How to add members to a Group using Microsoft Graph API

Question

How do I add Members to a Group via Microsoft Graph API?

According to documentation for adding Member to a particular Group, it requires the call below:

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/{id}/members/$ref
Content-type: application/json
Content-length: 30
{
    "@odata.id": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{id}"
}

My questions lies in this API:

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/{id}/members/$ref

{id} => the group id,
members => adding members to the group

Now where is the users/members data/parameter to be added or posted?

Is it "@odata.id": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{id}"?

Do I post @odata.id values as a member/users parameter when adding a member to a group?

Marc LaFleur · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-05 16:43:03Z

10

That is correct. What you're technically passing is an ODATA Reference (ref$) to the user object within Active Directory rather than just an id.

To illustrate, lets take this fictitious user:

{
    "@odata.context": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$metadata#users/$entity",
    "id": "48d31887-5fad-4d73-a9f5-3c356e68a038",
    "businessPhones": [
        "+1 412 555 0109"
    ],
    "displayName": "Megan Bowen",
    "givenName": "Megan",
    "jobTitle": "Auditor",
    "mail": "[email protected]",
    "mobilePhone": null,
    "officeLocation": "12/1110",
    "preferredLanguage": "en-US",
    "surname": "Bowen",
    "userPrincipalName": "[email protected]"
}

If we wanted to add Megan to the a Group with an id of 02bd9fd6-8f93-4758-87c3-1fb73740a315 the call would look like this:

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/02bd9fd6-8f93-4758-87c3-1fb73740a315/members/$ref
Content-type: application/json

{
  "@odata.id": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/[email protected]"
}

answered Dec 5, 2017 at 16:43

Marc LaFleur

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1 Comment

saurav.rox Over a year ago

Hello @MarcLaFleur Could you please help me understand $ref? Is it predefined or how can I get it? Thank you,

Maria · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-05 09:21:25Z

3

It is also working when passing user Id:

POST url: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/{group_id}/members/$ref
Content-type: application/json

Content string: {"@odata.id": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{user_id}"}

group_id - group object id

user_id - user object id

answered Dec 5, 2019 at 9:21

Maria

313 bronze badges

2 Comments

saurav.rox Over a year ago

Hello @Maria Could you please help me understand $ref? Is it predefined or how can I get it? Thank you,

Maria Over a year ago

$ref is static, it is not variable

Alena Li · Accepted Answer · 2025-08-19 17:19:52Z

0

You can't use User Principal name or email, such as [email protected] replacing the userID in the request body. I tested it is not working.

So, this is the correct answer:

POST url: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/{group_id}/members/$ref
Content-type: application/json

Content string: {"@odata.id": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{user_id}"}

answered Aug 19 at 17:19

Alena Li

1

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