Meraki Sponsored Guest Access Duration Time

[Nitrox2025]

Hi

I currently have setup Sponsored Guest Authentication and all is working as expected, although we would like the ability of the sponsor to set the duration of access upon authorising the access, is this possible?

Only currently an admin to the dashboard is required to set the duration and is not really very flexible especially if there are several guest users that require different durations of access.

Any suggestions or assistance to make this work would be welcomed?

Many thanks

Nitrox2025

[Suar_Mustafa]

In the Meraki “Sponsored Guest” flow, the sponsor can only approve or deny requests  the access duration is a global setting configured on the SSID splash page by a dashboard admin. There’s no built-in option for the sponsor to set a custom expiry per guest at approval time.

If you need flexible, per-guest durations, you’d have to move away from the native Meraki sponsored portal and use an external captive portal with RADIUS authentication. In that model, the portal can present the sponsor with a duration selector and then pass the chosen value back as a RADIUS Session-Timeout attribute (optionally with Change-of-Authorization support) to enforce it.

Alternatives inside Meraki without custom development are limited to:

Creating multiple SSIDs with different fixed expiry times, or Pre-provisioning guest accounts with different expiries for the sponsor to hand out.

Bottom line: native Meraki sponsored guest does not support sponsor-defined durations you’ll need either an external portal or a workaround with predefined durations.

[Nitrox2025]

Thank you for the explanation and suggestions.

Could you please recommend a captive portal product that will work with Meraki to achieve this scenario?

Many thanks

Nitrox2025

[alemabrahao]

Take a look on Splash Access Solution.

http://splashaccess.com/

[Suar_Mustafa · Accepted solution]

From the Cisco side, the go-to product for this is Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). It integrates with Meraki via RADIUS and supports fully customizable guest workflows including sponsor portals where the sponsor can set per-user access duration at approval.

If you want a third-party alternative, Aruba ClearPass Guest is a strong competitor. It also works with Meraki as a RADIUS backend and offers granular sponsor controls, multiple guest types, and custom expiration handling.

Both options require you to use an external captive portal (not the native Meraki splash page) and configure the SSID for RADIUS authentication to that system

[alemabrahao]

No, it's not possible, only admin is allowed to do that.

[Nitrox2025]

Thank you all for the suggestions it is very much appreciated

Nitrox2025

[PhilipDAth]

The guest user is able to select the time required, up to the maximum.  The person doing the sponsoring does not have control.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Encryption_and_Authentication/Sponsored_Guest

"The session time can be set to:

• automatically grant the access duration (30 minutes to 6 weeks) specified by the “Maximum sponsorship duration” during the splash page registration
• allow users to request access for a session duration that is limited by the “Maximum sponsorship duration” specified by the Meraki Administrator"