Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals licensing model & available license types

We’re making updates to Education Fundamentals licenses and how they're provisioned for Google Workspace for Education accounts. Additionally, we’re introducing new license types free of charge to give you more ways to manage your users.

Licensing for Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals customers

Starting in November 2024, new sign ups for Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals are on an updated licensing model for Education Fundamentals. In March 2025 we will begin the transition of existing customers on Education Fundamentals, followed by the transition of Education Standard and Education Plus customers as early as May 2025. The functionality of Education Fundamentals will remain the same for end users, providing secure and easy-to-use tools — at no cost — that help improve collaboration, productivity, and class management. New Google Workspace for Education institutions will have 2,500 available Education Fundamentals licenses. With this update, in order for users in new domains to have access to all of the Google Workspace tools included in Education Fundamentals, they will need an Education Fundamentals license assigned to them. If users are on an Education Standard or Education Plus license, they will also need an Education Fundamentals license assigned. Here's how the updated licensing model works:

• Admins will be responsible for managing their provisioned Education Fundamentals licenses—With this new model, Education institutions will receive a set number of Education Fundamentals licenses, which they may assign to users in their domain or save for future users. As a user graduates or leaves their institution, admins may choose to unassign their Education Fundamentals license to free it up for another active user, and in its place assign them one of the new free of charge licenses described in the “New License Types” section below.
• Existing customers will receive enough Education Fundamentals licenses to cover their current users, with a buffer— During the transition, domains will receive the same number of Education Fundamentals licenses as the number of Education Fundamentals users they have today (inclusive of both active and suspended users) plus an additional buffer based on the number of existing accounts in their institution at the time of transition.
• For existing users in a domain, we're assigning the Education Fundamentals licenses for you—To make this change easier to manage, when the new licensing model goes into effect, all existing users in a domain will automatically be assigned an Education Fundamentals license and their ability to interact with Google services will not change. This means immediate action will not be required during the transition period to ensure you have the number of licenses you need to maintain access for your existing users. New accounts added after the transition will need to have a license assigned by an admin.
• Education Fundamentals auto-assignment will be turned on at the root Organizational Unit (OU), meaning all newly created users will be assigned a Fundamentals license at inception. We also recommend creating at least one OU for the new license types below - Gmail Only and Archive User - and turning off auto-assignment of Education Fundamentals for those OUs.

New license types

Starting in March 2025 for Education Fundamentals and May of 2025 for Education Standard and Education Plus, we will begin to roll out new license types that help administrators ensure their users have access to the right level of functionality. These license types are both free of charge and do not require engaging with a Google for Education reseller to access. The number of each license type a domain receives will match the quantity of Education Fundamentals licenses your domain is assigned when the transition takes place. When a customer signs up for Google Workspace for Education for the first time, they’ll receive 2,500 of each license.

• Gmail Only User—This license allows users who don’t need access to all of the tools in Google Workspace for Education to keep access to Gmail. Users with this license will have access to Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, join-only Meet, Takeout, and some additional services, but users will not have access to Classroom, Drive, or Editors. This license type will likely be helpful for Education institutions who want to provide Gmail access to their growing alumni base. When an admin assigns a Gmail Only User license to an Education Fundamentals user, it frees up their Education Fundamentals for another user in their domain.
• Archived User—This license ensures that user data is retained (based on your Vault retention rules)) and protected by the same industry-leading security as users with an Education Fundamentals license, but does not allow the user to sign in to their Google Account on any system, including Google Workspace services. When an admin archives a user account, the user is automatically assigned an Archived User license, freeing up their Education Fundamentals or Gmail Only license for another user in their domain.

What happens when these new licenses are assigned:

• To a Fundamentals user—Assigning a Gmail Only user license to a user or archiving a user unassigns their Education Fundamentals license, freeing it up for another user in their domain.
• To a Standard or Plus user—If an Education Standard or Education Plus user is archived or assigned a Gmail Only user license, their Education Fundamentals license is automatically unassigned but their Education Standard or Education Plus license must be manually unassigned in order to free it up for another user. If an admin wants to archive a user, but retain additional features and security protections they received with their Education Standard or Education Plus license (such as Data Regions), they can leave that license assigned to them as an “Archived User”.

How to prepare for the new licensing model

For new and existing customers, we recommend reviewing some best practices listed below.

• Ensure users in your domain have an appropriate license assigned once your domain has transitioned to the new licensing model. This will be essential moving forward as you create new users, archive existing users, or purchase new subscriptions.
• Review your license management on an annual basis, preferably 4-6 weeks before the start of your school year.
• Utilize existing tools, such as automatic licensing in the Admin console, Google Cloud Directory Sync , the Enterprise License Manager API, or third-party tools such as GAM or the Google Workspace for Education License Management Tool..
• Review the Google Workspace for Education Licensing Guide for more detailed information on the state of license management moving forward.
• When new license types are added to your domain, consider archiving all current suspended accounts if you’d like to free up automatically assigned Education Fundamentals licenses for future users.

Note: When existing customers are transitioned to user-based Fundamentals, all existing users in their domain will automatically be assigned an Education Fundamentals license, and those users’ ability to interact with Google services will not change. If a new user is created after the transition, they’ll need to be assigned a license in order to access Workspace services.

Licensing FAQ

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