Here are common questions for admins who manage Google Drive for an organization, about storage space for your users' Drive files. If you're planning to change Google Workspace editions, you want to be sure you get the storage you need.
Questions
Drive storage is shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. The amount of free storage for each user depends on your type of account:
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2 GB per user |
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30 GB per user |
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30 GB per user |
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2 TB per user added to pooled storage* |
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5 TB per user added to pooled storage* |
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As much as you need. For details, contact a Google Sales representative. |
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100 GB per user added to pooled storage, |
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Unlimited storage |
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100 TB pooled cloud storage Additional storage:
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15 GB |
*Requires 5 or more users (1 TB if 4 or fewer users).
If needed, you can purchase additional storage.
Content created with My Maps doesn't count toward your organization's storage quota.
How do limits apply to shared drives?
Content in shared drives counts toward your organization's storage quota.
Individual users can only upload 750 GB each day between My Drive and all shared drives. Users who reach the 750-GB limit or upload a file larger than 750 GB cannot upload additional files that day. Uploads that are in progress will complete. The maximum individual file size that you can upload or synchronize is 5 TB.
What counts against your storage quota
- Original quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos.
- High quality (now named Storage saver) and Express quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos after June 1, 2021. Any photos or videos you've backed up in High quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021 will not count toward your Google Account storage. Learn more about this change.
- Gmail messages and attachments, which includes your Spam and Trash folders.
- Files in Google Drive, which includes PDFs, images, and videos.
- Files created or edited in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, Recorder, and Jamboard.
- Files created or edited after June 1, 2021 count against your quota.
- Files uploaded or last edited before June 1, 2021 don't count against your quota.
Who's impacted
Admins and end users. Storage limits differ across Google Workspace and G Suite editions, but we estimate that the majority of users will not be affected by these changes.
Google Drive
- Most files in your My Drive. For example:
- PDFs
- Images
- Videos
- Items in your Trash. Learn how to empty your trash.
- As of June 1, 2021, newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files count toward storage. Files that already exist don't count toward storage unless they're modified on or after June 1, 2021.
Important: For Google Workspace and G Suite editions, this change goes into effect on May 2, 2022.
Gmail
- Messages and attachments, like items in your Spam and Trash folders.
Google Photos
- Photos and videos backed up in Original quality.
- Photos and videos backed up in High quality (now named Storage saver) or Express quality after June 1, 2021. Any photos or videos you backed up in High quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021 will not count toward your Google Account storage. Learn more about Photos backup options.
Starting on February 1, 2022, new and updated Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings or Jamboard files will count towards your organization's storage quota.
See the storage status for your entire organization
Important: The total won't include Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings, or Jamboard files until February 1, 2022. These files typically add 100 MB of storage per user per month.
- Go to the article View Apps reports for your organization.
- Follow the steps on how to go to the Accounts report
Total storage used.
See the storage status of a single user
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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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From the Admin console Home page, go to Users.
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Click a user to open their account page.
At the top of the page, you can see the percentages of mail and Drive storage utilized by the user.
Can my users see how much storage they have available?
Yes. Your users can see how much space they have available by going to drive.google.com/settings/storage.
Starting on February 1, 2022, new and updated Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings or Jamboard files will count towards your organization's storage quota.
Like most file formats, the size of the file increases as you add content. Large images or embedded videos can significantly increase the size of the file.
In general, Google Docs, Sheets or Slides files have a similar size as the same file exported to the corresponding Microsoft Office format. On average, a Google Workspace user creates less than 100 MB of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings or Jamboard content per month.
Drive storage is for users and Cloud Storage is for developers.
Multiple revisions of a file are available online, but only the latest version is available on your computer. The online revisions don't count toward your storage quota unless you explicitly decide to keep older revisions.
No. Only one version counts against your storage quota.
No. Files that have been shared with you in Drive never count toward your storage limit, even if you move them to My Drive. For details, go to Manage files in your Google Drive storage.
With Google Drive for desktop, this is no problem. Your files are stored exclusively online unless you make them available for offline access.
With Backup and Sync, if you don't have enough storage on your computer you can choose to sync only a subset of folders in Drive. For details, go to Back up & sync files with Google Drive.
The user can still access any files already in Drive, but they won't be able to add additional files until they're under quota or have their quota increased.
Starting February 1, 2022, new and updated Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward Drive storage. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after February 1, 2022. If you're over quota, you can’t create new files in these products. Until you reduce your storage usage, neither you nor anyone else can edit or copy your affected files. Learn more.
Organizations that need additional storage should upgrade their Workspace edition.
Ultimately, you are limited to the amount of storage described in our terms of service, and we reserve the right to disable uploads to Drive if you exceed your limit.
If you’ve been over your quota for at least 2 years and haven't freed or purchased more space to get back under quota, you might permanently lose your Gmail, Drive, and Photos content. For details, see Manage files in your Google Drive storage.
