Using Multiple Figma Accounts on One Machine — We Tested How Far the Data Is Actually Isolated

A work account and a client account. A company account and a personal one. The longer you use Figma, the more likely you are to juggle multiple accounts on a single machine. Figma’s desktop app supports being logged in to several accounts at once — but the real question comes after that: when you switch accounts, how far does the isolation actually go? Files and billing, sure — but what about the settings a plugin stores locally, or your plugin usage history? That’s territory the official documentation doesn’t cover.

In this article, alongside the basics of adding, switching, and removing accounts, we share the results of an actual test: two accounts living in one desktop app, checked layer by layer for what is isolated and what is shared.

What you’ll get from this article

• How to add, switch between, and remove accounts in the desktop app
• Why logins go through your default browser, and what that means if you separate accounts by browser
• Test results showing which layers — files / billing / plugin data / usage history — are isolated per account
• Practical setups for freelancers, agencies, and plugin developers

📝 Introduction — When you need more than one account

Multi-account setups usually come from one of these situations:

• Separating work and personal: one account tied to your company’s team, another for learning and side projects
• Per-client accounts: agencies and freelancers moving between accounts issued by client organizations
• Separating development and operations: if you publish plugins or templates, keeping a development account apart from a business account
• A sandbox account: trying out features and sharing settings without touching production data

In every case the underlying concern is the same: when I switch, does anything leak into the other account? The short answer: server-side data — files, billing, and the rest — is isolated per account. But on the local side, there is exactly one layer that is shared across accounts. The details are in the test results section.

🔄 Adding and switching accounts — the basics

The Figma desktop app lets you stay logged in to up to 10 accounts at the same time and switch without logging out.

Adding an account

1. Click your account name (avatar) at the top left of the file browser
2. Choose Add account
3. Your browser opens — log in with the account you want to add
4. Back in the app, the new account appears in the account switcher

Switching

1. Click your account name at the top left
2. Pick the account from the list — no re-login required

After switching, the file browser contents (teams, projects, drafts) are replaced with that account’s data.

🌐 Logins go through your default browser

The desktop app has no built-in login screen. When you start a login (or add an account), your OS default browser opens, you authenticate there, and the session is handed back to the app. There is no way to choose which browser the app uses.

That’s normal behavior — but it becomes a trap if you also separate accounts at the browser level.

One more thing worth knowing: the handoff from browser back to app occasionally fails and needs a retry or two. Nothing is broken — just try again.

🔬 How far is the data isolated? — Test results in 3 layers

On to the question this article set out to answer. We set up two accounts (A and B) in a single Windows desktop app and checked, layer by layer, what each account can see (tested as of August 2026).

In short: the data itself is isolated per account, with a single cosmetic leak on the local side.

🧩 Plugin data and usage history behavior

Rows two and three of the table are both “locally stored information,” yet they behave in opposite ways. Let’s look a little closer at each.

Plugin settings and data (clientStorage): independent per account

Many plugins store things like language preferences or your last-used inputs locally, via a mechanism called clientStorage. In our test, setting a plugin’s language to Japanese on account A, then switching to account B, left B at the default (English). Same machine, same app — yet each account keeps its own plugin data.

Two practical takeaways:

• Plugin settings do not follow you across accounts — you’ll configure each account once
• Conversely, nothing about your plugin usage on one account leaks into the other’s data

Plugin usage history (Recents): shared within the app

The “recently used plugins” list in the plugin menu behaves differently. Plugins you run on account A also show up in account B’s menu. No actual data crosses over — but the visible history of which plugins you used is shared at the app level.

The practical impact is small: mostly that plugin names from your other account may be visible during screen sharing or presentations. If you need strict separation, this is the one behavior that pushes you toward OS-level user separation.

🚪 Removing an account (logging out) and caveats

To remove an added account from the app, switch to that account first, then log out.

1. In the account switcher (top left), switch to the account you want to remove
2. Choose Log out from the same menu

Logging out affects only the currently active account: it disappears from the switcher, the other accounts stay logged in, and one of the 10 slots frees up.

🛠️ A note for plugin developers

If you publish plugins, a multi-account setup doubles as a valuable testing environment — and there’s one official behavior that’s easy to miss.

For published plugins, the Payments API always reports the creator’s account as PAID. Open your own published plugin from your developer account and every paid feature appears unlocked, whether or not you ever bought it. This is by design in Figma’s Payments API.

The consequence: you fundamentally cannot verify the free-user experience — feature locks included — from your developer account. Post-publish checks of the free tier must be done from a separate account. Keeping a second account in the same desktop app, as in this article’s test setup, turns that check into a single account switch.

🗂️ Setups by use case

Based on the test results, pick from three levels depending on how much separation you need:

❓ Frequently asked questions

Do plugin settings carry over when I switch accounts?

No. As our test shows, settings a plugin stores locally (language preferences and the like) are independent per account. You’ll set up each account once.

Are paid plugin licenses shared between accounts?

No. Purchases made through Figma’s payment platform are tied to the account, so a different account needs its own purchase. The flip side: the same account keeps its license on any machine. For a broader look at how conversion plugins charge, see the pricing section of our XD → Figma converter plugin comparison.

Does using multiple accounts cost anything?

No. Creating accounts and logging in to several at once is free (each account follows the plan of whatever team it belongs to).

Is data synced between the browser version and the desktop app?

Server-side data like files syncs as long as you’re logged in to the same account. However, plugin local data is stored separately in the browser and the app, so plugin settings need to be configured in each environment.

🏁 Wrapping up

Key points

1. The desktop app supports up to 10 simultaneous logins with instant switching
2. Logins go through the default browser — if you separate accounts by browser, switch the default temporarily when adding an account
3. Files, billing, and plugin data are isolated per account (verified by testing)
4. The only leak we found: the plugin usage history display is shared within the app
5. Need strict separation? Go OS-level user separation; otherwise in-app switching is enough

Once you’ve seen for yourself what the other account can and cannot see, moving between work, personal, and client accounts stops feeling risky. We hope this article helps you design your own multi-account setup with confidence.

Related pages

• Using Figma in Japanese — the classic example of a setting that syncs per account
• Hide the sidebar, panels & UI in Figma — shortcuts for a bigger canvas
• XD → Figma migration guide — the full migration process end to end
• Free XD to Figma conversion — when paid plugins are worth it — choosing between the Free and paid tiers