Google Workspace pricing 2026: what a solo maker pays

How much does Google Workspace cost?

Google Workspace costs $7, $14 or $22 per user per month for its three Business plans when you sign up for a year. Pay month to month on the Flexible Plan and the same plans cost $8.40, $16.80 and $26.40. These are Google’s US list prices as of September 2026.

Every person who signs in with their own address needs a license, and Google doesn’t let people share one. So the bill is the plan price times the number of people. As a solo maker on Business Starter you pay $7 a month on the yearly plan, or $8.40 month to month. A cofounder doubles that, and a contractor who gets their own address on your domain adds a third seat.

Three details the headline prices leave out:

• Outside the US, Google charges the equivalent in a supported local currency, so the amount on your invoice can differ.
• The yearly plan is a commitment, not necessarily one upfront payment. Google bills it yearly or monthly depending on your region, your subscription type and how you signed up.
• Storage is pooled. Each license adds its share to one total that everyone on the account draws from. Google grants it in stages, so a new account gets part of it at purchase and the rest once it has paid a set amount.

Google Workspace monthly cost: yearly plan or Flexible Plan

On the Flexible Plan, Google Workspace’s monthly cost is $8.40 per user for Business Starter, 20% more than the $7 yearly price. Every Business plan carries the same 20% premium.

What the extra buys is an easy exit. Cancel a Flexible Plan and new charges stop straight away; you pay for the days you used. Cancel a yearly plan (Google calls it the Annual/Fixed-Term Plan) before the year is up, and Google charges the remaining balance of the contract.

For one person on Business Starter, the premium comes to $16.80 a year: $84 on the yearly plan against $100.80 on Flexible. With a cofounder it’s $33.60. If you know the project will stay on Google for the year, the yearly plan costs less. If the project might not last the year, or you might drop a seat or switch providers before it’s up, the premium pays for the option to leave.

Google Workspace cost per user, times the people on your project

Enter how many people need a login, the plan, the billing and how many emails you send a month. The calculator shows the monthly and yearly total on Google Workspace and on the matching Microsoft 365 plan. The third row is Digismak, the email-only service we make. It starts at three people on Business Starter: you, a cofounder and a contractor.

Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 pricing

Since July 1, 2026, they cost the same. That day Microsoft raised Business Basic from $6 to $7 per user per month on a yearly subscription. Business Standard went from $12.50 to $14, and Business Premium stayed at $22. Each Microsoft plan now matches a Google plan to the cent, and both charge 20% more for month-to-month billing.

A few differences are still worth knowing:

• Existing Microsoft customers keep their old price until their first renewal after July 1, 2026. From then, the new prices apply to yearly and monthly subscriptions alike.
• Microsoft also sells each of these plans without Teams, for less.
• Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes need no license of their own up to 50 GB, as long as everyone who opens one has their own licensed mailbox. In Google Workspace, a shared inbox is an ordinary account, which in practice needs a license (more on that below).

With the prices equal, pick on the apps. If you work in Docs and Drive, choose Google. If you work in Word and Excel, choose Microsoft. If email is the only part your project needs, look at a Microsoft 365 alternative for makers who only need email before paying for either suite.

Hidden costs in Google Workspace pricing

The price list shows what one person costs. These are the costs that turn up after you sign up.

A shared inbox like support@ can take a seat

In Gmail, Google says “delegated accounts and shared inboxes are the same”. So a shared inbox is an ordinary user account, such as support@, that other people are given access to. Google also says a user needs a license to use a Google service, and users can’t share one. Put those together and a real shared inbox costs a seat at your plan’s price, $84 a year on Business Starter. Google’s admin tool for creating shared inboxes is also still being released in phases.

On your own you don’t need one. It matters once a second person has to answer the same address. Google offers two free ways around it:

• Email aliases. Up to 30 per user at no extra cost. Only one person receives the mail sent to an alias, so it covers hello@ and support@ while you’re the only one answering, and stops being enough when a cofounder needs to answer too.
• A Google Group used as a Collaborative Inbox. Free, and it doesn’t use a license. Google suggests it when several people need a shared address for technical support or customer service.

We compare these with Digismak’s shared addresses on our shared inbox page.

The bill grows with every person you add

Per-user pricing charges as much for someone who only reads email as for someone who lives in Docs. Give a contractor their own address on your domain so they can help with support, and that’s a full seat: $84 a year on Business Starter, the same as yours. List prices move too. When Microsoft added $1 to Business Basic, it applied to every seat on the plan. Check the date on any price table, including this one.

Leaving takes time, and sometimes money

Cancel a yearly plan early and you pay the rest of the contract. After you cancel, Google deletes your users’ Workspace data and can’t restore it, so export first. An admin export of the whole organization typically takes 72 hours and can take up to 14 days. Our guide on how to leave Google Workspace without losing email covers the order to do it in.

When Google Workspace is worth it, and when it isn’t

Gmail on your own domain comes as part of Google Workspace, so the cost of Gmail as business email is the plan price, apps included. On Business Starter, $7 a month covers Gmail along with Docs, Sheets, Drive, Meet, Calendar and storage (30 GB pooled per user). That’s good value when you use those apps. If they sit unopened, you’re paying suite prices for Gmail.

If your project only needs email

That’s the case Digismak is built for. It gives you, and anyone you add, an address on your own domain and an inbox in the browser, and it runs on your own Cloudflare account. Digismak is free during early access. Sending needs Cloudflare’s Workers Paid plan, $5 a month per Cloudflare account, paid to Cloudflare. That one plan covers every address on every domain in the account and includes 3,000 sent emails a month, then $0.35 per 1,000. Receiving is unlimited, and shared addresses like support@ are free. If you already pay for Workers Paid, sending costs you nothing more.

On your own, that’s $5 a month against $7 on Business Starter, so the saving is small. The gap opens when you add people: with a cofounder and a contractor it’s still $5, against $21 on Google. A second project doesn’t raise it either. Each domain you connect gets its own inbox under the same login, and domains in one Cloudflare account share that one plan.

Here’s what you give up. There’s no Docs, Drive, Meet or calendar. Outlook and Apple Mail can’t connect, because Digismak works in the browser only (phones included). And Digismak can’t import your old Gmail yet. Your domain’s DNS also has to be on Cloudflare, which is free to move. Read how Digismak uses Cloudflare email for the details.