Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Guides

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

What is Google Workspace?

By

Have you seen new features coming to Google’s free apps for Google Workspace users? Or maybe you’ve seen the term “Google Workspace” while browsing the web. What is Google Workspace? Who can use it? What’s included? We’re here to reveal all.

Here’s everything you need to know about Google Workspace.

Recommended Videos

What is Google Workspace?

Once known as G Suite, and before that, Gmail for Your Domain, the service is now called Google Workspace. This is a Google-owned service that provides productivity applications, collaboration tools, and cloud storage in one package for your large or small business.

What’s included in Google Workspace?

Google Workspace included applications.
Google/Google Workspace / Google/Google Workspace

Google Workspace includes applications to help you and your team work together easily. There are currently 14 applications: Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Drive, Chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Forms, Keep, Jamboard, Apps Script, and Cloud Search.

You can also use the security and management tools Admin, Endpoint, Vault, and Work Insights.

How is Google Workspace different than Google’s free apps?

As you’ll see below, the Workspace plans include additional features that you won’t find with Google’s free apps. You can also set up custom, secure email with your company’s domain with 99.9% guaranteed uptime.

Additionally, you have access to business-level application features, 24/7 support via phone or email, extra storage, Microsoft Outlook integration, two-step authentication, and single sign-on (SSO).

How much does Google Workspace cost?

Google Workspace plans.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

You can choose from one of four Google Workspace plans depending on your company’s size, needs, and budget. Each plan comes with a 14-day free trial to see if it fits your team.

Here’s a summary of the costs and features for each plan:

  • Business Starter ($6 per user per month): Custom email, video meetings for 100 participants, 30GB of cloud storage per user, and standard support.
  • Business Standard ($12 per user per month): Custom email, video meetings for 150 participants with recordings, 2TB of cloud storage per user, and standard support with an optional upgrade.
  • Business Plus ($18 per user per month): Custom email with retention, video meetings for 500 participants with recordings and attendance tracking, 5TB of cloud storage per user, standard support with an optional upgrade, and advanced security and management tools.
  • Enterprise (contact for pricing): Custom email with retention and encryption, video meetings for 500 participants with recording, attendance tracking, noise cancellation, requested cloud storage per user, enhanced support, and advanced security and management tools.

The Business plans are suitable for companies with 300 or fewer employees, while the Enterprise plan is intended for larger businesses.

How do you sign up for Google Workspace?

Google Workspace Home Screen.
Google/Google Workspace

If you’re ready to start your free 14-day trial for a Business plan, visit the Google Workspace website and select Get started. Alternatively, you can choose Get started below the Business plan you pick above. You’ll then provide details about you and your business to begin.

For an Enterprise plan, choose Contact sales on the Google Workspace website or below the Enterprise plan for pricing, storage, and more.

Google Workspace for Education

Along with businesses, Google offers its Workspace suite to educators. You can enjoy collaboration and learning tools along with privacy features and controls. Separate from Google Workspace, take a look at Google Workspace for Education plans, pricing, and features.

If you’re looking for an affordable productivity suite for your business with collaboration tools and cloud storage, consider Google Workspace.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Sandy Writtenhouse
Sandy Writtenhouse
Computing Writer
Sandy has been writing about technology since 2012. Her work has appeared on How-To Geek, Lifewire, MakeUseOf, iDownloadBlog…
Google’s Gemini AI is Microsoft Clippy for a new generation
Google Workspace in Firefox on a Windows laptop.

The spirit of Clippy has returned. As it promised at I/O earlier in the month, Google announced Monday that it has begun rolling out the Gemini AI sidebar for its Workspace application suite, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive.

"Gemini can assist you with summarizing, analyzing, and generating content by utilizing insights gathered from your emails, documents, and more," the announcement blog reads.

Read more
Google is bringing AI to the classroom — in a big way
a teacher teaching teens

Google is already incorporating its Gemini AI assistant into the rest of its product ecosystem to help individuals and businesses streamline their existing workflows. Now, the Silicon Valley titan is looking to bring AI into the classroom.
While we've already seen the damage that teens can do when given access to generative AI, Google argues that it is taking steps to ensure the technology is employed responsibly by students and academic faculty alike.
Following last year's initial rollout of a teen-safe version of Gemini for personal use, the company at the time decided to not enable the AI's use with school-issued accounts. That will change in the coming months as Google makes the AI available free of charge to students in over 100 countries though its Google Workspace for Education accounts and school-issued Chromebooks.
Teens that meet Google's minimum age requirements -- they have to be 13 or older in the U.S., 18 or over in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, Canada, and the U.K. -- will be able to converse with Gemini as they would on their personal accounts. That includes access to features like Help me write, Help me read, generative AI backgrounds, and AI-powered noise cancellation. The company was quick to point out that no personal data from this program will be used to train AI models, and that school administrators will be granted admin access to implement or remove features as needed.
What's more, teens will be able to organize and track their homework assignments through Google Task and Calendar integrations as well as collaborate with their peers using Meet and Assignments.
Google Classroom will also integrate with the school's Student Information System (SIS), allowing educators to set up classes and import pertinent data such as student lists and grading settings. They'll also have access to an expanded Google for Education App Hub with 16 new app integrations including Kami, Quizizz, and Screencastify available at launch.
Students will also have access to the Read Along in Classroom feature, which provides them with real-time, AI-based reading help. Conversely, educators will receive feedback from the AI on the student's reading accuracy, speed, and comprehension.
In the coming months, Google also hopes to introduce the ability for teachers to generate personalized stories tailored to each student's specific education needs. The feature is currently available in English, with more than 800 books for teachers to choose from, though it will soon offer support for other languages, starting with Spanish.
Additionally, Google is piloting a suite of Gemini in Classroom tools that will enable teachers to "define groups of students in Classroom to assign different content based on each group’s needs." The recently announced Google Vids, which helps users quickly and easily cut together engaging video clips, will be coming to the classroom as well. A non-AI version of Vids arrives on Google Workspace for Education Plus later this year, while the AI-enhanced version will only be available as a Workspace add-on.
That said, Google has apparently not forgotten just how emotionally vicious teenagers can be. As such, the company is incorporating a number of safety and privacy tools into the new AI system. For example, school administrators will be empowered to prevent students from initiating direct messages and creating spaces to hinder bullying.
Admins will also have the option to block access to Classroom from compromised Android and iOS devices, and can require multiparty approval (i.e. at least two school officials) before security-sensitive changes (like turning off two-step authentication) can be implemented.
Google is introducing a slew of accessibility features as well. Chromebooks will get a new Read Aloud feature in the Chrome browser, for example. Extract Text from PDF will leverage OCR technology to make PDFs accessible to screen readers through the Chrome browser, while the Files app will soon offer augmented image labels to assist screen readers with relaying the contents of images in Chrome.
Later this year, Google also plans to release a feature that will allow users to control their Chromebooks using only their facial expressions and head movements.
These features all sound impressive and should help bring AI into the classroom in a safe and responsible manner -- in theory, at least. Though given how quickly today's teens can exploit security loopholes to bypass their school's web filters, Google's good intentions could ultimately prove insufficient.

Read more
I compared ChatGPT against Google Gemini to see which is the better free AI chatbot
A person typing on a laptop that is showing the ChatGPT generative AI website.

Two of the leading AI chatbots available today come from Google, with its Gemini system, and OpenAI, the company that kicked off the AI revolution with ChatGPT.
But you might be wondering which is the better free chatbot. I've spent a significant time with both to see how they compare, break down the costs and benefits of each service, explain what features you'll have to pay for and which you get for free, and show you which AI is best for what you need.

Pricing and tiers
Both ChatGPT and Gemini are available to the public for free at their respective websites and through their mobile apps. However, free tier users will only receive limited access to the most current and capable models.

Read more