Google will shut down your free G Suite account unless you pay — what you need to know

Google will close down your free G Suite business relationship unless you pay — what you demand to know

A man looks at a laptop upon which the words 'G Suite' and a series of Google service icons are displayed.

(Image credit: Vladimka product/Shutterstock)

Google announced yesterday (January. 19) that all users of the M Suite "legacy costless edition" would need to "to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription" by July ane, 2022 in order to go along using Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and the Google office suite, including Docs, Sheets and Slides.

But wait — aren't those the services that everyone using Google gets for free? Will all Gmail users offset having to pay up to use them?

Google'due south vaguely worded weblog post announcing this alter was non clear about that, although the post did say that "yous will no longer have access to Google Workspace core services, such every bit Gmail, Calendar, and Meet." YouTube and Google Photos will still be complimentary.

Who's affected past the K Suite shutdown

That sounds pretty scary, only let's cut through the disruptive language: This change applies simply to those people, often in families or small-scale businesses, who have been using a Google service that gave them free custom domain names and associated email addresses.

Users of Gmail who retain the "@gmail.com" domain suffix and have gratis Google accounts that give them Calendar, Drive, Docs and so on will not be afflicted — at least for at present.

The service being phased out was originally the complimentary version of Google Apps and was available from 2006 to 2022, only existing free groups take been allowed to continue. The related paid service was after rebranded every bit Grand Suite and so over again in 2022 equally Google Workspace.

And so if your uncle ready a Google Apps account back in 2008 with the domain "johnsonfamily.com" and gave each family unit fellow member an email addresses using that domain, then the current ambassador of that group will have to starting time paying at least $6 per user per calendar month by July. The same goes for a small business that ready "acmewidgets.com" or such.

If you chose not to start paying, the data associated with your group and held on Google's servers will have to be exported (Google has a tool for that) before July 1, considering after then it might all exist deleted forever.

Ars Technica'due south Ron Amadeo notes that unfortunately "at that place'south no way to export things like content purchases for books, movies, music, and apps" and that "you'll besides probably lose your Google Vocalization number."

How to proceed your G Suite account

If you exercise decide to pay, your G Suite account will be converted to a Google Workspace business relationship with pricing "based on the features you lot currently use" and your data migrated over showtime May one. Here'south a pricing chart for Google Workspace accounts.

The superlative tier of Workspace, with unlimited users, is the Google function-and-e-mail setup that for-profit enterprises utilize and pay for. Smaller outfits with fewer than 300 users can pay $18 or less per user per month. Educational and non-turn a profit institutions that use G Suite volition be migrated to Workspace for costless.

Users of free Google accounts not tied to a custom domain won't be affected past any of this, but it'due south clear that Google has a habit of abruptly changing its listen nearly how much support information technology gives its services and devices.

The Annals pointed out that last summertime, Google backtracked on its earlier pledge to store unlimited images in Google Photos and now caps all data associated with a costless account to 15 GB. And nosotros can't forget that Google will be remotely bricking Google OnHub routers in December 2022 after but vii years of working life.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-booty driver, lawmaking monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security space for more than than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown upwardly in random TV news spots and fifty-fifty moderated a panel discussion at the CEDIA home-technology conference. You can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.