This article is relevant only for customers with Google Workspace for Education Standard or Education Plus subscriptions.
For Education Standard and Education Plus customers going through renewals on or after February 1, 2026, these subscriptions will be transitioning to a single license type. This transition will provide more streamlined ordering, license deployment and management for our partners and customers.
Managing License Reassignment
If you purchased your subscription from a Google Workspace for Education reseller, they manage the renewal settings on your subscription. In cases where subscriptions are set to auto-renew by your reseller, license reassignment will occur automatically within 24 hours of the renewal date. However, in most cases, license assignment will require customer or reseller action to reassign licenses. Customers should confirm with their reseller if they need to take action as part of this transition. If a customer has granted permission for their reseller to access their Admin console, then resellers can manage this reassignment on customers’ behalf. Go to the Google Workspace for Education Licensing Guide for more details about the various tools you can use to manage licensing for your institution.
Steps to reassign Staff licenses
Confirm with your reseller if you need to reassign Staff licenses, or if this will happen automatically at renewal. If you need to reassign Staff licenses, you will have 30 days after the original paid renewal date to reassign Staff licenses.
- Workspace Billing Administrators will receive an email notification indicating their Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) subscription has been put into a grace period, and if no action is taken by your reseller, then the subscription will be suspended. These emails will be sent when the subscription is moved to a grace period, then 30 days before the grace period ends and the day before the grace period ends. These emails are expected and customers should not be concerned about the Staff subscription being suspended.
- All users assigned a Staff license should be transitioned to an Education Standard or Education Plus license type using the Admin console, Google Cloud Directory Sync , GAM, Enterprise License Manager API, Google Workspace for Education License Management Tool., or a different license management tool. Administrators can utilize whichever method works best for their institution.
- When the Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) subscription grace period expires, customers will receive an email notification and will no longer see the subscription in the Admin console.
- Administrators can verify their licenses have been reassigned by confirming all users previously assigned an Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) license are now assigned an Education Standard or Education Plus license.
Managing storage during the transition
Confirm with your reseller if you need to reassign Staff licenses, or if this will happen automatically at renewal. If you need to reassign Staff licenses, you should be aware of the impact on storage due to manual storage adjustments while the Staff subscription is in a grace period. You can refer to the Help Center content on Google Workspace for Education storage here.
During the transition to single license type, if you change the number of assigned users with an Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) license while the subscription is in the grace period, then your institution’s total storage quota may vary temporarily until your renewal date. It’s recommended to keep the total number of Staff licenses assigned as stable as possible to avoid temporary swings in storage quota as this may create confusion over available storage. Reassignment of licenses between users (that is, to address personnel changes) during the grace period will not impact storage quota as long as the total number of licenses assigned remains consistent. At your renewal date, the manual storage adjustment associated with the Staff subscription will expire and any license reassignment will no longer have an impact on storage quota. Additionally, the storage quota associated with your new single license type subscription will be accurately reflected in your Admin console.
Ensure user access to Google Meet features
This section is relevant only for Education Plus customers.
Previously, some Google Meet features, such as recording, meeting transcription, and live streaming, were disabled by default for the Education Plus student license type. With the transition to a single license type, access to these features is now controlled solely by Admin console settings. When the Education Plus (Staff) subscription is cancelled, following the grace period if applicable, the default settings for these Meet features will be OFF in the Admin console.
Admins can take action, before or after the transition to single license type to set the preferred availability for their users.
- Previously, these features were default ON at the top-level organizational unit. If these feature settings at a user, group or sub-organizational level had previously been adjusted, either ON or OFF, the settings will remain as is after the transition to single license type is complete.
- If default settings were never adjusted, admins will need to turn ON these Meet features for specific users, groups or sub-organizational units to provide access to these features.
If preferred, admins can configure settings for users, groups or sub-organizational units before the transition to single license type, as manually configured settings for these features should not change at the transition.
