Google delays its plans to shelve free G Suite accounts… by a month

Earlier this year, Google announced that it was going to discontinue the free version of G Suite. The company gave you two options: choose a paid plan, or continue with a no-cost plan with a self-hosted email address.

Now the search giant has issued a few key updates to this rollout plan on its support page. It’s giving users a bit more time to switch to new plans.

Google has shifted the automatic upgrade to a paid plan from May 1 to June 1, 2022. That means, if you haven’t chosen a no-cost option, you’ll be promoted to a paid plan, given the firm already has your payment details.

If you haven’t provided any payment details, you’ll have to set up the billing system by August 1, 2022. Otherwise, your accounts will be suspended. If you’ve spent 60 days in suspension, you’ll lose access to your Gmail, Calendar, and Meet services, until you pay up.

When Google announced the original shut down plan of the free tier, a lot of users complained that they have been using the free service with their own email, and had purchased subscriptions to services or paid for content in the Google Play Store.

So the company decided to introduce a no-cost plan where you can get access to basic services like Drive and Meet, but you have to use a non-Gmail account.

If you want to do that, you will have to join the waitlist by looking at a message in your Google Admin Console. And you have to do that before June 1, so you’re not automatically upgraded to a paid plan. You can read more about it here.

This seems like a counterintuitive way of communicating this upgrade to users, as many might not see this message at all.

Glad I saw this RT – wouldn't have probably known otherwise. I actually went ahead and just did the business starter option as it ended up only being $36/user for the next 18 months. Then 6/month/user after 10/23. Worth it for me but I can see the other side.

— Jamie Jackson (@techiejames) April 6, 2022

Google should allow legacy users a larger window to switch to a no-cost plan, and communicate to them through multiple channels to make sure they understand what’s happening.

In case you’re looking to leave G Suite behind, we’ve got a bunch of alternatives for you to consider switching to. After all, you don’t need to rely on a single service for your online workspace needs.