How to Set Up HubSpot for Your Team

By the end of this guide your team will have a HubSpot account with users added, email connected, AI training preferences checked and your first contacts imported. It covers the free CRM and the Starter level, with notes on its Breeze AI features.

Before you start

Choose one Super Admin. HubSpot says Super Admin permissions are needed to create users and manage their permissions, so this person should be the owner or office manager. Gather your contact list as a CSV file with an Email column.

Plan	What it adds for a team	Price as listed
Free	Smart CRM, lite versions of some tools, up to 2 users, 1,000 contacts	$0, no credit card required
Starter	Removes HubSpot branding, higher usage limits, email and chat support, automation, AI agents, meeting scheduling	$20 per seat per month list, discounted for new customers

Both come from the HubSpot CRM pricing page. That page lists a discounted new-customer rate of $7 per seat per month with annual payment or $10 month to month. Seats can be added at any time. The Starter pages are organized by hub, so make sure you are reading the hub you plan to buy.

Create the account and workspace

HubSpot’s get started guide points to its “Set up your account” guide, which covers creating the account, inviting team members and customizing settings. The knowledge base we read does not give the sign-up clicks, so follow the prompts at hubspot.com.

1. Start from the pricing page and choose Free or Starter.
2. Sign up with the Super Admin’s work email.
3. Open the settings icon in the top navigation bar and confirm you can reach Users & Teams in the left sidebar.

Invite your team

The Add users article gives these steps.

1. Click the settings icon in the top navigation bar, then Users & Teams in the left sidebar.
2. Click Add users, then Create new.
3. Enter each email address and press return between them.
4. Select seats, permissions and teams.
5. Optionally check the box to send email invites.
6. Click Add users, then Done.
7. Hover over the new user and click Edit permissions to finish setting access.

You can also use the Send an invite link section and click Copy invite link. For many people, click Add users, then Import, upload a CSV and map the columns. Remember that the free plan lists a limit of 2 users.

Set the admin and data settings

Review the AI Model Training setting. HubSpot says it controls whether HubSpot can use your account’s customer data to train its AI models, and it is on by default. Only a Super Admin can turn it off.

1. Open the settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. Under Account management in the left sidebar, select AI.
3. On the Access tab, scroll to the bottom and set the AI Model Training toggle to off.

HubSpot’s training setting article says turning it off does not limit your access to AI features. It applies going forward, and data already used for training cannot be removed from trained models. For what staff should and should not enter, see our guide on writing an AI use policy.

Connect your other apps

Each person connects their own inbox. The connect inbox article lists these steps.

1. Click the settings icon, go to General in the left sidebar, then open the Email tab.
2. Click Connect email account.
3. Click Connect your inbox, enter your email address and click Next.
4. Click Connect to your provider and follow the prompts. For Gmail, review the disclosure, click Continue, sign in and click Allow.

The user needs Personal email access permission. View-Only seat users cannot connect an individual work email. Unsupported accounts include Gmail accounts with Google’s Advanced Protection Program and Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes.

To bring in existing records, the get started guide points to CRM, then Import & Export.

On AI, HubSpot’s pricing pages describe AI features such as AI agents and a Data Agent that run on HubSpot Credits. HubSpot’s public pages do not say clearly which of these are included on Free or Starter, so confirm with HubSpot before you rely on one. The Marketing Hub Starter page lists 500 HubSpot Credits per month that do not roll over.

Tasks to try first

Import your contacts cleanly

Use this on day one so nobody types leads twice. Prepare a CSV with these columns and import it from CRM, then Import & Export:

Email, First name, Last name, Company, Job title, Phone
Rule: one row per person. Remove duplicates before you upload.

Set a team rule for follow-ups

Use this so no lead is forgotten. Agree it as a team and write it down:

Rule 1: Every new lead gets a first reply the same business day.
Rule 2: Every call or meeting ends with a logged next step and a date.
Rule 3: Once a week, the owner checks open deals with no next step.

Draft a follow-up email with an AI assistant

Use this after a quote. Edit the draft before it goes out, and do not paste private customer details you would not email.

Write a short follow-up email to [name] about the quote we sent on [date] for [service]. Ask if they have questions and offer two times for a call. Keep it under 90 words and sound friendly, not pushy.

Common problems

If an inbox will not connect, HubSpot says to check whether it is an unsupported account type, whether your seat is View-Only, or whether the address is already connected as a team email. In that last case you must disconnect it from the team email first.