Olark User Management Guide

• Model type: role-based
• Description: Olark uses a two-tier role model: Account Owner/Admin and Agent. There are no custom roles or granular permission sets. Agents can be organized into Operator Groups for routing purposes, but groups do not confer different permissions.
• Custom roles: No
• Custom roles plan: Not documented
• Granularity: Coarse - two fixed roles only; no field-level or feature-level permission customization available.

1. Log in to app.olark.com as the account owner or admin.
2. Navigate to Settings > Agents.
3. Click 'Invite Agent' or 'Add Agent'.
4. Enter the new agent's email address.
5. Optionally assign the agent to one or more Operator Groups.
6. Click 'Send Invitation'.
7. The invited agent receives an email to set up their password and complete account creation.

Required fields: Email address

Watch out for:

• Adding an agent on a paid plan immediately increments the seat count and billing.
• Free plan is hard-limited to 1 agent; upgrading to Standard is required before inviting additional agents.
• The invited agent must accept the email invitation before they can log in and chat.
• Agent usernames/display names are set by the agent after accepting the invitation, not by the admin.

• Can delete users: Yes
• Delete/deactivate behavior: Olark allows removing (deleting) an agent from the account via Settings > Agents. Removing an agent revokes their login access immediately. There is no separate 'deactivate' state that preserves the seat - removal is the only offboarding action. Chat transcripts associated with the removed agent are retained in the account.

1. Log in to app.olark.com as the account owner or admin.
2. Navigate to Settings > Agents.
3. Locate the agent to be removed.
4. Click the remove or delete option next to the agent's name.
5. Confirm the removal when prompted.

Watch out for:

• Seat count reduction and billing adjustment typically take effect at the next billing cycle, not immediately upon removal.
• If the removed agent was the sole member of an Operator Group, incoming chats routed to that group may go unanswered until the group is reassigned.
• There is no 'suspend' or 'deactivate' option - removal is permanent and the agent must be re-invited if access needs to be restored.

• Where to check usage: app.olark.com > Settings > Agents (shows current agent count); billing details visible under Settings > Billing or Account.
• How to identify unused seats: No built-in 'last active' or 'last login' report is documented in Olark's official help center. Admins must manually review agent chat activity via transcript reports or the Reporting section to identify inactive agents.
• Billing notes: Olark bills per agent seat. Each active agent on the account counts toward the seat total. Removing an agent reduces the seat count; the billing reduction typically applies at the next renewal cycle. Annual and 2-year plans are prepaid and seat reductions may not result in prorated refunds - verify with Olark billing support.

Every app that adds or removes agents requires hands-on admin work: invitations must be sent manually, seat counts adjust at the next billing cycle rather than immediately, and there is no built-in last-login or last-active report to surface idle accounts. Identifying unused seats means manually cross-referencing transcript reports in the Reporting section.

Ownership transfer is not self-serve - it requires contacting Olark support directly.

Admins consistently flag three friction points. First, the absence of a 'suspend' or 'deactivate' state means offboarding is all-or-nothing: remove the agent fully, or leave them active.

Second, billing does not adjust immediately on removal - seat reductions typically apply at the next renewal, and proration on annual or two-year plans is unclear without contacting billing support.

Third, there is no last-login timestamp in the agent management UI, making license audits a manual, transcript-driven exercise.

Common complaints:

• Users report that there is no granular permission system - agents either have full chat access or none, with no middle-ground roles.
• Some users note that removing an agent does not immediately reduce the monthly bill and that prorated credits are unclear.
• Users have noted the lack of a 'suspend' or 'deactivate' option, meaning offboarding requires full removal and re-invitation if access needs to be restored.
• Admins have reported difficulty identifying inactive agents because Olark does not surface a 'last login' date in the agent management UI.
• Some users report that ownership transfer requires contacting support rather than being self-serve in the dashboard.

Olark's manual workflow is straightforward for small teams but becomes operationally expensive as headcount grows. The Free plan is hard-limited to one agent; Standard starts at $19–$29/seat/month depending on billing cadence. PowerUps (Cobrowsing, Translation, Visitor Insights) are add-ons priced separately at $29–$99/month each.

If your team needs automated provisioning, the only supported path is via OneLogin's Olark connector - no native SCIM endpoint exists.

Bottom line

Olark's admin tooling is functional but minimal: two fixed roles, no suspend option, no last-login visibility, and billing that lags behind seat changes. Teams with stable, small agent rosters will find the manual workflow manageable.

Teams with frequent onboarding and offboarding cycles, or those running compliance-driven access reviews, will hit the ceiling of what the UI alone can support and should evaluate the REST API or a OneLogin-based provisioning connector.