Add a group to another group

This page is for administrators. To manage groups for your own account, visit  Google Groups help .

Sometimes it's helpful to add one group to another. For example, if you have a group for each team that’s part of a larger department, you can save the time it takes to individually add each member to a larger department group.

Larger groups are called parent groups. Added groups are nested, child, or subgroups.

Why nest groups

You might nest groups to:

• Have messages you post to the parent group posted to the child—You can do this if the child's posting permissions allow it.
• Change members of the parent group by editing the child—This works if multiple parents contain the same child group.

Tip:To add and remove members automatically based on criteria such as department or location, see Manage membership automatically with dynamic groups .

How nested group permissions work

The following rules apply to nested groups:

Add a group to your group

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console .

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  Directory Groups.
3. On the Groups list, point to the group that will become the parent group.
4. In the parent group row, click Add members.
5. Enter the name of the group you want to add to the parent group.
   Note:Use commas to separate multiple group names.
6. Click Add to group.

Related topics

• View members of nested groups