Nathan FieldOn top of the owner, Skool has three team roles: admin, moderator and billing manager, and the gap between a Skool admin and a moderator is bigger than the names suggest. This guide covers Skool admin vs moderator: what each role can do, how to add one, and which role fits a helper or a community manager. Every Skool fact was checked against Skool's help centre on 3 October 2026.
On Skool, a moderator can approve new members, delete reported posts and comments, and invite people, but cannot ban members, pin posts or see member emails. An admin can run almost everything, but cannot see billing info or change the group owner. To add either, open MEMBERSHIP SETTINGS next to a member's name and change their role.
What is the difference between a Skool admin and a moderator?
Skool's member roles article sums it up in two lines:
- Admins "have access to everything except the Billing settings."
- Moderators can approve or decline new members, remove reported posts, delete comments, and invite someone to your community. They have no access to Classroom and Calendar settings, but they can run scheduled events and record the calls.
A moderator keeps the feed clean and lets people in. An admin runs the group. The article also lists the owner, who created the community, and the billing manager, which Skool calls "essentially co-owners". Both have access to everything.
What can each Skool role do?
Skool's member roles article includes a chart, as a screenshot, that breaks each role down. This table is built from that chart and the article's text.
| What the role can do | Moderator | Admin | Billing manager | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approve or decline membership requests | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See and delete reported posts and comments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change a post's category, turn comments on or off | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Invite people to the community | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Run scheduled events and record the calls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Remove or ban members, change their roles | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Send a post as an email broadcast, pin or unpin posts | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See member emails | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open locked courses | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change Classroom and Calendar settings | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change group settings and export data | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See member and group billing info | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Change the group owner | No | No | Not stated | Yes |
| Show on the points leaderboards | Yes | No | No | No |
| Earn affiliate commission from invites | Yes | No | No | No |
Three notes on the table:
- Billing managers are admins. Skool's chart says the role "can only be given to admins". Skool does not say whether a billing manager can change the owner.
- Only the owner gets payouts. The chart lists payouts under the owner alone, and says the owner cannot be removed unless they transfer ownership.
- Affiliates is a Pro feature. Skool's member affiliates article says it is only on the Pro plan, and owners and admins cannot refer to their own groups.
How do you add an admin or moderator on Skool?
These steps follow Skool's article on making a member an admin or a moderator.
- Invite them, if they are not in the group yet. Click the SETTINGS button in your community and invite your team member by email.
- Wait for them to join. Once they join, they are listed on the Members tab.
- Open their settings. Click MEMBERSHIP SETTINGS next to their name (a MEMBERSHIP button with a gear in Skool's screenshots).
- Change their role. Next to Role, click change and pick Moderator or Admin.
Skool's screenshot of that menu shows three choices: Member, Admin and Moderator. So the same menu sets someone back to a regular member.
How many admins can you have on Skool?
Skool's article says: "You can have up to 30 admins in your group. Must be on Pro plan to have more than 1 admin in a group." It gives no number for moderators. Pro is $99 a month on Skool's pricing page. Our Skool pricing guide covers what else Pro adds.
How do you make someone a billing manager on Skool?
Skool's billing manager article describes the role as an admin who has also been given access to manage and update billing information and set up payments for a paid community. Skool suggests giving it to a business co-founder, a partner, or your accounting head.
- Make the person an admin first, using the steps above.
- Go to the Members tab and filter by admins.
- Click MEMBERSHIP SETTINGS next to the admin's name and give them billing access for the group (a "Billing access" Yes or No in Skool's screenshot).
Skool says the person will then see all billing and payment items in the admin settings menu.
Handing the whole group over is a different job: Skool allows it only on Pro, and the new owner must be an admin first. See our guide to transferring a Skool community.
Which role should a helper or community manager get?
"Community manager" is not a Skool role. Skool's menu offers Member, Admin and Moderator, with billing access on top of admin. Match the jobs to the table above:
A helper who welcomes people and clears spam: Moderator
Approving new members, deleting reported posts and comments, moving posts to the right category, turning comments off, inviting people and running calls are all on the moderator list. A moderator cannot see member emails or billing, open locked courses, or ban anyone.
A community manager who runs the group: Admin
Give admin when the job includes banning spammers, pinning posts, sending email broadcasts, changing Classroom or Calendar settings, or exporting data. The trade-off is trust. An admin can see member emails, export data and change other people's roles, so only give it to someone you would trust with your member list.
A co-founder, partner or bookkeeper: Billing manager
Skool suggests this role for a co-founder, a partner or an accounting head. It is the only team role that sees billing info.
Give the smallest role that covers the job. You can move someone up later from the same menu.
Who handles spam on Skool, a moderator or an admin?
Both, but they do different parts. Skool's spam article says AutoMod is active in all communities and flags high-risk users and their posts and comments for admins to review. It says members using "Report to admins" helps your admins and moderators act faster.
- A moderator can delete reported posts and comments and approve or decline join requests. Skool's membership questions article says admins and moderators can both read a new member's answers first.
- An admin is needed to ban the account, since Skool's chart says moderators cannot ban. The spam article points to a ban that also deletes the member's last 7 days of activity in one step.
Our Skool AutoMod guide covers the other spam settings.
Do admins and moderators show on the Skool leaderboard?
Moderators do. Admins do not. Skool's member roles article says community creators, billing managers and admins are not included on the Leaderboards of that group, and its chart shows moderators as visible on the points leaderboards. So making your most active member an admin takes them off the leaderboard. Making them a moderator does not. Our Skool leaderboard guide explains points and levels.
Admins and moderators cannot see failed payments
Admins and moderators cannot see billing info, so failed cards land on the owner or a billing manager. Skool's card declines article says a group creator or billing manager can open the declined invoice to see why the card failed, how many retries Skool has done out of the total, and retry the charge by hand. Members get a prompt to update their billing method. On the Pro plan, Skool also lets you add a cancellation video that members see when they go to cancel.
What Skool does not send is a personal note in your words. Backpack is a Chrome extension plus our servers for Skool owners. Payment Recovery messages a member whose card fails, and Cancellation Recovery messages a member who cancels. You write the messages and Backpack sends them, even with your computer off. It is $9 a month for every Skool community you admin, with 7 days free. Backpack is not affiliated with Skool.
The short version
Skool admin vs moderator comes down to trust. A moderator approves members, clears reported posts and runs calls. An admin can do almost everything except billing, including banning members and seeing their emails. Keep billing access for a co-founder, partner or bookkeeper. Add any role from MEMBERSHIP SETTINGS next to the person's name.
FAQ
Can a Skool moderator ban members?
No. Skool's role chart lists removing or banning members and changing their roles as things a moderator cannot do. A moderator can see and delete reported posts and comments and approve or decline join requests, but an admin, a billing manager or the owner has to ban the account itself.
How many admins can a Skool group have?
Up to 30. Skool's help article says you can have up to 30 admins in a group, and that you must be on the Pro plan to have more than one admin. The article gives no number for moderators. Pro costs $99 a month on Skool's pricing page.
Can a Skool admin see billing?
No. Skool says admins have access to everything except the Billing settings, and its role chart says admins cannot see billing info for members or the group. To give someone billing access, make them an admin first, then turn on billing access in their MEMBERSHIP SETTINGS. That makes them a billing manager.
Can a Skool moderator access courses?
Not locked ones. Skool's role chart lists access to locked courses as something a moderator cannot do, and the member roles article says moderators have no access to Classroom and Calendar settings. They can still run scheduled events and record the calls. Make someone an admin if they need to manage courses.
Is community manager a role on Skool?
No. Skool's role menu offers Member, Admin and Moderator, and an admin can be given billing access to become a billing manager. For a community manager who bans spammers, pins posts or edits courses, use Admin. For someone who only approves members and clears reported posts, Moderator is enough.
Do Skool admins earn affiliate commission?
No. Skool's role chart says admins and owners do not earn affiliate commission from invites, and its member affiliates article says owners and admins cannot refer to their own groups. Moderators can earn it. Member affiliates is a Pro plan feature, so this only matters on Pro.