Institutional SSO FAQs

Some questions and answers about institutional logins.

Does my university or organization provide institutional SSO?

If your university or organization supports institutional SSO, entering your institutional email address (an address with a university or organizational domain) at the Overleaf SSO login page will redirect you to your institution’s single sign-on page.

Many Overleaf Commons subscribers provide a public portal page. If your institution provides a public portal page, you can use the institutional SSO login link provided there.

How do institutions set up SSO?

Overleaf institutional SSO is an option available to Overleaf Commons subscribers. Overleaf SSO uses a SAML 2.0 standard implementation, and is a registered Service Provider in eduGAIN, InCommon Federation and UK Access Management Federation (UKAMF).

• Learn more about Commons SSO configuration from our admin documentation pages.

• If you are an administrator for an existing Overleaf Commons subscription and you would like to know more, please get in touch with the Overleaf Success Team.

How do I add an institutional SSO option to my Overleaf account?

One way to add an institutional SSO option to your account is to first log in to your account the way you usually do, visit your Account Settings, and add your institutional email address. If your university or organization provides an institutional SSO option, you will be prompted to log in through their SSO portal to authenticate and confirm your affiliation. After that, you can begin logging in with institutional SSO.

How do I join the Commons subscription offered by my institution?

Universities and organizations that provide an institutional SSO login option use this to enroll users in their subscription. When you log in with institutional SSO, if you are eligible to participate in your university or organization’s Overleaf Commons subscription, your account will be automatically enrolled.

Please be sure to continue to log in using institutional SSO to stay on your institution’s subscription. For institutions that provide this login method, users who have not logged in using institutional SSO recently may be (temporarily) removed from the subscription.

If you haven't logged in using SSO for a while, and you have been removed from the subscription, but you believe you are still entitled, please try logging back in via SSO to attempt to re-enroll yourself. If you're still having trouble please reach out to your IT team.

I am leaving my institution, what should I do?

It is important to configure a different login option if you will soon be unable to log in with your institutional SSO. If you are leaving your institution, please make sure that your primary email address on Overleaf is one that you can access—this will allow you to easily set an Overleaf-specific password and retain access to your Overleaf account.

How does Overleaf use my institutional email?

Overleaf will occasionally send notifications to users to let them know when changes are made to their account settings (see Keeping your account secure). When you register for an Overleaf account using institutional SSO, or link to your existing account, your institution will send an email address to Overleaf to allow these notifications to happen.

Overleaf will send email notifications to your account's primary email address.