Check if your SharePoint site is Public or Private

What “Public” means in Microsoft 365: Public = anyone in your organization can view the site. It does not mean public on the internet. (External/anonymous access is a separate setting.)

This guide shows you quick ways to confirm a site’s visibility in SharePoint Online and what to do next.

In Microsoft 365, “Public” means visible to everyone in your organization, not the whole internet. Internet-wide access is governed by external sharing (“Anyone with the link”) and is a separate control.

Check if Public or Private SharePoint is set

Open the SharePoint site in your browser and go to the Home page.

Look near the site name (top-left). You may see a label like “Private group” or “Public group.”

If you see Public group → Anyone in your organization can view the site.
If you see Private group → Only site members/owners can access the site.

This label appears on most Team sites that are connected to a Microsoft 365 Group.

If you need to change it (you must be an Owner):

Select the Settings in the top right corner (gear icon)
A menu will pop up, click on Site information.
Under Privacy settings, choose Private or Public and then hit Save.

If you don’t see Privacy settings, your site is likely not group-connected (e.g., a Communication site). See Method 2.

For Communication sites or sites without the Public/Private option available

Settings (gear icon in the top right corner) → Site permissions → Advanced permission settings (opens classic page), or choose Site permissions → Members/Visitors directly if shown.
Review the default SharePoint groups:
- Site Owners — manage the site.
- Site Members — contribute/edit.
- Site Visitors — read-only.
Look for Everyone except external users:
- If Everyone except external users is listed under Site Visitors (Read), your site is effectively public to your organization.
- If it’s not present and only named users/groups appear, the site is private (restricted to those users).

Changing this requires a Site Owner. They can remove Everyone except external users from Visitors to make the site private, or add it to make the site broadly visible.

Optional — Check external/anonymous sharing (this is not the same as Public)

Even on a Private site, individual files/folders may be shareable externally depending on your organization’s policy.

To see what link types are allowed for a file:

Open the site’s Documents library.
Select a file → Copy link (or Share).
Examine the link type (e.g., Anyone, People in YourOrg, Specific people).
- If Anyone is available, anonymous links are allowed at some level of policy.
- This does not make the whole site public; it only affects items you explicitly share.

What if I can’t see these options?

You may not be a Site Owner. Ask a site owner or your IT admin to confirm the site’s privacy.
If your site is connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, the Group privacy (Public/Private) also controls site visibility. Only owners can change it.