Grant Contribute Vs Edit on a single folder

Question

We have a Modern Team site inside our SharePoint online site, and we granted everyone except external Red-Only on the site.

Now inside some folders inside the Documents document library, we want to allow users to upload documents, so i found 2 options, either grant them Contribute on the Folder or Edit.. now based on my test i did not find any differences between granting a user Contribute on the Folder or Edit on the folder? where in both cases users can add,edit,delete files inside the folder + they can not share the folder with users who do not have access, as we have disable this from the permission setting:-

so in our case is there any difference in granting user contribute or edit on the folder?

Answer 1

Microsoft states it clearly what the differences are:

Edit: Can add, edit and delete lists; can view, add, update and delete list items and documents.

Contribute: Can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents.

Edit permission can delete a list or library, while contribute cannot delete a list or library.

At folder level it does not make any difference as user will not be able to delete the library, unless you have given the user with edit permission, permissions at library level. Again, if both users have only access to the folder then they are just the same:

They can view, add, update and delete list items and documents and the folder itself.