How to Create a Free Customer Chatter User in Salesforce

I worked at a company that used Salesforce CRM to provide support their customers. Whenever customers faced any issue, they raised support cases in Salesforce.

The client wanted customers to be able to check case updates, reply to the support team, and share screenshots or files related to their issues.

At the same time, the company did not want to depend only on email communication, and also did not want to purchase paid Salesforce licenses for customers.

To meet this requirement, I created a free customer chatter user in Salesforce, which allowed customers to log in, view only their own cases, and communicate with the support team through Chatter without any additional license cost.

In this article, we will learn how to create a free customer chatter User in Salesforce so that customers can log in, view their support cases, communicate with the support team, and share files without using a paid license.

Table of Contents

What is Chatter in Salesforce?

Salesforce Chatter is a private corporate social network, similar to Facebook or Twitter, that connects an organization’s employees and enables enterprises to share data and information among individual employees and teams.

These chat groups are classified as either public or private. Anyone can access Public Groups, but private groups can only be accessed by group members. We can also allow customers to view the chatter group’s activities.

All users with a Standard Salesforce License can use Chatter services for free. Salesforce provides three specific Chatter licenses for users to create a Chatter User.

Chatter Free.
Chatter External.
Chatter Only (Plus).

Chatter Free License in Salesforce

In Salesforce, Users who need access to Chatter but do not have Salesforce licenses can use the Chatter Free license.

With a Customer Chatter User, customers can log in to Salesforce and see only their own cases. They can write comments on the Case in Chatter, upload files such as screenshots, and reply to messages from the support team.

However, they cannot view other customers’ data, create or edit Salesforce records, or access reports, dashboards, or any other Salesforce objects.

What a Customer Chatter User Can and Cannot do in Salesforce?

When you create a user with a chatter‑only license and profile, they get access only to collaboration features. It helps to set expectations clearly with your team.

A Customer Chatter User can:

Log in to Salesforce with their username and password.
Access Chatter feeds, people, groups, and files from the App Launcher.
View and post comments in Chatter on records that you explicitly share with them (for example, their own Cases).
Upload files such as screenshots or documents directly into the feed.

A Customer Chatter User cannot:

Access standard Salesforce objects and tabs in the normal way (Accounts, Opportunities, etc.).
Run reports, view dashboards, or create/edit most business records.
See other customers’ cases or data if you configure sharing correctly.

Create a Free Customer Chatter User in Salesforce

In the steps below, I will explain in detail how to create a free Customer Chatter user in Salesforce so customers can log in.

Log in to Salesforce Org. -> Click on the Setup -> Home Page -> In the Quick Find Box, search for Users and click on it.

Click on the New User button to create a new user.

Create a free Customer Chatter User in Salesforce

In this step, we will enter the required field details to set up a Free Customer Chatter User in Salesforce.

Enter the First Name and Last Name of the new user. In this example, I have entered Mathew as the first name and Broad as the last name.
Next, enter the user’s email address in the Email field. I have used mathew@mail.com.
When you enter an email address, Salesforce automatically sets the Username to the same value, and the Nickname field is also auto-generated. You can change it as per your requirement.
After that, in the User License field, select Chatter Free. Then, in the Profile field, click the dropdown and choose Chatter Free User.
Finally, click the Save button to create the user.

Salesforce lightning setup free chatter user

As we click on the Save button, the user will be created with the Chatter Free license.

Chatter free user license in Salesforce Lightning

In this way, we have successfully created a free customer chatter user in Salesforce.

This user can log in to Salesforce, view only their own cases, communicate with the support team using Chatter, add comments, and upload files, without accessing other Salesforce data or using a paid license.

Conclusion

I hope you have got an idea about how to create a new user with a Chatter free license in Salesforce. We also learned about Chatter in Salesforce, and later we discussed its uses and functionalities, including the free user license and how it can be used to improve collaboration with external users.