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Bulk add users to a group

6 steps 3 min Updated 4 November 2026

Add many users to a group at once using the Add to group bulk action on the Users page.

This is one of two places you can bulk-add group memberships. This page covers starting from Users — filter down to a set of people, then add them all to one group. If you'd rather start from Groups — e.g. merging the members of several groups into one, adding a named handful of people to many groups, or applying other bulk actions like status, Google group settings, or Classroom state — see Bulk actions on groups, which covers the Groups page's own action bar. To add existing users to existing groups from a spreadsheet, use Cohort import.

Before you start

  • You must be an admin with the Manage users & groups permission for the current school.
  • The group must already exist. See Create a group if needed.

Steps

Step 1: Open the Users page

Open Users in the left sidebar (under Users & Groups) and choose Users.

Step 2: Filter to the users you want to add

Use filters or search to narrow the list to the right people. For example:

  • Filter by Role: Learner + In group: Year 7 to get all Year 7 pupils
  • Search by name to find a specific group of people

Step 3: Select the users

Tick the checkbox on each user's row, or tick the checkbox in the table header to select everyone on the page.

If you tick the header checkbox, a banner says All N on this page selected and offers Select all N matching — choose that if you want everyone the filters match, across all pages.

Step 4: Open the Add to group action

In the action bar above the list (it appears once you've ticked someone), select Add to group.

A small panel opens below the button.

Step 5: Search for the group

Start typing the group name in the Type a group name… box. The list is searched as you type and shows the closest 50 matches, so you never have to scroll through every group in the school. Only Active and Protected groups are offered. Choose the correct group from the results.

Step 6: Add the users

Select Add to selected user(s). There is no separate confirmation dialog — the users are added straight away and you see a message such as 12 user(s) added to Year-7. People who were already in the group are skipped, not duplicated.

If you select Add to selected user(s) without choosing a group first, you see Nothing was changed — pick a group to add the users to.

Result

All selected users become members of the chosen group, and each membership is locked (the MIS won't remove it). The selected people are queued for sync as soon as you add them, so the change usually reaches Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra within a few minutes. While cloud sync is paused for the school, the change is saved in Realsmart now and sent when sync resumes.

If the group has a Google Classroom, pupils you add join it as students (if their status is Active) and staff as teachers — see Add a user to a group.

Tips

  • Use this method to populate a new group quickly. Create the group first, then bulk-add the members.
  • Combine filters (e.g. year group + role) to get a precise selection before adding.
  • This copies the people you selected as they are today. If the group should follow another group as people join and leave it, put that group inside it instead — see Put a group inside another group.
Groups Add a user to a group Groups Bulk actions on groups Groups Create a group Groups Group membership options — lock, Classroom, Google role