Can you limit who answers in Questions for Confluence?

The short answer

No, not separately. Atlassian's page on asking questions puts asking and answering in one line: "if you can view the space, you'll be able to ask and answer questions" (Atlassian: Ask a question). Atlassian's permissions page lists View, Add and Delete per group and doesn't mention a separate permission for answering (Atlassian: Assign Questions for Confluence permissions). So, going by Atlassian's documentation, you cannot let a group ask but not answer.

What you can set in Questions for Confluence

• Access per space. "Questions access is governed by Confluence space permissions. If someone has access to a space, they'll be able to view, ask, and interact with questions in that space." Per group you can then "change the View, Add, or Delete permissions" (Atlassian: Assign Questions for Confluence permissions).
• Global questions. Besides the questions in a space, there is a space for global questions. Atlassian's permissions page says it is open to all Confluence users by default. If you limit who takes part, check that space too.
• Which answer counts. "You can only accept answers to your own questions (unless you're an admin)." And: "The accepted answer and highly voted answers appear above lower voted answers." (Atlassian: Ask a question)
• Who stands out. Atlassian: "Votes enable users ... to build user reputation". The Experts leader board shows the top people of the week, of all time and per topic (Atlassian: What are votes and experts?).

What teams do instead

• Let the accepted answer do the work. Anyone in the space may answer; the asker, or an admin, accepts the right answer, and it appears above lower voted answers. That may be enough for your team.
• Agree who answers where. Say in the space which team answers its questions. That team can watch the topics it covers: "You can watch a topic to be notified when a new question is added" (Atlassian: Watch and edit topics).

What is on Atlassian's tracker

• Finer permissions for Questions. CONFCLOUD-48392, "Granular permissions for questions", asked for this kind of control. Atlassian closed it in May 2025 for low engagement; it had 35 votes.
• Questions in a chosen space. CONFCLOUD-57675, "force users to ask questions only in specific space", is about where questions go, not who answers. It had the status Gathering Interest and 7 votes on 14 October 2026.

When only some people should answer

Then you need a Q&A app that sets asking and answering separately. Some Q&A apps for Confluence do. According to their documentation, Smart Questions and Answers and Modern Questions for Confluence have separate settings for who may ask and who may answer.

Full disclosure: I build AskSpace at Dortus, and it is one of those apps. In AskSpace a space admin sets Who may ask questions? and Who may answer? separately, each with three choices: Everyone in the space, Space admins only, or Chosen groups. With Chosen groups, only members of those groups can ask or answer, space admins included. By default, everyone in the space may ask and answer.

AskSpace also works differently in other ways, not all of them in its favour: it has no view setting, its questions do not show up in Confluence search, and every question belongs to one space. Questions for Confluence vs AskSpace sets out both sides. AskSpace is listed on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Which fits

• Everyone may answer, and the accepted answer is enough. Stay with Questions for Confluence. If it works for your team, there is no reason to change.
• Only a named team may answer, and that matters. Look at an app with separate settings, and compare it with what Questions for Confluence does well first.

Short answers

Can a group ask but not answer in Questions for Confluence? Not according to Atlassian's documentation. It names no separate permission for answering, and in a space, "if you can view the space, you'll be able to ask and answer questions".

Can I make people ask in one particular space? That is a request on Atlassian's tracker: CONFCLOUD-57675.

Questions

Found a setting we missed? Email support@dortus.com.