Invite others to your Drive to collaborate with your team in one shared workspace.
This guide walks through:
- The different types of Drive membership roles (Editor, Viewer, and Basic); what each role can and can’t do
- How billing and seat assignments work for Editors
- Inviting new members
- Managing and changing Drive member roles
- Enable editors to invite editors setting (Enterprise Admins only)
Drive membership roles and permissions
There are three types of Drive members in Descript:
-
Editor (paid seat) – Editors have full access to the Drive workspace. They can create, edit, delete, and move projects and folders. Editors can also use AI features, initiate transcription, and invite other Drive members.
-
Viewer (free seat on Free, Hobbyist, or Creator plans) – View-only access to projects in the Drive workspace. Viewers can leave comments but cannot create, edit, or move any content.
- Basic (free seat on Legacy, Business, or Enterprise plans only) – Basic members can view and comment on Drive projects shared with them and use the screen recorder in the desktop app. They can create and edit projects in their Private workspace, but those projects are private to them only — even Drive Editors can’t access them. Basic members cannot move content into the Drive workspace, and they cannot use AI tools.
| Feature / Action | Editor | Viewer | Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Availability | All plans. See seat limits on the pricing page. | Free, Hobbyist, and Creator plans | Business, Enterprise, or Legacy plans |
| Cost to add to Drive | Paid seat | Free | Free |
| View and comment in projects | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Invite other Drive members | ✅ | only other Viewer members | only other Basic members |
| Create projects and compositions | ✅ | ❌ | Only in private workspace |
| Edit projects and compositions | ✅ | ❌ | Only their own projects in private workspace |
| Move projects | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Duplicate projects | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ Project is duplicated to private workspace |
| Delete projects | ✅ | ❌ | Only their own projects in private workspace |
| Export compositions | ✅ | ❌ | Compositions under 5 minutes with one visual layer or less |
| Add collaborators to a project | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Transfer ownership of a project | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Use AI tools (Underlord, text-to-speech, Avatars) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Initiate transcription | ✅ | ❌ | Only within projects in private workspace |
| Create quick recordings via the Screen Recorder | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Contribute to Drive's transcription limit | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
If you move from a legacy plan to a current subscription plan:
- Switching to the Business plan — your existing Basic seats will carry over.
- Switching to Free, Hobbyist, or Creator — your Basic Drive members will be converted to Viewers.
Drive owner permissions
The Drive owner is the person who created the Drive. They automatically have full Editor permissions and additional administrative privileges.
Drive owners can:
- Change a Drive member's role
- Manage the Drive's subscription and billing.
- Change the default export privacy settings.
- There can only be one drive owner per Drive.
While ownership can’t be changed directly in the app, it’s possible to transfer a Drive to another user with help from our support team. Learn more about Preparing for Drive Ownership Transfer.
Billing considerations
When you add an Editor to your subscription mid-cycle, the cost is prorated and co-termed with your existing subscription term. Descript will charge for the additional Editor based on the time remaining in your current annual or monthly billing cycle. On your next invoice, you’ll be charged for the full cost of that Editor seat for the upcoming term.
Example: Monthly vs. Annual seat charges
On a monthly subscription
If you add an Editor halfway through your billing cycle, you’ll be charged about 50% of the seat cost immediately. On your next invoice, you’ll be charged 100% for that seat going forward.
On an annual subscription
If you add an Editor three months into your term, you’ll be charged about 75% of the seat cost right away (to cover the remaining 9 months). On your renewal date, you’ll be charged for the full annual seat.
You can compare plans and seat pricing on our pricing page.
Invite others to your Drive
Before inviting someone to your Drive, make sure you’re signed in and working from the correct Drive (if you’re part of more than one).
- From the Drive View, click
Invite in the top-left corner.
- Enter your collaborator’s email in the Invite by email field.
- Select their role: Basic or Editor.
- Click Send invite. The invitee will receive an email and will need to accept the invitation before accessing your Drive.
Manually approve editor invitations
By default, any Editor member can invite others to join the Drive. If you’re a Drive owner or admin, you can require manual approval for new Editor invitations.
To enable this setting:
- Go to Settings > Members.
- Toggle on Manually approve new editor invites.
Once enabled, Drive owners or admins will receive an email and see pending invitations in the Members tab. They can choose to approve or deny the request.
When manual approval is turned on, editor invites are not sent immediately. They will appear with a pending status in the Members tab until a Drive owner or admin approves them.
View your team members
You can view your current team members at web.descript.com/members, or in the app under the Members tab in your settings.
Change a team member’s role
You can change a Drive member’s role from the Members tab of your Drive settings.
- Open the Members tab from your Drive selector in the top-left corner.
- Click the … button next to the person’s name.
- Select Change membership type.
- Choose Basic or Editor and click Change to confirm.
- Upgrading a Basic member to Editor adds a paid seat unless one is already available.
- Downgrading an Editor to Basic releases that seat for reassignment.
If you no longer want someone to be part of your Drive, you can remove them entirely. Learn more about removing a team member from your Drive.
Restrict Editor invitations (Enterprise only)
Drive owners and admins can control whether Editor members are allowed to invite new Editors. This toggle is available under Settings > Preferences.