Prepare your institution for the new Education Fundamentals licensing model & 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.

New licensing for Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals customers

Starting in November 2024, new Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals customers will be on an updated licensing model for Education Fundamentals. 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. For existing Google Workspace for Education domains, we’re giving additional time to prepare for these changes and primary admins will be notified in advance. 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 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 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 today.
• 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.

New license types coming soon

Next year we will begin to roll out new license types that help administrators ensure their users have access to the right level of functionality while securely retaining data for compliance purposes. 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 Fundamentals licenses your domain is assigned when the transition takes place.

• 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. For example, this might be helpful for Education institutions who want to provide Gmail access to their growing alumni base while limiting the impact they have on the domain's storage quota. 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 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 Workspace services. When an admin assigns an Archived User license to an Education Fundamentals or Gmail Only user, it frees 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. 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, 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.

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.

What to do if your domain needs more licenses

If you need more than your allotted number of Fundamentals users, you can request additional licenses. When new license types become available, additional quantities can be requested through the same process.

If you have additional questions or want to see a visual representation of best licensing practices, see our licensing handbook.