Changing your Google Workspace plan

Upgrade your Google Workspace plan to access higher-tier features like Google Vault and advanced endpoint management.

Last updated November 22, 2024

If you’re eligible, you can upgrade your Google Workspace plan at any time. This guide covers changing your Google Workspace plan.

Note

It’s not possible to switch to a different Google Workspace billing cycle or downgrade your Google Workspace plan.

If you are a former Google Domains customer and your Google Workspace account migrated to Squarespace, you can change your plan after your billing subscription renews.

Before you begin

  • Site owners and contributors with Administrator permissions can make Google Workspace billing plan changes. Learn more in Squarespace permissions explained.
  • When you upgrade your Google Workspace plan, you’re charged a prorated amount for the upgrade based on the cost of the unused time on the old plan and the full cost of the new plan. You’ll also start a new monthly or annual term, which is one month or one year from the date of the upgrade. Learn more about Google Workspace pricing, billing and invoices.
  • If you're currently in your free year of Google Workspace, you’ll lose the remaining free time for your Google Workspace plan and pay the full cost of the new plan. The cost of existing users, outside the free account, is prorated. When the free inbox isn't applied, the costs of all users on the new plan are prorated. Learn more about the Free Google Workspace offer.

Eligibility

You’re eligible to upgrade your Google Workspace plan if:

  • Your Business Starter plan or Business Standard plan is on a monthly subscription.
  • Your Legacy G Suite Basic plan is on a monthly subscription.
  • SEPA isn’t being used to pay for your Google Workspace subscription.
  • You haven’t moved your Google Workspace plan to another Squarespace site during your current billing cycle.

You’re not eligible if:

  • A pending Google Workspace payment hasn’t been processed. 
  • The domain isn't verified.
  • The Google Workspace plan moved to a different Squarespace site or it moved to a different user during the current billing cycle.
  • The Google Workspace plan is suspended or past due.
  • You haven’t accepted the Terms of Service.
  • You've had an uninterrupted annual subscription since before December 1, 2022.
  • You’re using SEPA to pay for your Google Workspace subscription.

Upgrading a Business Starter plan or Business Standard plan

If you’re on a Business Starter plan or Business Standard plan, you can follow our steps below to upgrade your plan. To upgrade a Business Plus plan, transfer your Google Workspace account to Google. If you’re on the Legacy G Suite Basic plan, follow the steps in Upgrading a Legacy G Suite Basic billing plan.

To upgrade your Business plan:

  1. Open the Google Workspace panel.
  2. Under Plan, click Change beside the name of your current billing plan.
  3. Choose a plan.
  4. Review the plan change details, including any charges.
  5. Confirm the change.

When you upgrade your plan, the change occurs immediately so you can access the new plan's features and limits.

Note

Squarespace is a Google Workspace reseller, which means you can can sign up for Google Workspace through your Squarespace site. Companies like Squarespace that resell Google Workspace accounts are required to follow any changes Google makes to their Google Workspace product. Learn more in Using Google Workspace with Squarespace.

Upgrading a Legacy G Suite Basic billing plan

In October 2020, Google rebranded G Suite as Google Workspace. As of 2023, Google is requiring their resellers to automatically upgrade customers to the Business Starter plan if they’re on the Legacy G Suite Basic plan. Google moved many features initially included with the Legacy G Suite Basic plan to higher-tier plans.

It’s not possible to manually upgrade a Legacy G Suite Basic plan to the lower tier Business Starter plan from the Google Workspace panel because this will result in a loss of features. To avoid losing access to these features, you can follow our steps below to upgrade your Legacy G Suite Basic plan to one of the higher tier plans, Business Standard plan or Business Plus.

Accessing this feature

Squarespace is emailing customers affected by this automatic change from Google.

  • If you’re a Monthly G Suite Basic subscriber, you’ll receive an email with the subject line "Upgrade your Google Workspace plan".
  • If you’re an annual G Suite Basic subscriber, your email will have the subject line “You will be charged for your Google Workspace renewal in 15 days”.

To upgrade your Legacy G Suite Basic billing plan:

  1. Open the Google Workspace panel.
  2. Under Plan, click Change beside the name of your current billing plan.
  3. Choose a plan.
  4. Review the plan change details, including any charges.
  5. Confirm the change.

Features

To check out the details of the Business Starter plan, Business Standard plan and Business Plus plan, visit Google Workspace pricing, billing, and invoices. To view your plan, and compare the features of your Legacy G Suite Basic plan to the features of the other available plans, log into your Google Workspace Admin console.

Tip

Picking a comparable plan will help mitigate feature loss. Review Google’s documentation to learn how to double-check what premium features you’re using in Google Workspace.

Avoid feature loss when upgrading a Legacy G Suite Basic plan

To avoid feature loss when upgrading a Legacy G Suite Basic to a Business plan, review the following details from your Google Workspace Admin console:

Step 1 - Find out what features you’re at risk of losing

If you're an administrator for your site’s Google Workspace account, you can sign into your Google Workspace console to compare the features of your Legacy G Suite Basic plan to the features of the other available plans you can select as your upgrade. After reviewing all of the plans, select a plan that includes the features you don’t want to lose. For example, if you’re currently using Google Vault on your Legacy G Suite Basic plan, we recommend upgrading to the Business Plus plan because it includes Google Vault. For help with reviewing the features of each plan, review Google’s documentation.

Note

If you're on an annual plan, it’s not possible to receive a refund for any unfilled seats in your Google Workspace account outside the renewal period. When a new user doesn’t fill an empty seat, it’s removed at the next renewal date. You’ll only be charged for the remaining active users at that time.

Step 2 - Double-check the storage for each user on your Google Workspace account

If any users’ storage exceeds 30 GB after you upgrade, they lose the ability to upload files to Google Drive or Google Photos. They also lose the ability to send and receive messages on Gmail. To learn more, visit Google’s documentation. For steps on how to increase the storage space for a specific user on your current Google Workspace plan, visit Google’s documentation.

Step 3 - Export all your organization's data

Google’s Data Export tool exports all supported data for all of your Google Workspace users to a Google Cloud Storage archive where it can be downloaded directly onto your computer. For steps on how to export your data, visit Google’s documentation

Tip

Review Google’s documentation on risk of data loss.

Step 4 - Upgrade a Legacy G Suite Basic plan to a Business Standard plan and Business Plus plan

Follow our steps on how to upgrade your plan to a comparable Business plan.

Who to contact for support

Squarespace Customer Support can help you with these Google Workspace questions:

  • Anything in the Google Workspace panel in Squarespace
  • Billing and invoices
  • Eligibility and general questions before signing up
  • Signing up
  • User management

For anything else, contact Google or visit their documentation.

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