Google G Suite Legacy Accounts Will Soon Switch to Pooled Storage

Google has started warning users of its Legacy G Suite free edition plan that their individual cloud storage will soon be replaced with pooled storage. The switch will happen on May 1st, Google said in an email sent to G Suite legacy free users seen by The Verge.

Google discontinued this G Suite legacy free edition plan back in 2012. It allowed users to set up a Gmail account with a custom domain, similar to what Microsoft’s now-deprecated Windows Live Domains service offered. Legacy G Suite accounts offer 15GB of individual storage per user, but the Google Workspace Business plans that replaced them use pooled storage instead (except for Enterprise plans).

“Over the past few years, we’ve rolled out pooled storage to customers across Google Workspace. Pooled storage provides a simpler and more flexible way to manage storage, as all storage is shared across users within a plan. This removes the need to manage it on a per-user basis. In the coming months, we’ll start rolling out this pooled storage model to your G Suite legacy free edition plan, providing you with more flexibility to manage your storage,” Google explained in its email to customers.

In practice, users still on G Suite legacy free edition plans won’t see any reduction in the total amount of storage they had. However, starting May 1, 2025, this storage will be pooled and shared across all users within their organization. It will also be upgradeable in 100GB or 1TB increments in the Google Admin console.

Back in 2022, Google tried to force G Suite legacy free edition customers to transition to its new Google Workspace plans, but the company ultimately backtracked. At the time, Google argued that its Workspace plans included 24/support and premium collaboration and security features, adding that “certain business functionality” may be removed in the future as well. While that hasn’t happened yet, this switch to pooled Workspace storage may look like another attempt from Google to upsell these legacy users.