As cities across the world continue to rapidly expand, planners and policymakers are often confronted with complex challenges such as rising urban poverty, inequalities and the dilemma of managing competing interests. As a result, the themes of urban inclusion and exclusion have garnered the attention of academic scholars and policymakers for decades. With the global emphasis on creating sustainable and inclusive cities, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 11 and the New Urban Agenda, it has become increasingly critical to understand how these concepts are interpreted and operationalized in practice. Despite their prominence in urban policy and planning discourse, there is a noticeable lack of empirical research examining how urban planners conceptualize and interpret urban inclusion and exclusion, how these interpretations are translated into planning practices, and the resulting implications for marginalized urban residents. Using in-depth interviews, this paper investigates two key questions:) how do urban planners in Accra conceptualize and interpret urban inclusion and exclusion? (b) how do these concepts play out on the ground and what are the implications for different social groups in Accra? Our study found that urban practitioners conceptualize urban inclusion through the acknowledgment of different epistemic values, where planners recognize the participation of diverse social groups in the municipal planning process—while exclusion emerges when marginalized populations lack opportunities to influence development decisions. Planners also associate inclusion with equitable access to resources, while exclusion manifests through neglect and underinvestment in essential urban services for marginalized groups. In practice, however, political interests, institutional silos, and resource constraints often hinder inclusive urban planning, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as the urban poor, women, and informal settlers. The study concludes with policy recommendations to enhance inclusivity in urban planning, ensuring that no one is left behind in the urbanization process.