twilio-organizations-setup

Overview

Every Twilio customer automatically gets an Organization when they sign up (auto-created since May 2024 for new signups; since June 2024 for existing paying customers). An Organization is the top-level container that groups accounts, users, and security policies. The creation has no effect on existing account functionality. Most developers never need to touch it — but as soon as you have multiple accounts, teams, or compliance requirements (SSO, HIPAA), Organization setup becomes essential.

Hierarchy: Organization > Accounts > Subaccounts

Layer	What it is	When you need it
Organization	Centralized governance: users, accounts, domains, SSO	Multiple teams or accounts, SSO, HIPAA designation
Account	Application boundary: all Twilio products, resources, billing live here	Always — you need at least one
Subaccount	Isolated partition under an account: separate resources, consolidated billing	Multi-tenant apps, per-customer isolation

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Organization vs Subaccount — When to Use Which

Dimension	Organization (Managed Accounts)	Subaccounts
Management	Console UI + Organizations API	REST API (/2010-04-01/Accounts)
Billing	Independent per account	Consolidated to parent account
Account limit	10 per Organization (default)	1 per unupgraded account; 1,000 per upgraded account (contact AE for more)
User management	Full lifecycle: invite, roles, SSO, SCIM	None — no user concept
SSO/SCIM	Supported	Not applicable
HIPAA designation	Per-account toggle in Admin console	Inherits from parent (new only)
Resource isolation	Separate accounts, separate credentials	Separate but parent can access all
Cost	Free	Free

Rule of thumb: Use Organizations when different teams/users need separate billing and access control. Use Subaccounts when your application needs programmatic multi-tenant isolation with consolidated billing.

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Organization Roles

Role	Capabilities	Limit
Owner	Full control + sole authority to delete the Organization	1 per Organization
Administrator	Invite/remove users, add/create accounts, modify settings	Unlimited
Standard User	Access only to specified accounts — no org management	Unlimited (default)

The Organization creator is automatically assigned the Owner role.

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Setting Up Your Organization

Find Your Organization

All Twilio customers have an Organization (auto-created at signup). Access it via:

• Console > Settings (gear icon) — shows Organization settings, or
• Twilio Admin link in the top-right navigation — opens the Organization admin panel

Add Accounts to Your Organization

Create a new account:

1. Console > Admin > Accounts
2. Click Create New Account
3. Name the account, select Twilio or Flex usage
4. Confirm — the account starts in trial mode with fresh defaults

Import an existing account:

1. Console > Admin > Accounts > Add Existing Account
2. Enter the account's SID (find it in Console > Account > General settings)
3. The account owner receives an email and must confirm

Requirement: The account owner's email must match your Organization's verified domain.

Account Types

Type	Description
Managed	Owned by your Organization — full lifecycle control
Independent	External account your users can access — you do NOT control it
Pending	Added but awaiting owner confirmation

Transfer Account Ownership

Only between managed users in the same Organization:

1. Console > Admin > Accounts > select account
2. Remove current owner, enter new owner's email or User SID
3. Save

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Domain Registration

Register your company's email domain to control how employees interact with Twilio.

Console > Admin > Domains

Setting	Behavior
Restricted	Users with your domain email can't sign up unless explicitly invited
Auto-enrollment	Users who sign up with your domain automatically join your Organization
Blocked	Users with your domain email cannot join this Organization

Domain registration also enables Organization merging — the Prime org must have verified domains.

Important: Common domains (gmail.com, hotmail.com, etc.) cannot be verified — you cannot invite users from common domains. Enter domains without "www." (e.g., corporate.com, not www.corporate.com). You can verify the same domain under multiple Organizations (with restrictions) or use subdomains (stage.corporate.com).

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SSO and SCIM

• SSO: Enforce Single Sign-On at the Organization level via your identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, etc.). See SSO docs.
• SCIM: Automate user provisioning and deprovisioning via the SCIM 2.0 API. See SCIM docs.

When SSO is enabled on a verified domain, all users with that domain email must authenticate via SSO.

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Organization Merging

Combine two Organizations: the Prime absorbs the Candidate.

Requirements:

• Prime must have verified domains
• Candidate Owner's email must match Prime's verified domain
• Candidate must have NO verified domains of its own

Post-merge: Candidate ceases to exist. All accounts and users transfer to Prime. Billing and functionality unchanged. If Prime has SSO enabled, it applies to merged users.

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HIPAA Designation

Requires an executed BAA with Twilio. After BAA:

1. Console > Admin > Accounts > select account
2. Enable HIPAA flag
3. Save

Each account must be individually flagged — existing accounts do NOT auto-inherit. New accounts created after designation DO inherit. See twilio-security-compliance-hipaa for full HIPAA guidance.

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User Management

Users are separate from accounts. A user is defined by their login (email + password) and can own or have access to many accounts.

• Users can only belong to ONE Organization — if they need access to multiple orgs, create a dedicated user per org (e.g., [email protected])
• Owner's accounts are auto-added — any account owned by the Organization Owner is automatically added to that Organization and cannot be "independent"
• New accounts by managed users are auto-added — accounts created by any managed user (Owner, Admin, Standard) automatically join the Organization
• New user signup behavior is controlled by domain settings (Restricted/Auto-enrollment/Blocked)

Admin actions for managed users:

• Reset password: Admin Center > Users > Managed Users > select user > Reset Password (logs out user, sends 24-hour reset link)
• Reset 2FA: Admin Center > Users > Managed Users > select user > Reset 2FA (removes current 2FA number, prompts for new one on next login)
• Bulk user import: Available via Admin Center (contact Support if not enabled on your Organization)

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CANNOT

• Cannot create accounts via API at the Organization level — Account creation within Organizations is Console-only. Subaccount creation via REST API is separate and lives under the parent account.
• Cannot close or delete an Organization from Console — There is no self-service delete. To remove an Organization, merge it into another one.
• Cannot transfer ownership to an independent user — Account ownership transfers are restricted to managed users within the same Organization.
• Cannot merge Organizations if the Candidate has verified domains — Remove Candidate's domain verification first, or the merge will fail.
• Cannot assume configurations transfer to new accounts — New managed accounts start with fresh defaults. Product configurations, phone numbers, and settings do not inherit.
• Cannot manage independent accounts' lifecycle — You can grant your users access to independent accounts, but you cannot close, suspend, or modify them.
• Cannot have multiple Owners per Organization — Exactly one. Transfer ownership before the current Owner leaves the company.
• A user cannot belong to multiple Organizations — One user = one Organization. Use email aliases for multi-org access.
• Cannot verify common email domains — gmail.com, hotmail.com, etc. are not supported for domain verification or user invitations.
• Cannot invite users from unverified domains — Domain must be verified first before you can invite users with that domain email.
• Billing is NOT consolidated at the Organization level — Each managed account is billed independently. For consolidated billing, use subaccounts under a single parent account instead.

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Next Steps

• Account and subaccount setup: twilio-account-setup
• Authentication methods (API Keys, OAuth2): twilio-security-api-auth
• HIPAA account configuration: twilio-security-compliance-hipaa
• Credential security: twilio-security-hardening
• Docs: Organizations overview | Managed accounts