Turn Google Play on or off for users

If you're an administrator of Google Accounts for an organization, you can control who uses Google Play from their account. Just turn the service on or off for those people in your Admin console. People for whom you turn on Google Play can use it to download and purchase mobile content and apps in their accounts.

Users who have Google Play turned off retain limited access to the service, as described in the next section.

What happens when Google Play is off

If you turn off Google Play for users in your organization, expect the following:

• Users that Google Play is turned off for can't download or purchase any new content from Google Play, with the following exceptions:
  • Content and apps that were previously downloaded remain on their devices and continue to receive updates.
  • Users under advanced mobile management can still download managed apps made available by the administrator to  managed devices. 
• If a user switches to a new device, any previously downloaded content is available for download to the new device using the same account.
• If users have other Google Accounts on their devices, such as a personal account, they might be able to use Google Play with those accounts.
• If you manage Android apps on Chrome devices in your organization, you can still force-install and decide which Android apps users can install. Learn more about managing Android apps on Chrome.

If you wish to allow downloads of free content while blocking purchases from Google Play, you can turn off Google Pay instead of turning off Google Play.

Control who uses Google Play

Before you begin: To turn a service on or off for certain users, put their accounts in an organizational unit (to control access by department) or add them to an access group (to allow access 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  AppsAdditional Google services.

3. Click Google Play. 

   Tip: Scroll to see all services. Or at the left, choose a Filter to narrow the list. For example, filter by status or popularity.

4. Click Service status.

5. To turn a service on or off for everyone in your organization, click On for everyone or Off for everyone, and then click Save.

6. (Optional) To turn a service on or off for an organizational unit:

   1. At the left, select the organizational unit.
   2. To change the Service status, select On or Off.
   3. Choose one:
      • If the Service status is set to Inherited and you want to keep the updated setting, even if the parent setting changes, click Override.
      • If the Service status is set to Overridden, either click Inherit to revert to the same setting as its parent, or click Save to keep the new setting, even if the parent setting changes.
        Note: Learn more about organizational structure.
7. To turn on a service for a set of users across or within organizational units, select an access group. For details, go to Use groups to customize service access.

Learn to use Google Play at the Google Play Help Center.

Related topics

• Turn a service on or off for Google Workspace users
• Manage access to services that aren't controlled individually
• Turn on or off new services by default
• Google Workspace for Education Core and Additional services