data       | Yes   | Yes   | Yes                     |
| **Create a project**                       | Yes   | Yes   | **No** — requires admin |
| Edit project name and search locale        | Yes   | Yes   | Yes                     |
| Add and remove tracked keywords            | Yes   | Yes   | Yes                     |
| Add competitors                            | Yes   | Yes   | Yes                     |
| Run audits, research keywords, run lookups | Yes   | Yes   | Yes                     |
| Create, edit, and share reports            | Yes   | Yes   | Yes                     |
| **Delete a project**                       | Yes   | Yes   | **No**                  |

### Organization and members

| Action                         | Owner | Admin  | Member |
| ------------------------------ | ----- | ------ | ------ |
| View the members list          | Yes   | Yes    | Yes    |
| Add a member                   | Yes   | Yes    | No     |
| Change a member's role         | Yes   | Yes    | No     |
| Remove a member                | Yes   | Yes    | No     |
| Rename the organization        | Yes   | Yes    | No     |
| **Delete the organization**    | Yes   | **No** | **No** |
| Transfer owner to someone else | Yes   | No     | No     |

### Billing

| Action                                             | Owner | Admin  | Member |
| -------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ------ | ------ |
| View the current plan and usage                    | Yes   | Yes    | Yes    |
| Start a checkout / change plan                     | Yes   | **No** | **No** |
| Open the billing portal and update payment details | Yes   | **No** | **No** |

Everyone can see how much of the plan's quota is used — that's operational information a member needs before starting a big audit. Only the owner can spend money.

### Notifications and API keys

| Action                                      | Owner | Admin | Member |
| ------------------------------------------- | ----- | ----- | ------ |
| View your own notifications                 | Yes   | Yes   | Yes    |
| Mark read, clear, delete your notifications | Yes   | Yes   | Yes    |
| Change organization notification rules      | Yes   | Yes   | No     |
| Create and revoke API keys                  | Yes   | Yes   | Yes    |

<Warning>
  Any member can create an API key, and **a key acts as an owner** — it can delete projects and open the billing portal, neither of which a member can do in the dashboard. Treat key creation as a shared responsibility and review [your key list](/api-keys/list) periodically.
</Warning>

## Rules that apply to everyone

* **You can't change your own role** from the Team page. Your row shows a static badge rather than a dropdown.
* **You can't remove yourself** there either; another admin has to.
* **The last owner is protected.** Demoting or removing them fails, because an organization with no owner can't be administered at all — not recoverable through the product.

Note the last point is about the *last* owner, not the owner. With two owners, either can be demoted.

## Choosing a role

| Give them  | When                                                                           |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Member** | They do SEO work: keywords, audits, reports. This covers most people.          |
| **Admin**  | They manage the account: creating projects, onboarding teammates, cleaning up. |

Default to Member — but note that members **can't create projects**, which is the one restriction likely to surprise someone. If a person needs to add sites, they need admin. Everything else a member can't do is destructive or administrative, and easy to escalate later from the role dropdown on the [Team](/organizations/team) page.