How to cancel Google Workspace without losing your email

Why you cancel Google Workspace last

You cancel Google Workspace in the Admin console, under Billing > Subscriptions. It takes a few clicks. The timing is what matters, because Google deletes your data once you cancel:

That means every mailbox on the account, along with the files and calendars your team keeps in Workspace. So cancelling is the last of four steps:

1. Export your mail and keep the files outside Google.
2. Set up your new email provider while Google still delivers.
3. Switch your MX records so new mail goes to the new provider.
4. Cancel the subscription once mail has stopped arriving at Google.

The steps work whichever provider you’re moving to, and there’s a checklist at the end.

Step 1: Export your mail before you cancel

Google gives you two ways to download Workspace mail. Each person can export their own account with Google Takeout, if your admin allows it. Or a super admin can export the whole organization with the Data Export tool, which Google’s cancellation page calls “the easiest way to download and export your users’ data.”

Export one mailbox with Google Takeout

Each person signs in to their Workspace account, opens Google Takeout, and selects Gmail and anything else they want to keep. Then they pick a delivery method: a download link by email, or a copy sent to Drive, Dropbox or another service.

Choose a place outside the Workspace account. A copy saved to that account’s own Drive is deleted with everything else when you cancel. Download the files to a computer, or send them to a Drive or Dropbox account your organization is keeping.

Takeout only works if it’s allowed for your organization. Google lets Workspace administrators control whether users can download data from each product. If someone can’t export their Gmail, check that setting first.

Export everyone with the Data Export tool

In the Admin console, go to Menu > Data > Data import & export > Data export and click Set up new export. You have to be signed in as a super admin whose account is at least 30 days old and has 2-Step Verification turned on. If your only super admin account is newer than that, the export has to wait, so check before you pick a date to cancel.

Then allow time. Google says the export is ready no earlier than 48 hours after you start it, typically takes 72 hours, and can take up to 14 days. The files go into a Google Cloud Storage bucket and are deleted automatically 60 days after the export began. Download them to storage you control as soon as they’re ready. Organizations with more than 1,000 users have to contact Google Workspace support before using the tool.

Keep the export as your archive

Some providers can load an export into your new mailboxes. If that matters to you, ask the new provider what it accepts before you start. Digismak doesn’t import old mail: your Digismak inbox starts on the day you switch, and the export is where you look up anything older. Store it somewhere with a backup and tell the team where it is.

Step 2: Set up the new provider while Google still works

Google keeps delivering your mail until the MX records change in step 3, so there’s no rush. Use the time to make sure every address that gets mail today has a home at the new provider.

That list is often longer than your list of people. Google Workspace gives each user up to 30 free aliases, and group addresses like sales@ or info@ are free too. Go through each user’s aliases and your groups in the Admin console and write every address down. Then recreate each one at the new provider. With Digismak, mail to an address that doesn’t exist bounces back to the sender, so a forgotten alias means missed mail.

Then check what else your team uses Workspace for:

• Shared addresses. If several people answer support@ through a Google Group or a delegated account, find out how the new provider handles it. In Digismak, shared addresses are free and everyone on the team can read and answer them.
• Docs, Drive, Calendar and Meet. Cancelling ends these along with Gmail. If your team uses them, plan where the files and calendars go, or pick a provider that includes them. Digismak is email only.
• Mail apps. Some providers work with Outlook or Apple Mail. Digismak is a browser inbox, on computers and phones, with no IMAP or SMTP access.
• Signing in. In Digismak, each person signs in with a 6-digit code sent to another address they already use, such as a personal one. There are no passwords to hand out.

Step 3: Switch your MX records

MX records are the DNS entries that tell other mail servers where to deliver mail for your domain. Right now yours point at Google. Change them to the new provider’s servers and new mail starts arriving there instead. The new provider gives you the exact values; you enter them wherever your domain’s DNS is hosted.

The change doesn’t reach every server at once. Some keep using the old records for a while, so a few messages can still land in Google after the switch. Keep Workspace running until mail has stopped arriving there, and check the old inboxes before you move on.

This is also when to fill the gap in your export. Mail that reached Google after you started the export isn’t in it. Once nothing new is arriving at Google, run Takeout again for each mailbox, or start a second admin export, and keep those files with the first set.

While you’re in DNS, look at your SPF record, the list of services allowed to send as your domain. The new provider has to be in it, and Google’s entry can go once you’ve cancelled. Our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC records explains each one and includes a free checker.

How the switch works with Digismak

With Digismak, the switch is part of setup. Your domain’s DNS has to be on Cloudflare (moving it there is free). Setup reads your current records first. When it finds Google’s MX records, it tells you the domain gets email through Google Workspace and stops until you confirm. Nothing changes before you say so.

Once you confirm, setup replaces Google’s MX records with Cloudflare Email Routing’s and adds SPF. Then it turns on Cloudflare Email Sending with DKIM signing, adds a DMARC record at p=none if you had none, and sends a real test email through the whole path. That usually takes a few minutes, mostly Cloudflare verifying the domain. You add your team and shared addresses straight after, so have your list from step 2 ready before you start.

Step 4: How to cancel your Google Workspace subscription

Your mail is exported and arriving at the new provider, so now you can cancel. You need an admin account with the Billing management privilege. In the Google Admin console:

1. Go to Menu > Billing > Subscriptions.
2. Click your subscription, then More > Cancel Subscription. On some subscriptions you won’t need to click More.
3. Select a reason and click Continue. Google may show you alternatives; click Continue to cancel.
4. Check the box to confirm, enter your email address, and click Cancel My Subscription.

What you still pay

That depends on your payment plan. On the Flexible Plan, cancelling stops new charges immediately and you pay for the days you used. On an Annual/Fixed-Term Plan, Google charges the remaining balance of your contract, so cancelling partway through the year doesn’t save the months that are left. If you’re on an annual plan, check when the term ends before you choose a date.

What happens after you cancel

• Your users’ Workspace data is deleted and can’t be restored. That’s why the export comes first.
• You can resubscribe within 51 days of cancelling. After that, Google makes you wait until the cancellation process finishes at 84 days.
• Cancelling doesn’t remove user accounts, groups or your organization structure. They stay until you delete the organization’s Google Account, a separate, optional step that Google says frees your domain within 24 hours.

Checklist for leaving Google Workspace

1. Two weeks or more before you cancel

   Check that your super admin account is at least 30 days old with 2-Step Verification on, then start the Data Export tool. Or confirm Takeout is allowed and ask each person to run it.

2. While the export runs

   List every address that gets mail: people, aliases and groups. Set up the new provider and recreate each one. Decide where Docs, Drive and Calendar files are going.

3. When the export is ready

   Download it from the Cloud Storage bucket to storage you control. Google deletes it 60 days after the export began.

4. Switch day

   Change your MX records to the new provider, or confirm the switch in Digismak setup. Send a test email to a few of your addresses and check each one arrives.

5. Once mail stops arriving at Google

   Run a final Takeout or export to catch anything that came in after the first one, and save it with the rest.

6. Cancel

   Admin console, Billing, Subscriptions, Cancel Subscription. On an annual plan, check your term end date first.

7. Tidy up DNS

   Remove Google’s DKIM key (usually google._domainkey) and include:_spf.google.com from your SPF record, so your records only list services that still send for you.

Moving from Google Workspace to Digismak

Digismak is email on your own domain for the whole team, and it runs on your own Cloudflare account. Cloudflare Email Routing receives your mail, Cloudflare Email Sending sends it, and your team reads and replies in the browser. Digismak is free during early access. Sending needs Cloudflare’s Workers Paid plan at $5 a month, paid to Cloudflare, and that one plan covers every address on the domain.

It suits a team that only used Workspace for email. It’s the wrong move if you rely on Docs, Drive or Meet, or if people need Outlook or Apple Mail. It also won’t bring your old mail across. For what you keep and what you give up, see Digismak as a Google Workspace alternative.