Project access and collaborator roles in Descript

Drive Owners, Admins, and Editors can invite collaborators to a specific project without adding them to the full Drive. This is ideal for one-off collaborations, collecting feedback, or giving someone limited editing access without granting full Drive access. Learn more about Drive membership roles.

This article covers:

Project collaborator permissions

There are two project-level collaborator types to consider:

  • Project editors have limited editing permissions and can export a shared project in your Drive. Note: project editors cannot initiate transcription or use any AI-based tools (such as AI Tools, Underlord, avatars, or text-to-speech), and they can’t upload certain media formats (like Apple ProRes or QuickTime RLE). Full feature access requires Drive-level membership.
  • Project commenters can view and comment on the project in the editor but cannot make edits.
Feature / Action Project Editor Project Commenter
View and comment ✅ ✅
Make edits ✅ ❌
Export project ✅ ❌
Use AI tools (Underlord, AI Tools, TTS, Avatars) ❌ ❌

If you’re on a Business or Enterprise plan, you can also add Basic members to your Drive. Unlike project editors or commenters, Basic is a Drive-level role.

Basic Drive members are only available on Business and Enterprise subscriptions. Learn more about Basic Drive memberships.

Invite a project collaborator

Invite a project collaborator from the Drive view or the project editor:

  • From the Drive view, click the options icon (three vertical dots) to the right of a project row and select Project access from the list of options.
  • From the editor, click the + Project access icon (a circular button with a plus icon) in the top-right corner.

Steps to open the Project Access modal from the Drive view or the editor interface.

With the project access panel open, enter your collaborator’s email, choose their project permissions (can edit or can comment), then click invite to project.

Project collaborators are unpaid — Drive members need a paid seat

Adding collaborators to a specific project is different from adding members to your Drive. If you check the box for “Also invite to Drive”, you’re adding that person to your Drive — not just the project. This will trigger a charge for an additional Editor seat and count toward your plan’s seat limits.

To avoid charges, leave the box unchecked to share access only to the project. Learn more about how billing works in Descript.

Project access modal with fields to invite collaborators and assign permissions. Press Esc to close.
Project access modal with options to invite collaborators and set permissions. Click the image to view at full size.

Change or remove a collaborator's access

To change the access level for a collaborator:

  1. Open the project access panel.
  2. Select the permissions dropdown next to the person’s name.
  3. Choose Can edit, Can comment, Make owner (learn how to transfer project ownership), or Remove member.
Double-check your link settings

Even if you’ve removed a collaborator, they may still have access to your project if the link is set to Can view or Can comment. Be sure to update the link sharing settings if you want to fully restrict access.

Adjust project permissions for Drive members

You can set the level of project access you want all Drive members to have for individual projects. From the project access panel, set the project-wide access level at the bottom of the panel.

Project access panel with dropdown for Drive member permissions. Press Esc to close.
Set default project access for all Drive members from the project access panel. Click the image to view at full size.