Tableau Cloud Help

This topic covers the details of the CSV file itself. To import users using the CSV, you can:

• Use the site administration page. For information, see Import Users
• Use the tabcmd utility. For information, see createsiteusers filename.csv.
• Use Tableau Cloud Manager. For more information, see Manage Users With Tableau Cloud Manager.

CSV file format requirements

The CSV file for importing users has the following formatting requirements:

• No column headings. Tableau Cloud assumes that every line in the file represents a user.
• UTF-8 format with the byte-order mark (BOM).
  • Character encodings such as BIG-5 must be converted to UTF-8. You can do this by opening the file in a text editor and using the Save As command.
  • If the @ character is present in the username field for anything other than a domain separator, it must be in hexadecimal format: \0x40. For example, user@fremont@mycompany.com should be user\0x40fremont@mycompany.com.

Required column structure in the CSV file

The file shouldn't contain a header row. Not all columns need to be filled in, but the required column structure must be preserved by including all the expected comma delimiters.

The column structure varies by product and by import tool. Make sure you're using the appropriate structure for your environment:

• Tableau Cloud: username, password, display name, licence level, administrator level, publishing capability, email address
• Tableau Cloud with Tableau Cloud Manager (TCM): tenant or site URI, username, password, display name, licence level, administrator level, publishing capability, email address, authentication type
• Tableau Server: username, password, display name, licence level, admin level, publishing capability, email address
• Tableau Server using identity pools: username, password, display name, licence level, admin level, publishing capability, email address, identity pool name, identifier

See the column details section below for more information on the possible values for each column.

Important: The order of the columns is significant. The first column is treated as the username, the second as the password, the third as display name, and so on, regardless of the content in the columns. If you omit values for a field, you must still include the field’s comma delimiter.

Column details for Tableau Cloud CSV

If the CSV file contains only username values (email addresses), the users will receive an email invitation to the site. Users can join the site to create their accounts, but the accounts remain unlicensed until an administrator configures the accounts (display name, licence level, and so on). A user's email address on the site may be displayed on the site with a leading full stop (such as .user@domain.com) until they log in for the first time.

Column structure for the CSV file: username, password, display name, licence level, administrator level, publishing capability, email address

Column details:

Username: Required. The user's email address.

Password: Ignored. As a best practice, leave this column blank.

• New users must select a password and a display name when they first sign in to Tableau Cloud. If a user already has a Tableau account they may already have a password.

Display name: Ignored. As a best practice, leave this column blank.

Licence level: This can be Creator, Explorer, Viewer or Unlicensed. If left blank, the licence level will be Unlicensed.

Administrator level: This can be Site or None. If left blank, the administrator level will be None.

• Site = Site administrator, None = Not an administrator.
• Note: Cloud is only a relevant value when using Tableau Cloud Manager. For more information, see Manage Users With Tableau Cloud Manager.

Publishing capability: This can be Yes/True/1 or No/False/0. If left blank, the publishing capability will be false.

• If the licence level is Creator, the publishing capability must be Yes/True/1
• If the licence level is Explorer, the publishing capability value is what distinguishes the site role between Explorer (can publish) and Explorer
• If the licence level is Viewer or Unlicensed, the user will not be able to publish regardless of the value of this column

Email address: Starting in July 2025 (Tableau 2025.2), specify an email address if different from username. Email addresses are used for notification purposes only. If no email address value is provided, Tableau Cloud uses the value in the required username field to send notifications to

Any columns left blank must still be delimited with commas to preserve the column structure.

Authentication type without TCM

If you aren't using Tableau Cloud manager, you can only set a single default authentication type during the upload. You can change the authentication type for individual users afterwards.

• When uploading a CSV file directly in Tableau Cloud, specify the authentication type when you import the file, and that type applies to all imported users.
• When using tabcmd to import users, set the authentication type and site role that applies to all users in the CSV file during upload. For information, see createsiteusers filename.csv.

To set a specific authentication type per user at the time of upload, you must use Tableau Cloud Manager. For more information, see Manage Users With Tableau Cloud Manager.

Tableau Cloud CSV example structure

Tip: Remember, the structure is: username, password, display name, license level, administrator level, publishing capability, email address with nothing between the commas when a column is left blank.

The following example shows a user who is granted the Explorer (can publish) site role, won't be a site administrator and will be able to publish to projects for which they have the appropriate content permissions.

user1@domain.com,,,Explorer,None,true,user1@domain2.com

By changing the administrator-level column, you can import the following user as a site administrator with the Site Administrator Explorer site role.

adminuser@domain.com,,,Explorer,Site,true,adminuser@domain2.com

Column details for TCM CSV

If the CSV file contains only username (email address) values, the users will receive an email invitation to the site. Users can join the site to create their accounts, but the accounts remain unlicensed until an administrator configures the accounts (display name, licence level, and so on).

Remember that columns left blank must still be delimited with commas to preserve the column structure.

Column structure for the CSV file: tenant or site URI, username, password, display name, license level, administrator level, publishing capability, authentication type

Column details: 

Tenant or site URI: The uniform resource identifier for the tenant or site.

Username: Required. The user's email address.

Password: Ignored. As a best practice, leave this column blank.

• New users must select a password and a display name when they first sign in to Tableau Cloud. If a user already has a Tableau account they may already have a password.

Display name: Ignored. As a best practice, leave this column blank.

Licence level: This can be Creator, Explorer, Viewer or Unlicensed for the site. If left blank, the licence level will be Unlicensed.

Administrator level: This can be Site, Cloud or None. If left blank, the administrator level will be None.

• Site = Site administrator, None = Not an administrator, Cloud = Cloud administrator.

Publishing capability: This can be True or False for the site. If left blank, the publishing capability will be false.

• If the licence level is Creator, the publishing capability must be True
• If the licence level is Explorer, the publishing capability value is what distinguishes the site role between Explorer (can publish) and Explorer
• If the licence level is Viewer or Unlicensed, the user will not be able to publish regardless of the value of this column

Authentication type: The user authentication type for accessing the tenant or site. This can be Google, OpenID, Salesforce, SAML, TableauIDWithMFA or DEFAULT.

TCM CSV example structure

Tip: Remember, the structure is: tenant or site URI, username, password, display name, license level, administrator level, publishing capability, email address, authentication type with nothing between the commas when a column is left blank.

The following example shows a user who is granted the cloud administrator role in Tableau Cloud Manager, and authenticates using Tableau with MFA.

MyTCM,cloudadminuser@domain.com,,,,Cloud,,,TableauIDWithMFA

By changing the authentication column, you can import the following user with an alternative authentication type if configured in the Tableau Cloud Manager settings.

MyTCM,cloudadminuser@domain.com,,,,Cloud,,,Salesforce

In the following example, you can import the user with the ‘Explorer - can publish’ site role with Tableau with MFA authentication.

MySite,user1@domain.com,,,Explorer,None,True,,TableauIDWithMFA