Google’s productivity suite has been called many things over the years. Google Apps was originally called Google Workspace. G Suite is now Google Apps. The company has also offered many options to access the software over that time, including new subscription plans and discontinuing older ones. It plans to retire a tier that survived the suite’s recent rebranding.
9to5Google found an email from the company in which it informed Workspace administrators that G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available after July 1, 2022. These users will be transitioned to paid accounts by the company on May 1. Google claims it will automatically choose a subscription plan for users who have not chosen one by May 1. It will also consider their current usage in making that decision. Anyone or any organization that moves to a paid subscription plan will not be charged for at least two months. The company states that it will suspend accounts of individuals or organizations who don’t provide billing information by July 1.
Monthly fees for enterprise and business Workspace accounts start from $6 per user. The company will offer deep discounts to anyone affected by this decision. The move won’t affect Gmail, Docs, and Sheets users who have a Google account. Google will offer its free Workspace plans to schools and nonprofits that are eligible for the Fundamentals tier. This isn’t changing, and organizations with legacy G Suite Basic, Business, Educational, or Nonprofit subscriptions don’t have to worry about a surprise bill.
