Last modified: Aug 21, 2025

Roles used in Altinn

This page contains information about the types of roles Altinn has that can be used to grant access to an application

A role is a type of authorization a user has on behalf of the actor the user is acting on behalf of.
Roles can be assigned to individuals or organizations. These are identified with a national identity number (from the National Population Register) or an organization number (from the Register of Legal Entities).
There are two main types of roles to which an authorization rule can be linked: External roles and Altinn roles.

External roles

Information about external roles is retrieved from various public and authoritative registers.
The authorization these roles provide is regulated by laws and regulations that legitimize that a role holder should automatically be granted access to certain services or data on behalf of the actor.
It is the responsible authority, together with Altinn’s administration, that determines which authorizations it is natural for an external role to have in Altinn.

External roles for an actor can only be changed by the responsible entity that owns the authoritative register.
Altinn uses roles from the following authoritative registers:

These roles are used when the actor is an organization.
You can read more about which roles from the Register of Legal Entities are used in Altinn here.

Roles from the Norwegian Tax Administration

These roles are used when the actor is an organization or an individual.
You can read more about which roles from the Tax Administration are used here.

Roles from the Employer and Employee Register

This is not implemented today but is on the backlog as a new source of external roles.

Roles regarding Guardianship from the Norwegian Civil Affairs Authority

This is not implemented today but is on the backlog as a new source of external roles.

Roles regarding Parental Responsibility

This is not implemented today but is on the backlog as a new source of external roles.

This is not implemented today but is on the backlog as a new source of external roles.

Altinn roles

These roles are used when the actor is an organization or an individual.
Altinn roles can (unlike external roles) be administered and changed via Altinn Profile by the administrator for the actor.

API for role information

There is an API for retrieving information about all roles registered in Altinn 2.
Documentation of the API can be found here under the heading “Retrieve metadata about role definitions in Altinn.”
The API is open and available to everyone at the link https://www.altinn.no/api/metadata/roledefinitions.