If you're the owner or IT admin for your organization's domain name, you can unlock additional admin features, such as the ability to create user accounts, manage user profiles, and control password strength. Unlock features by verifying you own your domain.
You can verify your domain:
- After signing up for a Google service using email verification, including Google Workspace Business editions, Google Workspace Essentials Starter, Chrome Enterprise, or Chrome Browser Cloud Management, and trying it out with your team.
or
- After someone else at your organization signs up for a Google service using email verification. In this case, when you verify your domain, you take over management of the Google service for your organization.
Unlocks more features
When you verify your domain:
- You take full administrative control of all user accounts in your organization. You can create user accounts, manage user profiles and security settings, and more.
- Get advanced features for Drive, Meet, and Chat.
- (Business editions) Get Gmail and Calendar apps.
- (Essentials editions) You can switch to another Google Workspace edition to get Gmail.
Compare features in email-verified and domain-verified accounts
Before you begin
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Be aware of the following
Complete the following
How to verify domain ownership
To unlock features for your Google service, you need to verify that you own your organization's domain.
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Step 1: Get access to your domain host
To verify your domain with Google, you must have:
- The sign-in information for your domain host—Your host is typically where you bought your domain, such as GoDaddy or Enom. If you’re not sure where you bought your domain, go to Identify your domain host.
- Access to your domain's DNS settings/records—You'll need to update your domain’s DNS settings (also called DNS records). Most domain hosts let you do this yourself, by signing in to your account at the host. Others may update your settings for you.
If your domain host doesn't allow updating DNS settings, you can verify your domain by updating files at your domain's website. Go to Verify your domain with a TXT record.
Follow these steps to verify you own your domain.
I'm already an admin for a Google service
If you have access to your Google Admin console:
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
Account
Domains.
- Click Manage domains > Verify domain ownership. Then follow the steps in the verification tool.
Important: If a message appears that says you can’t verify your domain, go to “If you can't verify your domain" below.
- When it's time to verify your domain, you'll be asked to sign in to your domain host. You'll get a verification record to add to your domain’s DNS settings. Or, you can add a tag or file to your website’s files.
Click below for step-by-step instructions to add the verification record for your host. Also find generic steps if your host isn't listed.
GO TO VERIFICATION STEPS FOR YOUR DOMAIN HOST
Important: The verification record doesn’t affect your existing website or email.
- After you add the verification record to your DNS settings, you'll tell the verification tool to look for this record. After a few minutes (though it might take up to 1 hour), you’ll get a confirmation message that your domain is verified.
- (If you're using Essentials Starter edition) Follow the instructions to upgrade your subscription to Enterprise Essentials within 8 days; otherwise, domain verification will be canceled.
- If there are other teams using an email-verified Google account in your domain, follow the on-screen instructions to merge the teams with yours.
For details about merging teams and the recommended actions to take before and after you complete domain verification, see the section “Merging teams after domain verification” below.
Once you complete all on-screen steps to unlock additional features, you can start using your domain-verified Google service.
If you were using Essentials Starter and single sign-on (SSO) with Microsoft (OIDC) was turned on, you'll need to set a password for your Google Account before you can use your new Google service.
I'm taking control from another admin
If you don't have access to the Google Admin console:
- Go to the sign-up page for your service:
- Sign up using your email address at the domain you're verifying.
Use an address where you can get mail.
- Follow the instructions in the section “I’m already an admin for a Google service” above.
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
Billing
- Under Subscriptions, next to your Google service—such as Enterprise Essentials, Business Standard, or Chrome Enterprise Upgrade)—click Set up billing.
- Follow the instructions to set up billing.
For details, go to one of the following:
Merging teams after domain verification
If at least one other team in your domain has an email-verified Google account, you’ll need to merge your team account with the other teams' accounts before you can unlock additional features and start managing user accounts. To merge teams—called organizations in the Admin console—follow the on-screen instructions that appear after you complete domain verification.
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- Your organization becomes the top-level parent organization—In your organizational structure in the Admin console, all other organizations will become child organizational units under your organization. Learn more about your organizational structure.
- You might need to add subscriptions—Your organization (team) needs to have all the subscriptions the other teams are using. If any are missing, you'll need to add them to your organization's account during the merge process. This prevents users from losing access to services and associated data.
Follow the on-screen instructions to add the missing subscriptions on the Billing page, which opens on a new tab. Make sure you return to the "Review subscriptions" page to finish merging organizations.
- You'll need to upgrade any teams using Essentials Starter edition—When merging organizations, follow the on-screen instructions to upgrade these teams' subscriptions to Enterprise Essentials.
- Billing is consolidated—Other organizations' billing will be automatically canceled, and you’ll have one bill for all merged organizations.
If you're using Chrome Enterprise and Chrome Browser Cloud Management: For additional information on merging teams, see About email-verified and domain-verified accounts.
- Reset other teams’ policies—All organizations that merge with yours will lose their policies and inherit your organization’s policies—for example, your Drive sharing settings. If needed, work with the team administrators to reset policies by updating the top-level parent organizational unit (your organization).
- (Google Workspace) Export Chat spaces data—When your organization merges with the other organizations, existing Chat spaces for all organizations except yours are permanently deleted. If you and other team administrators want to keep Chat spaces data (messages and tasks) from those teams, make sure you export your organization’s data. For details, see Export your organization’s data.
Important: If any organizations export data, domain verification will be paused until the export is complete, which usually takes from 3 to 14 days.
- Grant administrator privileges—The team administrators for the merging organizations lose their administrative privileges. If needed, add back administrative privileges to their accounts. For details, see Make a user an admin.
- (Essentials Starter) If any teams sign in with their Microsoft account using SSO, do one of following—
- If your organization's users use single sign-on (SSO), inform users in the other merging organizations that they will also need to sign in with their Microsoft account.
Note: Once your verify your domain, you'll be a super administrator, so your account will no longer use SSO. This means you'll be prompted to set a password for your Google Account before you can access your new Google service
- If the other merging teams use SSO but your team doesn't, inform users in the merging teams that they will need to set a password the next time they sign in to Essentials.
- If your organization's users use single sign-on (SSO), inform users in the other merging organizations that they will also need to sign in with their Microsoft account.
- (Google Workspace) Migrate developers' Chat apps—If merging organizations have developed Chat apps, they might not work properly after domain verification. To keep their apps working, developers might need to migrate them to a Google Cloud project. For details, see Migrate Chat apps.
If you can't verify your domain
If the following message appears in the Admin console when you try to verify your domain, domain verification isn't available using the Admin console.
Your Google subscription doesn’t yet allow you to take over management of multiple teams at once if they're not all using the same Google service. Your subscription version will be upgraded to allow you to do this in an upcoming release.
To manage the other teams now, you can verify your domain by merging the other teams with yours, as follows:
- Ask the other teams’ admins to cancel their email-verified Google service subscription. For more information, see Cancel a subscription or your account. Make sure these admins:
- Choose the option to let users keep their data (if available)
- Also delete their team’s Google service account
If you don’t know who the other team admins are: Contact Google Workspace Support by filling out this form.
- Verify domain ownership, by following the instructions above.
- Add the other teams’ users to your Google service account, by following these steps.
After you verify your domain and merge teams
- Users are notified—Existing users get an email telling them that their Google accounts have a new administrator.
- (Essentials Starter) You'll lose access to the Team dashboard—Instead, you'll perform all management tasks from your Google Admin console, where more business features become available.
- You become the sole admin for users—Any previous admins lose access to management controls, such as the Team dashboard (Essentials only) or Admin console.
- Users might lose access to Chat spaces—Users in any teams that merged with yours can no longer access the Chat spaces, including messages and tasks, they used with their original team.
Manage your organization's domain-verified Google account
As a super admin for your organization's domain-verified Google account, you can manage all aspects of your service, including creating user accounts, configuring security settings, creating policies, and more.
Learn more about managing user accounts:
- Add accounts for employees and contractors
- Make another user an admin
- Turn a service on or off for your users
- Manage the user Directory for a company or school
If you're using Enterprise Essentials, learn more about:
Questions
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If you’re not sure where you bought your domain, go to Identify your domain host.
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
- If you don't see a message asking you to verify your domain, your domain has been verified.
Adding your verification record takes about 10 minutes. It can take up to 1 hour for us to confirm you added the record, but it usually happens more quickly.
You can contact us directly for help: Contact support
Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.
