That’s up from 2.6 billion in October 2020 and 2 billion-plus in March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the pandemic. Google Workspace - demand for which has been boosted by the coronavirus pandemic and remote work and learning - now has more than 3 billion active monthly users across consumer, enterprise and education, according to Google Cloud. Alphabet does not break out revenue for Google Workspace. “Robust” growth in both seats and average revenue per seat underscore the “value of collaborative solutions, in particular as people increasingly are embracing a hybrid work model,” Ruth Porat, chief financial officer for Alphabet and Google, said in an earnings call with analysts at the time. Google Cloud parent company Alphabet reported “strong” revenue growth for Google Workspace in its third-quarter earnings results last October. Since then, we’ve been helping our customers transition to our new editions where there’s more value than ever before.” In 2020, we introduced Google Workspace and tailored our offerings to provide more options to fit our customers’ needs.
“The legacy G Suite free edition was discontinued in 2012, and it never included the business benefits of a paid subscription like 24/7 support, 99.9 percent uptime and more storage. “Google Workspace is an integrated experience that enables teams of all sizes to connect, create and collaborate,” a Google Cloud spokesperson said. Google Cloud would not disclose the number of customers still using G Suite’s free legacy edition. “Partners that work with very small businesses may see an uptick as businesses look to partners for help with the transition.” “I do not see a significant impact on partners for existing customers, as most users of these legacy services were self-service or have previously moved to paid versions in order to obtain new features and capabilities,” Falcon said. Google Apps was rebranded as G Suite in 2016, but Google had stopped offering the free edition to new customers in December 2012. The free edition dates to 2006 under the launch of the former Google Apps and had been available to businesses, organizations and schools. The move to discontinue the G Suite legacy free edition has been a long time coming, said Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global, a Westborough, Mass.-based Google Cloud partner. “You may still retain access to additional Google services such as YouTube and Google Photos.”Ĭustomers using the education or nonprofits edition of G Suite at no cost can continue to do so without any service changes, according to the Google Cloud post. “After 60 days in suspension, you will no longer have access to Google Workspace core services such as Gmail, Calendar and Meet,” Google Cloud said.
Users automatically upgraded must enter their billing information prior to July 1 to complete the upgrade and prevent their subscription from suspension. We will upgrade your organization to a new Google Workspace subscription based on the features you currently use.” “If you choose to wait, Google will begin upgrading subscriptions automatically on May 1, 2022. “After you upgrade, you can use your new subscription at no cost until at least July 1, 2022,” Google Cloud said in a post on its site. The G Suite legacy free edition had a reduced set of business features. Google Workspace includes Gmail and Google Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms and Sites. The free offering no longer will be available starting July 1, and current users must upgrade to a paid subscription for the newer Google Workspace by May 1 to maintain their accounts and services, according to the cloud provider.įormerly Google Apps, G Suite was rebranded as Google Workspace with an expanded set of cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools in October 2020. Google Cloud is pulling the plug on its G Suite legacy free edition that dates to 2006 after preventing new users from signing up for it in December 2012.