This in-depth step-by-step guide helps you cancel your Google Workspace subscription without the additional administrative hassle and shows you how to put everything into action.
How To Cancel Google Workspace Subscription
Below are easy steps to do this!
1. Export the Important Stuff First
Just before you cancel, ensure to take a backup of anything that you want. All customer data in Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Google Drive, and other Workspace services will be deleted after all the user’s cloud subscriptions have been canceled; it cannot be restored during cancellation.
The best way is to download your emails, calendar events, files etc. using Google Data Exportorable. Inspect third-party applications linked to your Workspace account as well.
For apps you are still using, there is also a tip to export any user data that is required and ensure you will continue to do so even after cancelation.
2. Cancel the Subscription
For domain-verified subscriptions:
• Sign in to your Google Admin console using an administrator account.
• Click on Menu > Billing > Subscriptions
• Click the Workspace subscription.
• Click More, then Cancel subscription. If you do not have a More, just click Cancel
• Select a cancellation reason and click on Continue.
• Select the confirmation box and enter your email address to cancel your subscription.
For email-verified subscriptions:
Same process but you need to decide what will be happening with that data after cancellation. Alternatively, you can let users preserve their drive data as simple consumer accounts or delete all user information and the organisation account itself.
What Happens After You Cancel?
Billing:
• The billing for flexible plan customers stops immediately upon requesting the closure.
• Annual plan users will be billed for any balance of their contract.
Shared Drive Access:
• You can still access shared drive files read-only but you will no longer be able to collaborate on the files (editing, moving, deleting etc.) into a shared drive.
Admin Console Access:
• Your access ends immediately. When you have opted to delete the account of the organization, you will then be logged out and cannot log in again.
Organizational Data:
• If you choose to delete everything, all user Drive data and your organization will be gone away in about 90 days. Google also supports the ability to remove Drive content faster.
3. The Account of the Organisation That You Want to Delete
If the Google Account for your organisation is no longer necessary, you can delete it after cancelling your subscription. It also leaves you open to use the domain name for anything else. Pre-requisite before doing this:
• Retain billing records and Workspace data.
• If your project has any other paid resources, such as Cloud Identity or registered domains for API keys, cancel those services.
• Your domain name will generally be released within 24 hours after the account is deleted.
How to Re-Subscribe If You Wish To
You can return and sign up for a new Workspace subscription within 51 days if you keep your Google Account. Beyond that window, you might also have to wait up to 84 days before you would be able to create a new subscription.
Key Summary and Best Practices
• Backup your data before canceling
• CANCEL using the admin console via below path: Billing → Subscriptions
• Get an idea of how it will impact your bill
• Setup where your user data goes
• Only delete your organization’s account if you are sure you will never need it again
• If you don’t reactivate your Workspace plan before 51 days, you will have to rebuild from zero
Need to cancel Google Workspace? The most important thing is to be aware of each step and you can proceed with ease.