Amazon QuickSight User Roles: A Comprehensive Guide

QuickSight is a powerful business intelligence service that helps organizations visualize data, build interactive dashboards, and gain actionable insights. Understanding user roles is essential to maximizing the platform’s capabilities and be aware of costs.

It offers distinct user roles, each tailored to specific responsibilities and permissions. This guide explores these roles, including the recently introduced Pro roles associated with Generative BI capabilities.​

Note: The pricing in this guide is accurate as of 2025 and can vary by region. Always confirm current rates on the Amazon QuickSight pricing page before planning a rollout.

Standard User Roles

QuickSight's foundational user roles are designed to cater to varying levels of interaction with the platform:​

1. Reader

Readers are primarily consumers of data insights. They can:​

• View shared dashboards and reports.​
• Interact with dashboards through filtering and drilling down into data.​
• Subscribe to email reports.​

However, Readers cannot:​

• Create or edit dashboards, analyses, datasets, or data sources.​
• Manage QuickSight administrative settings or user permissions.​

Pricing: $3 per user/month.

Ideal for stakeholders who need to access and interpret data without modifying underlying structures.​

2. Author

Authors have more advanced capabilities, enabling them to:​

• Create and modify analyses and dashboards.​
• Develop and manage datasets and data sources.​
• Share dashboards and analyses with other users.​

However, Authors cannot: ​

• Manage QuickSight account-level settings or user roles.​

Pricing: $24 per user/month.

Suitable for data analysts and business intelligence developers responsible for creating data visualizations.​

3. Administrator

Administrators possess the highest level of access, allowing them to:​

• Perform all actions available to Authors and Readers.​
• Manage user accounts and group memberships.​
• Configure account settings and subscription details.​
• Oversee permissions for datasets, dashboards, and other resources.​

Pricing: $24 per user/month. Admin role is billed at the same rates as Author role.

Best suited for IT administrators and team leaders overseeing QuickSight deployment and governance.​

Pro Roles and Generative BI Capabilities

With the advent of Generative BI, QuickSight introduced Pro roles, enhancing traditional functionalities with advanced features:​

1. Reader Pro

Building upon the Reader role, Reader Pro users can:​

• View narrative data stories shared with them.​
• Ask questions about data using Generative Q&A.​
• Receive executive summaries of key insights from dashboards.​

Pricing: $20 per user/month.

Ideal for executives and decision-makers seeking deeper, AI-driven insights without developing new analyses.​

2. Author Pro

Extending the Author role, Author Pro users have the ability to:​

• Create and share Generative Q&A topics.​
• Build data stories that combine visuals, insights, and strategic recommendations.​
• Develop dashboards and analyses using natural language inputs.​

Pricing: $50 per user/month.

Perfect for advanced data professionals aiming to leverage AI to streamline analysis creation and storytelling.​

3. Admin Pro

Combining all capabilities of Administrator and Author Pro roles, Admin Pro users can:​

• Oversee all administrative functions.​
• Utilize advanced Generative BI features.​

Pricing: $50 per user/month. Admin Pro role is billed at the same rates as Author Pro role.

Suitable for leaders managing both the technical and analytical aspects of QuickSight, ensuring optimal use of Generative BI features.​

Upgrading to Pro Roles

To harness Generative BI capabilities, QuickSight administrators can upgrade users to Pro roles:​

• Navigate to the QuickSight console.​
  • Access the "Manage Users" section.​
  • Select the desired user and change their role to the appropriate Pro designation.​
• Currently there is a $250/month fee per account to enable Amazon Q features.

Upgrading to Pro roles may have implications on subscription costs. It's advisable to consult the Amazon QuickSight Pricing page for detailed information.​

Related Articles

• Implementing Row-Level Security in Amazon QuickSight: Once you have user roles in place, RLS is the next layer — it restricts which rows each user sees, which is essential for multi-tenant dashboards where different users should see different data.
• Embedded Amazon QuickSight Dashboards: A full serverless architecture for embedding QuickSight dashboards into your web application using Lambda, Cognito, and API Gateway — covering both registered users and anonymous embedding.