Create a Google Workspace account and set up an email address for your custom domain.

This guide explains how to create a custom email address by signing up for Google Workspace from your Squarespace site.

• For general information about our partnership with Google or what a custom email address is, visit Using Google Workspace with Squarespace.
• To check if you're eligible for a free year of Google Workspace, visit Google Workspace offer.
• If you receive an error message or email while setting up Google Workspace, visit Troubleshooting Google Workspace.

Google Workspace isn't available on Mobile start plans.

Note: Google Workspace, previously known as G Suite, includes Google's business version of Gmail. If you signed up for an account when it was called G Suite, Google automatically transitioned your account to Google Workspace. The functionality is the same.

Before you begin

• Ensure you meet the eligibility requirements.
• Only site owners and contributors with Admin permissions can sign up for Google Workspace through a Squarespace site.
• The domain you use can't include special characters, like ü, é, or ñ.
• You can only register one Google Workspace account per Squarespace site, even if you have multiple custom domains.
• It’s not possible to simultaneously register a Google Workspace account to a Squarespace domain and Squarespace subdomain. You can only choose one. As an alternative, consider adding a user alias domain or secondary domain.
• Ensure your homepage is enabled and not hidden behind a page password.

Step 1 - Prepare your domain

The steps you’ll take to prepare your domain depend on if you bought your domain from Squarespace or a third-party domain host. Keep in mind, you can:

• Sign up for Google Workspace using any domain connected to your site, whether it's your primary domain or another domain.
• Verify either domain after signing up for your Google Workspace account.
• If your domain is using custom nameservers, remove them and add the Squarespace default records to your domain's DNS settings.

Squarespace domains

If you have a Squarespace domain:

• Ensure you verified your domain ownership.
• Confirm your domain subscription is active.

Third-party domains

If your domain is hosted by a third-party:

• Confirm you properly configured your DNS records to connect your custom domain to Squarespace.
• It can take up to 72 hours for records added to your domain host’s end to propagate.

Step 2 - Register and purchase your account

1. Open the Google Workspace panel. If you're using a parking page, click Google Workspace in the Home menu.
   • If the Google Workspace account you've added to another domain appears in the panel, your domains are grouped. Ungroup your domain before moving forward with these steps.
2. Choose if you would like to pay Monthly or Annually, then click Select to choose a plan. It's not possible to switch to a different Google Workspace billing plan after creating your account.
3. In the Registration page, enter your information in the following fields:

Email Address

• First name - Your first name
• Last name - Your last name
• Username - Follow Google’s name guidelines. Usernames can use letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), dashes (-), underscores (_), apostrophes ('), and periods (.). As you type in this field, your full email address appears.
• Domain - This field automatically populates with your primary domain. If you have more than one domain, use the drop-down to select a different domain for your email address.
• New email address - Displays a preview of your new Google Workspace email

Contact information

• Personal email - Replace email@example.com with an email address you already use. For example, a personal @gmail or @yahoo email address. Don’t enter the new Google Workspace email you’re creating.
• Organization - If you don’t have an organization name, enter your name.
• Country - Select your country from the drop-down menu.
• Postal code - If your country doesn't use a postal code, leave this field blank. If "Invalid ZIP Code" appears, it means your postal code isn't formatted correctly. Confirm your postal code is correct, then enter it again. You may need to add your postal code in the following format: five digits, a hyphen, and four digits (Example: 12345-6789).

4. Review your information, then click Save and continue.
5. In the next panel, add your credit card information. To avoid failures, use a card that doesn't have 3D Secure features. Click Save and continue.
6. Review the order and the terms of service, then click Confirm and purchase.

A message appears confirming your account registration is processing. Click Go to Google Workspace to return to the Google Workspace panel.

The email address you created has Administrator permissions in Google Workspace. To learn more about the Administrator role, visit Google's documentation.

Note: After you register, a Google couldn't verify domain message may appear in Squarespace. The message should go away after you complete steps 4 and 5 below. If the message doesn't go away, follow the steps in Troubleshooting Google Workspace domain verification.

Step 3 - Find your temporary password at your current email address

1. Check the inbox for the email address you entered when signing up for Google Workspace. We'll send an email with your temporary password. The email subject line is Welcome to Google Workspace. If the email doesn't appear, check your spam folder.
2. In the email, click the Log into email button.

Keep in mind:

• Google also sends a welcome email that doesn't include a temporary password. You can ignore this email since you need the Squarespace welcome email to complete the signup process.
• If you added a new user, the welcome email's subject line is Google Workspace Email Invitation.

Resend your Google Workspace welcome email

If your welcome email isn't in your inbox or spam folder, you can resend it:

1. Open the Google Workspace panel.
2. Under Users, click … next to the Google Workspace user you created.
3. Click Send invitation or Reset password.

Note: If your subscription has migrated from Google to Squarespace, we’re now your billing provider for Google Workspace. You can manage your billing and users for your Google Workspace account from Squarespace after you confirm Squarespace is your new billing provider.

To confirm Squarespace is your new billing provider:

1. Open the Google Workspace panel.
2. Click Confirm. 

After you confirm, your subscription will be cancelled in Google and transferred to Squarespace. You'll receive an email from Google stating that your subscription was cancelled, and you can disregard this email. Your subscription will remain active in Squarespace and no action is needed on your end.

Step 4 - Log in and accept Google’s terms of service

1. Log in using the temporary password and the new email address you created. If you’re already logged into another Google Workspace or Gmail account, you’ll first choose Add account and then log in.
2. Follow Google’s prompts to create your own password and accept Google Workspace’s Terms of Service.
3. You’ll be taken to your new Google Workspace Admin console to verify your domain.

Tip: If a registration failure or other error message appears during this process, visit Troubleshooting Google Workspace.

Step 5 - Verify your Google Workspace domain

When you go to your Google Workspace Admin console for the first time, Google may ask you to verify your domain using their Set up Admin Console at the top of the Admin console dashboard. This is a security measure to ensure no one else uses your domain with Google Workspace.

If this prompt doesn’t appear in your Google Admin Console, open the Google Workspace setup tool and verify your domain. To learn more about verifying your Google Workspace domain with Squarespace, follow Google’s documentation.

Step 6 - Add MX records

Google Workspace requires Mail Exchange (MX) records to send from and receive email to your inbox. The steps you’ll take to add these records depends on whether the domain you use for Google Workspace is a Squarespace domain or a third-party domain.

Squarespace domains

If you create a Google Workspace account using a Squarespace domain, the MX records generate in your domain’s DNS records automatically. To ensure the records were added, visit Adding Google Workspace MX records.

Third-party domains

If you registered your domain through a third party like GoDaddy or Hover, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to add MX records to your domain's DNS settings. This step is required to receive email at your Google Workspace email addresses.

For more help adding MX records to a third-party domain, visit Google’s documentation. Find steps for your specific domain host in their provider-specific MX records guides.

Next steps

After completing these steps, you’re ready to use your Google Workspace account. You now have an email address for your custom domain. From here, you can:

• Log into Google Workspace and begin sending and receiving emails.
• Update settings on your site to connect your new email address to contact forms and email notifications.
• Add more users/email addresses to your subscription from the Google Workspace panel.
• Manage your billing settings and view invoices from the Billing panel.
• Expand your online presence by sending branded email campaigns from your custom email address.

Note: Don't use your Google Workspace address as your Squarespace account email address. If your domain expires or you forget the password for both accounts, you could be locked out of Squarespace. If you've already done this, we recommend changing your account email address.

Troubleshooting

When signing up for Google Workspace, you may encounter error messages. 

• If any error messages appear during or after registering your Google Workspace account, visit Troubleshooting Google Workspace
• If Google can’t verify your domain, visit Troubleshooting Google Workspace domain verification for next steps.