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Answer: A gated repo makes users request access, sharing their username and email and answering any custom questions, before they can download files. Repos are not gated by default.

Setting up

1. Open the model or dataset settings page.
2. Click Enable Access request.
3. Choose automatic (instant) or manual approval.

Reviewing requests

Review access requests opens lists of pending, accepted and rejected users. You can automate the approval of access requests by using the API. (S1)

As a user

hf auth login

from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
snapshot_download("org/gated-model", token=True)

Claims

• id: C1 claim: By default, the dataset is not gated. source: S1 evidence: "By default, the dataset is not gated."
• id: C2 claim: Manual approval lets you choose which users can access the dataset. source: S1 evidence: "If you want to manually approve which users can access your dataset"
• id: C3 claim: Requests can be managed from the UI or via the API. source: S1 evidence: "You can review and manage requests either from the UI or via the API."
• id: C4 claim: By default, the model is not gated. source: S2 evidence: "By default, the model is not gated."

Sources

• [S1] Gated datasets · Hugging Face. Hugging Face docs. https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/datasets-gated . License: Apache-2.0 (huggingface docs repos). Accessed 2026-11-04.
• [S2] Gated models · Hugging Face. Hugging Face docs. https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/models-gated . License: Apache-2.0 (huggingface docs repos). Accessed 2026-11-04.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

@misc{iil_note_sek6p792,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{Gated models and datasets on the Hugging Face Hub}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/hf-gated-repos/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:sek6p792. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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