Google Workspace storage FAQ for admins

If you need more storage, review your storage options for non-Education Google Workspace editions or storage options for Education editions.

Additional limits

The following files count toward storage:

Google Drive

• Items in Google Drive, which includes PDFs, images, videos, Meet recordings, and Sites project files.
• Files created or edited after May 2, 2022 in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, Recorder, and Jamboard.
• Content in shared drives.
• Content in Trash until it's permanently deleted.

Gmail

• Messages and attachments, including items in your Spam and Trash folders.

Google Photos

• Original quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos.
• High quality (now named Storage saver) and Express quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos after June 1, 2021. Any photos or videos you backed up in High quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021 don't count toward your Google Account storage. Learn more about this change.

The following content doesn't count toward storage:

• Drive shortcuts
• Google Chat messages and attachments
• Content created with My Maps
• Files shared with users. Shared files are counted only for the file owner's storage, not for the users the file is shared with.
• Version history for files created in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, unless the user explicitly decides to keep older versions.
• WhatsApp backups from Android devices

You can see your organization's storage use in your Admin console, including which users and shared drives use the most storage. For details, see Review storage use across your organization.

If you don't have access to the data on the Storage page, you might be able to review the Accounts report:

1. Go to the article View Apps reports for your organization.
2. Follow the steps on how to go to the Accounts report > Total storage used.

Review the storage status of a single user

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. Click a user to open their account page.
   At the top of the page, you can see the percentages of mail and Drive storage utilized by the user.

If a user exceeds the storage limit set by their admin or by their license, their Google services are immediately impacted.

As soon as your organization exceeds its storage limit, users can’t add or back up photos to Google Photos.

If your organization exceeds its storage limit by 25% or for 14 days (whichever comes first), the following services are impacted:

• Users can’t add new files or images to Google Drive.
• Users can’t create new files in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and Forms. Until they reduce storage use, nobody can edit or copy their affected files or submit forms owned by the user.
• Users can’t record new meetings in Google Meet.

When your organization’s limit is exceeded, users can still sign in to their Google Workspace account, send and receive emails, and view and download files.

If you need more storage, review your storage options for non-Education Google Workspace editions or storage options for Education editions.

Ultimately, you are limited to the amount of storage described in our terms of service, and if you exceed your limit, we reserve the right to disable uploads to Drive, suspend your domain, or delete your domain along with all its data.

The ways you can get more storage for your organization’s email, files, and photos depend on your edition:

• Google Workspace for Education: see Free up or get more storage for your institution.
• All other editions: see Free up or get more storage.

Google Workspace storage is best for files that users access and edit frequently or collaborate in through Drive, Gmail, or Photos. Cloud Storage is best for files that users access indirectly through a website or other system your organization’s developers set up.

Google Workspace storage is sold and calculated in binary units. For example, each Enterprise Standard user license adds 5 TiB to your pooled storage, equal to ~5.5 TB.

Individual storage subscriptions are no longer available for purchase. When you upgrade to an edition that has pooled storage or your edition is updated to have pooled storage:

• The legacy storage isn’t added to your organization’s pooled storage.
• Any legacy storage subscriptions are automatically cancelled.

User-purchased storage

If users purchased additional storage, you may want to prepare ahead of the switch to make sure your organization has enough pooled storage for everyone. To identify which users might have a legacy user-purchased storage subscription:

1. Review the amount of storage included with your current Google Workspace subscription. On this page, go to What are Google Workspace storage and upload limits? 
2. In your Admin console, use the storage management tools to identify high-storage users. If their storage use is larger than what is included with their license, they might have purchased a legacy storage subscription. For example, a user with a Business Starter is expected to have 30 GB of storage, but if they’re using 50 GB, they may have purchased additional storage.

Alternatively, users can cancel their subscription ahead of the switch. To cancel an individual storage subscription, the user:

1. Opens https://play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions with the account they use for work or school.
2. Finds the Google One subscription (user-managed individual storage subscriptions are now listed as Google One subscriptions).
3. Clicks ManageCancel subscription and follows the on-screen instructions.

Admin-purchased storage

If you purchased additional storage for your users with the legacy admin-managed storage subscription, you can review how much storage that added in your Admin console (go to BillingSubscriptions). On that page, you can cancel the subscription if you no longer need it. It will be canceled automatically after the switch to pooled storage.