# Automatically grant free access to spaces when members join your community

https://help.circle.so/p/audience/onboarding/automatically-grant-free-access-to-spaces-when-members-join-your-community

Category: [Audience](https://help.circle.so/p/audience) › [Onboarding](https://help.circle.so/p/audience/onboarding)

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_Last updated: February 05, 2024_

You have the flexibility to effortlessly grant complimentary access to community spaces for new members. In this article, we’ll guide you through the simple steps to set up onboarding access within your community.

## Get familiar with onboarding access

The access option in the onboarding settings allows you to automatically provide free access (via [invite access](/p/audience/onboarding)) to spaces when a new member joins the community, regardless of how they signed up for the community.

- This especially helps ensure that all members have access to basic spaces such as welcome forums, announcement boards, or general discussion areas when they join the community via any of the various entry points you have made available.

- When using **Single sign-on (SSO)**, onboarding access ensures that all users automatically gain entry to designated spaces whenever they join the community via their SSO account.

### Key considerations

- If you have set up paywalls in your community, we strongly recommend excluding spaces from the onboarding access that you have added to your paywall. This will help you avoid providing free access to spaces included in the paywall to someone who is not a subscriber.

- Additionally, whenever you make any changes to your paywall and invitation link setup, we suggest checking out the onboarding access configuration to ensure that unintentional free access isn't granted to spaces where it's not intended.

📚 To learn more about access rules for invite and paywall access methods, see [Understanding invite access and paywall access methods](/p/audience/onboarding/understanding-invite-access-and-paywall-access-methods).

## Set up onboarding access

To access onboarding settings, follow these steps:

1. Click your community name or logo—or the dropdown icon next to it—at the left of the top navigation bar and select **Audience**.

2. Then, in the sidebar menu, select **Onboarding** and then go to the  **Access**  tab. 

On the **Access** tab, you set up onboarding access using one of the following options:

- Access groups

- Space access (available to communities created before January 29, 2025)

### **Access groups**

Access groups help you effectively define which spaces (and space groups) members get access to. This helps you streamline access management and eliminate the need for repetitive manual setups for entry points.

To provide access to spaces using [access groups](https://help.circle.so/p/basics/community-access/access-group-overview), select the **Access groups** option and then choose one from the list. You can add more than one access group here to provide members with access to multiple groups.

> 💡  **Tip:** If you add an access group by mistake, click the **More actions (three dots)** icon next to the group and select **Remove**.  
>   
> To update the settings of a connected access group, click the **More actions** **(three dots)** icon next to the group and select **Edit**. This opens a new browser tab where you can modify the group settings.

 ![](https://assets-v2.circle.so/g7t1d7ldio967c34qf2oaxoep7uo)

### **Space access (legacy space access)**

For communities created before January 29, 2025, you have the option to manually provide access to various spaces and space groups instead of connecting access groups.

To use the legacy space access option, select **Space access**. Then, manually select the spaces and space groups to which you want to grant free access to your members. 

To configure space access, follow these steps:

1. Use the search bar or scroll through the **No**  **access** column to locate the specific space or space group.

2. In the access form, each space is represented with an icon indicating the space access setting: 

3. To provide access: 

4. If you need to remove access:

 ![](https://assets-v2.circle.so/dtxl63ityc3bdexzcaibtc29q7l3)

Once you have reviewed the onboarding access setup, click **Save changes** to apply it to new members going forward.

## Relevant articles

- [Understanding invite access and paywall access](/p/audience/onboarding/understanding-invite-access-and-paywall-access-methods)

- [Configure important settings prior to setting up a paywall](/p/payments/paywall-setup/configure-important-settings-prior-to-setting-up-a-paywall-e2be31)

- [Update a member account](/p/audience/member-management/update-a-member-account)