Bulk Create Jira Users
Bulk-create Jira users invites many people at once from a CSV file of email addresses. Each address receives a Jira invitation and becomes an account on your site.
Before you start
You need Jira administrator permission, and a personal Atlassian API token created on the account that is allowed to create users. See How to generate an API token or organization API key.
The token used here is a personal API token from id.atlassian.com → Security → API tokens, paired with the email address of that same account. This is a different credential from the organization API key used to activate and deactivate accounts — do not mix them up.
Open the importer
There are three ways in:
Jira users → Add users → Bulk-create via CSV
Overview → Quick actions → Bulk-create Jira users
Get started → Bulk-create Jira users card → Import CSV →
Run the import
Open the importer from one of the entry points above. The Bulk-create Jira users dialog opens on the file picker.
Choose the CSV first. Click Select CSV file and pick your file. You are not asked for credentials until a file has been read.
Supply your credentials — first time only. If no credentials are stored yet, the next step asks for your Atlassian account email and API token. Paste both and choose Continue.
The importer validates the pair against Jira (the button reads Validating… while it checks). If it is rejected you see “That email / API key was rejected by Jira.” and you can correct it without losing your file selection.
Once validated, the import starts immediately. A progress bar shows how many of the total rows have been processed; the dialog cannot be closed while it runs.
When it finishes, a message tells you how many invitations were sent and how many rows were skipped, for example Invitations sent to 6 users.
Your credentials are stored and reused. After a successful validation the email and API token are saved by the app, so later imports go straight from the CSV file to the progress bar — you are not asked for them again. The console has no field for replacing them; see Credentials and data storage if you need to rotate the token.
CSV format
The file needs a single column of email addresses, one address per row. Only the first column is read. Rows whose first cell does not contain an @ are ignored, so a header row such as email is harmless. Empty lines are skipped.
email
alex.morgan@company.com
priya.nair@company.com
sam.becker@company.comAddresses Jira does not accept are skipped and counted in the result message. A sample CSV is attached below.
Every address in the file is invited. Check the list before you upload it — each new account can consume a licensed Jira seat, and there is no undo for the import itself. Accounts created by mistake can be deactivated afterwards from Jira users.
Troubleshooting
What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
No email addresses found | No row in the file had an |
Could not read that CSV | The file was empty or could not be parsed. Re-export it as plain CSV. |
That email / API key was rejected by Jira | The token does not belong to the email you entered, it has been revoked, or that account is not allowed to create users. Create a fresh token and re-enter both values. |
Rows reported as skipped | Those addresses were invalid, or an account already exists for them. |
After the import
New accounts appear on the Jira users screen. Remember that the status control there defaults to Active, so switch it to All if you are looking for an account you cannot see. The import is also recorded in Recent activity on the Overview screen as Invited N users via CSV.