Connect to your database as root, then add your new user like so: CREATE USER 'tester' @ '%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' ; The % here means the user 'tester' connecting from any host , you can place a network hostname here instead if you want to restrict access further. Naturally you will also want to substitute password with something a little stronger ;-) Now run the following to grant the SELECT privilage to the new user on all databases: GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO 'tester' @ '%' ; Or if you want to restrict access to only one database: GRANT SELECT ON DATABASE .* TO 'tester' @ '%' ; Confirming that it worked Connect as the new user: mysql -u tester -p And now see if you can update a record: mysql > USE alpha; mysql > UPDATE Person SET version_num = 5 WHERE OID = 1 ; ERROR 1142 ( 42000 ) : UPDATE command denied TO USER 'tester' @ 'localhost' FOR TABLE ...