Essentials editions

Google Meet, Drive, and other collaboration tools for your domain

If you own or manage a domain, you can subscribe to Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials edition to get these key features for your organization:

• Google Meet for secure video meetings
• Google Chat for efficient group and direct messaging
• Google Drive for cloud storage
• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for content creation
• Google Tasks for tracking your tasks on your computer or phone
• Google Calendar for easy scheduling of video meetings and other events, reminders, and calendar sharing
• Pooled cloud storage for all users in your organization 
• Administrative controls for creating sharing policies

In addition, you can get account (identity) management features, such as the ability to create user accounts and manage user profiles, and advanced security features, such as admin-managed 2-step verification and password monitoring and enforcement. With Essentials for your domain, you get many of the features of other editions of Google Workspace but without the cost of services you might not need, like Gmail.

To get Enterprise Essentials, simply sign up for Essentials Starter edition, and then upgrade to Enterprise Essentials using your Admin console.

SIGN UP    How sign-up works

You can also buy Enterprise Essentials edition through a Google Sales representative or local reseller.

Other options

• If you don't own or manage a domain, sign up for Essentials Starter at no cost for a team of up to 25 users. Any number of teams can sign up at your organization.
• If you need Gmail, sign up instead for Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus.

Use Essentials with your domain

Use Google Workspace Essentials Starter at no cost with a team of up to 25 users at your company​​​​​, simply by signing up with your business email address. Then optionally get more features by upgrading to Enterprise Essentials and verifying you own your domain. Here's how it works:

1. Sign up with your business email address (email verified). You can then add up to 24 other users who have email addresses in the same domain. For example, if your address ends in @yourbusiness.com, you can use Essentials with other people whose addresses end in @yourbusiness.com.

   Note: You can't sign up with an address at a public web host like gmail.com or yahoo.com. Instead, you must use a custom address, such as for a business or organization. 

2. Upgrade to Enterprise Essentials (email verified). By upgrading, you get additional, pooled storage; advanced features for Google services, such as shared team drives and longer video meetings; and policy controls for features such as document sharing. You also get 24/7 access to Google Workspace support.

   Note: You can also buy Enterprise Essentials edition through a Google Sales representative or local reseller.

3. Optionally get more business features (domain verified). If you're the owner or IT admin for your organization's domain name, you can verify domain ownership after upgrading to Enterprise Essentials to get account (identity) management features, such as the ability to create user accounts and manage user profiles; additional security features, such as admin-managed 2-step verification and password monitoring and enforcement; and data retention and eDiscovery with Google Vault. You also take over management of any existing Essentials users in your organization.

Billing

If you have a Enterprise Essentials edition, you can choose between a Flexible or Annual billing plan. Learn more 

If you have Essentials edition, you get usage-based billing. You pay only for active users in your organization for the previous month. Learn more

Storage limits

If you have a paid edition of Essentials, you also get pooled storage across your organization. Storage increases with each user that joins Essentials.

If you have Essentials edition, there's a limit to storage increases. Learn more

Compare Essentials editions

To find out your edition, go to What's my subscription and payment plan?

Essentials editions are designed to provide seamless integration with your existing email solution. Use these tables to see exactly which features are included with the following editions:

• Essentials Starter—Collaboration and video conferencing at no cost for teams of up to 25 users.
• Essentials—Collaboration and video conferencing, additional security features, pooled storage, and policy controls. Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers.
• Enterprise Essentials—Collaboration and video conferencing with more participants and advanced features, more pooled storage, and enterprise-grade security and management.

Compare instead: Business editions (1-300 users) | Enterprise editions | Education editions

General	Service details
Core and additional services Identity management Usage and support User access options Security and data protection Migration products Reports and audit logs 3rd-party app integration Device management Other admin features	Drive and Docs editors Groups / Groups for Business Google Meet Google Chat Calendar

Core and additional services

Compare instead: Business editions (1-300 users) | Enterprise editions | Education editions

	Essentials Starter	Essentials**	Enterprise Essentials
Drive storage and Docs editors	✔	✔	✔
Video conferencing with Meet	✔	✔	✔
Chat and chat spaces	✔	✔	✔
Digital whiteboarding with Jamboard	✔	✔	✔
Tasks	✔	✔	✔
Calendar	✔	✔	✔
Directory management	✔	✔	✔
Sites	✔	✔	✔
Notetaking with Keep	✔	✔	✔
Groups for Business		✔*	✔*
Additional Google services (admin managed)		✔*	✔*
Google Vault for eDiscovery and information governance			✔*
Google Cloud Search for internal search and assist			✔ Only Google services

* Requires verifying your domain
** Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers

Note: If your organization has Essentials Starter edition or an email-verified account for Essentials edition or Enterprise Essentials edition, users can access additional services, which aren't admin managed, such as Google Groups, Photos, and YouTube.

Identity management

	Essentials Starter	Essentials**	Enterprise Essentials
Add or remove existing user accounts	✔	✔	✔
Create and delete user accounts		✔*	✔*
Assign a super admin role	✔	✔	✔
Assign custom admin roles		✔*	✔*
Manage user profiles		✔*	✔*

* Requires verifying your domain
** Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers

Migration products

Compare instead: Business editions (1-300 users) | Enterprise editions | Education editions

	Essentials Starter	Essentials**	Enterprise Essentials
Migrate calendars, contacts, files (many tools)		✔	✔
Migrate from Exchange		✔	✔
Migrate from Outlook		✔	✔
Migrate from HCL Notes		✔	✔
Have users migrate their data		✔	✔

** Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers

Other admin features

	Essentials Starter	Essentials**	Enterprise Essentials
Admin SDK (APIs to manage users and services, create reports, and more)		✔*	✔*
Upgrade directly to a Google Workspace Business or Enterprise edition with Gmail		✔*	✔*

* Requires verifying your domain
** Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers

Google Meet

Compare instead: Business editions (1-300 users) | Enterprise editions | Education editions                           

	Essentials Starter	Essentials**	Enterprise Essentials
Maximum meeting length	60 minutes	24 hours	24 hours
Maximum number of participants per meeting	100	100	150
External participants	✔	✔	✔
Secure meetings	✔	✔	✔
Presentations and screen sharing	✔	✔	✔
App for Android and iOS	✔	✔	✔
Digital whiteboard	✔	✔	✔
Add Meet video to Microsoft Outlook	✔	✔	✔
Works with Meet room hardware	✔	✔	✔
Dial in (U.S. & international numbers)*		✔	✔
Record meetings & save them to Drive		✔	✔
Breakout rooms		✔	✔
Polls		✔	✔
Q&A		✔	✔
Track attendance (requires 5 or more attendees)		✔	✔
Add co-hosts to meetings		✔	✔
Hand raising			✔
Noise cancellation			✔

* Powered by Google Voice
** Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers

Google Chat

Compare instead: Business editions (1-300 users) | Enterprise editions | Education editions

	Essentials Starter	Essentials**	Enterprise Essentials
Chat limit	10 K	No limit	No limit
Set spaces history option for users	✔	✔	✔
Turn chat history on or off		✔	✔
Automatically accept chat invitations		✔	✔
Allow or restrict external chat		✔	✔
Allow or restrict Chat apps		✔	✔
Turn external spaces on or off		✔	✔
Use discoverable spaces		✔*	✔*

* Requires verifying your domain
** Essentials edition is no longer available for new customers

Next steps

• Set up Essentials for your domain

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