How to view a list of Microsoft 365 group owners

Microsoft 365 groups control access to security groups, shared mailboxes, Teams, SharePoint sites, Planner data, and more collaborative objects. If a group does not have an active owner, it becomes an unmanaged security boundary with no accountability for membership changes, data access, or life cycle decisions.

In large environments, tracking who owns which groups isn’t straightforward since you will have to manually check each group for its owner one by one. Listing group owners in one place is essential to identify orphaned groups, enforce governance, and ensure every group has a responsible owner.

This article explains how to view Microsoft 365 group owners using the Microsoft 365 admin center and Microsoft Graph PowerShell. It also covers how you can get a better experience with the convenience of a friendly UI coupled with the capabilities of PowerShell scripting with ManageEngine M365 Manager Plus.

Method 1: How to get a list of group owners using the Microsoft 365 admin center

Prerequisites

You need the Global Administrator or Groups Administrator role for the account you use to sign in.

Steps

1. Log in to the Microsoft Entra admin center and navigate to Groups > All groups.
2. Select the Microsoft 365 tab to view all groups.
3. Select a specific group from the list.
4. Under the Manage section in the left pane, click Owners to view the full list of assigned owners for that group.

Limitation to consider

• The Microsoft Entra admin center does not provide a way to export the list of owners for all of your groups in Microsoft 365 at once. Even the Download groups feature, which provides a CSV of group objects and their details, does not show the owners associated with the groups.
• You will have to click through each group individually to get the list of users who are assigned as owners of said groups.

If you wish to get a single list of your Microsoft 365 group owners, you will have to either resort to Microsoft Graph PowerShell or use a reporting tool dedicated to present this data in just a few clicks, such as ManageEngine M365 Manager Plus.

Method 2: How to get a list of group owners in Microsoft 365 using Microsoft Graph PowerShell (Get-MgGroupOwner)

Prerequisites

Before using Microsoft Graph PowerShell, please verify that:

1. The Groups Administrator or Global Administrator role is applied to the account you use to sign in to Microsoft Graph PowerShell.
2. You are connected to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module.
   1. To check if the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module is installed, use this script:
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      Get-Module Microsoft.Graph -ListAvailable
                                          

      If it does not return a value, you will have to install the module.

   2. To install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module, execute this script:
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      Install-Module Microsoft.Graph -Scope CurrentUser
                                          

   3. To connect to Microsoft Graph, run this script:
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      Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Group.Read.All","User.Read.All"
                                          

Using Get-MgGroupOwner to export a list of group owners in Microsoft 365

The Get-MgGroupOwner cmdlet is used to retrieve the owners of a specific group in Microsoft 365. To get a comprehensive list of all Microsoft 365 group owners across the tenant, use the following script:

# Get all groups in the organization
$AllGroups = Get-MgGroup -All

$GroupReport = foreach ($Group in $AllGroups) {
    # Retrieve all owners for the current group
    $Owners = Get-MgGroupOwner -GroupId $Group.Id
    
    foreach ($Owner in $Owners) {
        # Fetch owner details (as owners can be users or other service principals)
        $OwnerDetails = Get-MgUser -UserId $Owner.Id -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        
        [PSCustomObject]@{
            GroupName        = $Group.DisplayName
            GroupType        = $Group.GroupTypes -join ", "
            MailEnabled      = $Group.MailEnabled
            SecurityEnabled  = $Group.SecurityEnabled
            OwnerName        = $OwnerDetails.DisplayName
            OwnerEmail       = $OwnerDetails.Mail
        }
    }
}

# Export the consolidated list to CSV
$GroupReport | Export-Csv -Path "C:\Reports\All_Group_Owners_$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd).csv" -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8

Supported parameters

The following table contains some parameters that can be used with the Get-MgGroupOwner and Get-MgGroup cmdlets to export a list of group owners in Microsoft 365.

Method 3: How to view a list of group owners in Microsoft 365 with M365 Manager Plus

Steps

1. Log in to M365 Manager Plus and navigate to the Reports tab > Azure Active Directory > Group Reports and select the Groups with Owner report.
2. Select the Microsoft 365 tenant you wish to generate the report for and click Generate Now.
3. You can now see the list of groups with their owners displayed in the Managed By column. You can also export the list of group owners in Microsoft 365 by clicking Export As and selecting your desired format.

Streamline Microsoft Entra ID user governance and group management

M365 Manager Plus provides a unified command center for managing the entire life cycle of your Microsoft Entra ID users and groups. Gain instant visibility into group memberships, ownership gaps, and orphaned objects across your tenant. View, manage, and track identity objects across your Microsoft 365 tenant from a single console—without switching between multiple admin portals.

Important tips

Frequently asked questions