4. Set storage limits

Google Workspace for Education customers get a baseline of 100 TB of pooled storage and options for increasing storage. To allocate your institution’s storage pool, you can set a storage cap for users and shared drives.

Tips for setting storage limits

• Set storage limits for users: Set a baseline storage limit for users on the top organizational unit first, to ensure all users have a limit applied to them. Then set storage limits for child organizational units or groups to override the baseline.
• Set different limits for students and instructors: As a starting point, you could set a 3 GB storage limit for students (by group or organizational unit) and 10–15 GB for instructors. However, we recommend that you analyze your current storage use to determine typical use in your institution.
• Allow certain users to create shared drives: By default, shared drive creation is turned off for all users in your organization. We recommend that you set a storage limit on shared drives (described next), then allow users in some groups or organizational units to create shared drives.
• Customize storage limits for shared drives: In addition to restricting who can create shared drives, you can also make sure storage is allocated to individual shared drives appropriately. By default, the limit for shared drives is set to 100 GB.
• Create groups for users who require more storage: Some users might need flexibility in their storage limits, such as when they work on a particular project. To accommodate these temporary needs, create a configuration group for users who need more storage. Exempt users from their organizational unit’s storage limits by adding them to the group as long as needed.
• Communicate storage policy changes: Let your users know that you're enforcing a storage limit. For email notification templates, see Communicate policy changes to your users.

For more best practices, download the Storage Guide for Admins.

Set storage limits for users

Set a storage limit for users in an organizational unit

Before you begin: To apply the setting for certain users, put their accounts in an organizational unit (to set by department) or a configuration group (to set for users across or within departments).

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  Storage.
3. In the Storage settings section, click Manage.
4. Click User storage limit.
5. At the left, click the entity you want to apply a storage limit to:
   • Organizational unit–Click the organizational unit.
   • Group–Click Groups. Click the search field and begin entering the name of the group, then click the group.

     Note that group storage limits always override organization storage limits, and you can arrange which groups override each other through group settings. Learn more about configuration groups

6. Select On and set the amount of storage.
7. Click Save. If you set a limit for a child organizational unit after setting a limit for a parent organizational unit, click Override. If some users already exceed the storage limit, you are warned. Learn more about Storage limit warning messages.

For Gmail and Photos, it can take up to 24 hours for the storage limit to apply. For Drive, the storage limit applies after the user next uploads, creates, or edits a file.

Set storage limits for shared drives

To control how much storage shared drives can use, you can set a storage limit for the shared drives assigned to a specific organizational unit. By default, the limit for shared drives is set to 100 GB, but you might want to tailor this for your institution. For example, you might want each shared drive in a “Faculty” organizational unit to have a 100-GB limit while each shared drive for the rest of your organization has a 10-GB limit. To set these limits, set a 10-GB limit on shared drives in your top organizational unit, then set the 100-GB limit on shared drives in the “Faculty” organizational unit.

Before you begin (Optional): If you want to apply different storage limits to different shared drives, assign shared drives to organizational units.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  Storage.
3. In the Storage settings section, click Manage.
4. At the left, click the organizational unit with the shared drives you want to set a storage limit for.
5. Click Shared drive storage limit.
6. Select On, and enter the amount of storage each shared drive can use.
7. Click Save. If you set a limit for a child organizational unit that was previously inheriting a limit from a parent organizational unit, click Override. If you previously set a limit for a child organizational unit and you want it to inherit the limit from a parent organizational unit, click Inherit.

   If some shared drives already exceed the storage limit, you are warned before the policy is applied. For details, on this page see Storage limit warning messages.

Note: 

• After you set a shared drive storage limit, it applies to a shared drive when a user next adds or edits a file in the shared drive.
• Shared drive limits don’t prevent users from creating more shared drives. If you’re concerned about certain users consuming too much storage by creating shared drives, restrict who can create shared drives. 

What happens when your users go over storage limits

When storage limits are enforced and your user exceeds their limit, their Google Workspace is impacted in the following ways:

• They can’t upload new files or images to Google Drive.
• They can’t create new files in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard. Until they reduce storage usage, nobody can edit or copy their affected files or submit forms owned by the user.
• They can't back up any photos and videos to Google Photos.
• They can’t record new meetings in Google Meet.
• They can still sign into and access their Google Workspace for Education account, view and download their files, and send and receive emails. Note: Users with Google Workspace licenses other than Education can’t send and receive emails when they exceed their storage limit.

What happens when shared drives go over storage limits

If a shared drive exceeds its storage limit, users can't add new files or edit existing files. To resolve:

• A Content manager or Manager of the shared drive can move or delete content from the shared drive.
• An admin can increase the storage limit that applies to the shared drive.