How to Easily Change Google Workspace Subscription?

  Mohit Kumar Jha
Written By Mohit Kumar Jha
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Modified On September 22nd, 2025
Reading Time 8 Min Read

As your business grows, you also need to upgrade your Google Workspace plan. If you are wondering how to change your G Suite plan. Then, here I am explaining a step-by-step procedure to switch your Google Workspace subscriptions and provide a way to secure your data during the upgrade of your plan. But first, let’s understand the reason for changing your plans.

To improve business productivity and communication. Many use Google Workspace or G Suite. It is a cloud-based productivity suite developed by Google. In this, you will get all the products of Google, like Gmail, Google Drive, Meet, Docs, etc. with advanced communication and collaboration features. Because Google is a very popular organization, that’s why small, mid-sized, and large companies use it to make their workflow easier.

However, when the company expands its work scale, the existing G Suite is not suitable. They also have to upgrade their Google Workspace plan. In another scenario where a business is facing financial distress. So, they want to cut down unnecessary costs by downgrading their plan. In any case, changing your G Suite plan is needed when the organization’s operations are changing.

What are the Reasons for Changing G Suite Plans?

Changing a Google Workspace subscription is about getting a new feature for business growth or cutting costs. To understand more about this, below I have provided scenarios where the business needs to upgrade or downgrade its subscription.

  • One of the main reasons to upgrade the G Suite plan is to get more storage capacity. Companies that deal with a lot of data want more storage space. In that case, moving to a higher plan gives you a lot of space.
  • Higher plans offer you Enhanced data loss prevention, security center insight, and advanced endpoint management. So, those who are dealing with sensitive data require these features.
  • Growing companies need more control over their user activity and security. So, upgraded plans offer you advanced reporting, audit logs, and granular admin roles.
  • Opposite to upgrading, companies that use higher plans like Business Plus or Enterprise are now expensive. So, to keep it in the budget, they have to switch to the standard plan.
  • If you have fewer employees in your team, then an enterprise-level plan is a waste of money. Choosing a lower plan gets you the right balance for your small team.
  • Some startups or small businesses usually downgrade during their slow financial time. But once they grow, they upgrade their account.

So, there are several instances for the organizations where they have to change their G Suite plans to meet their goals.

Important Things to Pay Attention to When Changing Plans

When you are changing your Google Workspace subscription, there are some things that you must do before the process, such as.

  • The billing cycle of the G Suite is flexible or annual. If you take an annual plan. Then, downgrading may not be possible until it ends. But if you are upgrading, then you can do it anytime, as the charges will be adjusted.
  • After upgrading, you will unlock new features immediately, but downgrading will remove access to certain features, such as Shared drives, large meetings, advanced reports, or vaults. Also, once you have downgraded, the data that is stored in these features will be unavailable.
  • When downgrading, you also have to consider the storage. If the storage is over quota, you may lose the ability to send/receive emails, or create new files in the drive till the space is cleared.
  • The new plan you are upgrading must align with the number of licenses you hold. If you need additional licenses, you can purchase them. But you have to remove the users before you downgrade the plan.
  • To change your subscriptions, you must be a Google Workspace Admin.
  • If you are downgrading from the Enterprise level to Business Starter is not supported directly. For this, you may need Google Support or a migration tool to transition.

These are the things that you must remember before changing your G Suite plan. Once you know about them, you can change the subscription.

Procedure to Change G Suite Plan

Whether you want to upgrade or downgrade, the process of doing it is simple. You have to first go to the Admin console to change the subscription. Then, if it is required, change the payment settings and manage your user licenses according to the new plan. I will explain each part of the process. So, follow them carefully.

  1. Log in to your Google Workspace panel and go to the Admin Console.
  2. Navigate to the Plan section and then click on the Billing option.
  3. Select the Subscriptions option, click on the current G Suite subscription.
  4. Choose the Upgrade or Downgrade option next to the subscription.
  5. Select the new edition to switch. Confirm the payment plan and details.

Change Payment Settings (Optional)

If you also want to change the payment settings, then below are the steps.

  1. In the Google Admin Console, go to the Billing option.
  2. Click on Payment accounts. Next to the subscription that you have just changed, hit View payment methods.
  3. Now, from there, you can do the actions that you want, like add the payment method and enter the information.
  4. You can set the payment method as primary or backup. Update the existing payment details.
  5. Click on the remove button to delete your payment method. Or change the billing cycle.
  6. After the changes, click on the save button.

How to Add or Remove a User License in G Suite?

After upgrading the Google Workspace, you need more licenses for the users. The following are the steps.

  1. Log in to the Google Admin Console. Then, go to the Directory.
  2. Select the Users button and then click on the name of the user you want to add or remove.
  3. Find the Licenses card and click it to see the user’s assigned products.
  4. Choose the G Suite edition and turn off/on to add or remove the license.
  5. Lastly, click the Save button.

Here are the proper steps to change your G Suite plan. With these, you can either upgrade your Google Workspace subscription or downgrade. Now, simply changing them is not enough. You also have to properly manage your G Suite plan to avoid any issues. For this, I have also provided tips to maintain your subscription.

How to Maintain your Google Workspace Plan?

To get the most out of your current Google Workspace subscription. Maintaining them is also needed. Below are the best practices that you must follow.

  • It is important to check your admin reports regularly. See how much storage, meetings, and service are actually being used. If your features are underutilized, choose the downgrade option.
  • Monitor your storage limits. Track each user’s storage consumption. Also, remove duplicate or unnecessary files to maintain your storage limit.
  • Users who are inactive or you reassign their license, remove them from your subscription.
  • Up-to-date your Google Workspace tools up-to-date to perform smoothly.
  • Backup your G Suite to avoid any accidental deletion, account hacking, etc.

These tips help you maintain your G Suite subscription and also help you in your workflow.

Save G Suite Data – An Expert Tip

Along with the above tips, experts also advise downloading Google Workspace emails and other data to a secure place. Moreover, storing your data is also crucial when you are changing your G Suite plan. In case your crucial data is deleted when you are upgrading or downgrading the Google Workspace subscription. Taking a backup before the process is a must. But the question is how you can do it. For this, I have a perfect solution for you.

SysTools G Suite Backup Tool is one of the great software for saving Google Workspace data. It is a professional utility where users do not need any additional tools to download the data. Here, you can backup emails, contacts, calendars, and other data without affecting the folder hierarchy and data integrity. It is available in Windows OS, and anyone can use it even though they don’t have technical knowledge. This is a perfect tool to keep your data secure during the process of changing your G Suite subscription.

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Final Words

Upgrading or downgrading a Google Workspace plan is a common scenario for the business. That’s why, in this article, I have explained how to change the G Suite plan with proper steps. In addition to that, I also discuss the process of changing payment settings and adding/removing the user license. Along with this, follow the tips for maintaining your subscription and save your G Suite data to keep your workflows.

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By Mohit Kumar Jha

Mohit is a Microsoft Certified expert for all things Microsoft. He brings a unique perspective gained from nearly a decade of active participation in various IT forums, blogs, and social media. Known in admin circles as the go-to guru for solving user queries in the domain of email and cloud migration, data backup, and digital forensics. The secret to his core expertise lies in solving problems practically. Through this hands-on experience, he has acquired knowledge in diverse domains like Microsoft 365 Cloud, On-Premise Exchange Server, AD, and Entra ID.