Don’t get too distracted by today’s big AI for Google Workspace announcement. That’s because it’s also the day of the price increase for Google Workspace. Last month, Google announced a 20% increase in the price of its most popular “business” edition of Google Workspace, with an “annual” billing option starting March 14th. , the price increase brought up the Google Workspace signup page for new users. Existing users will also see a 20% price increase at some point in the future, with earliest rollout in April. If you don’t want to pay a lot for Workspace, the new annual plan allows him to subscribe to Workspace for his full year at the old rate.
Google’s new Workspace branding is somewhat confusing. Google has only branded the paid business edition of the Google app, which comes with a custom domain option for Gmail accounts. It used to be called “G Suite” and before that it was “Google Apps for your domain”. However, the new brand “workspace” applies to both paid business accounts and free consumer accounts. To be clear, free consumer Google accounts like Gmail and Docs are still free, but the three most common business editions, Business “Starter”, “Standard” and “Plus” are Everything is overpriced. Companies pay monthly per user for these accounts, so the price adds up quickly.
Annual plans used to be available to businesses the old-fashioned way of calling a corporate sales rep, but now any business admin can sign up for an annual plan online. Unlike plans, according to Google’s terms and conditions, you’re fixed at the number of users you choose at the beginning of the year, and you can add new users and pay more, but don’t drop them. It’s fixed for a year of service, but billing is still monthly and prorated as adding users increases your bill. The contract cannot be canceled early.
New users pay more today, existing users pay more next month
google price hike.
Many of these software-as-a-service businesses offer a one-year contract when you sign up. It’s not a discount, Google actually increases the price of Workspace every month, so you can save money by sticking to the annual plan.
Prices have jumped 20% across the board for the three major “business” editions. The “Business Starter” edition, which offers 30 GB of storage per user, increases from $6 to $7.20 per user per month. “Business Standard” increases to 2 TB per user and adds more Google Meet features like noise cancellation and meeting recording. It used to be $12 per user per month, now it’s $14.40. The 5 TB plan Business Plus was $18/month and is now $21.60.
Google clearly wants everyone to commit to a yearly plan instead of a monthly one. These new rates have already been published on the Google Workspace pricing page, but by default it will be his monthly cost for the annual subscription rate, not the flexible plan rate you actually pay if you pay monthly. is displayed. Hover over the little “i” icon and you’ll see the flexible monthly price increased by 20%.
Pricing for new workspaces is open.
Ron Amadeo
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when prices will go up for existing users. “The new pricing will roll out from his April of this year through his 2024, depending on factors such as the number of user licenses, current terms and conditions, and payment plans. the price is 10 or fewer user licenses It won’t change until January 2024.” sometimes I think it will be over the next nine months or longer. Google says it will “notify customers via the Google Workspace admin console at least 30 days before price changes take effect and provide more specific information to help them navigate these changes.” .
It’s not hard to imagine why Google is raising prices. Google Cloud, the division Workspace belongs to, is not yet profitable. Google Cloud employees (and Google Cloud employees only) were recently asked to share desks to consolidate real estate, so there’s a lot of austerity going on there. Assuming the newly announced generative AI features in Google Workspace are rolled out to the masses, running these features will significantly increase Google’s server costs, and someone will have to pay for that as well.
