Google lets personal users stay on ‘no-cost Legacy G Suite’ with custom Gmail domain

Abner Li | May 16 2022 - 12:48 pm PT

Back in April, Google delayed when G Suite legacy free-edition users had to start paying for Workspace. The company will now let you stay on a “Free Legacy Edition of G Suite for personal use” as the “no-cost” alternative in a rather notable policy change.

This “no-cost” option is for people that aren’t interested in paying for Workspace but want to retain access to their data and not just export via Google Takeout. For the past few months, people have been waiting to join a waitlist for this alternative.

In a change of plans, there’s no longer a waiting list, and these old users can sign-up for no-cost Legacy G Suite now. Head to your account’s Google Admin Console as there are many reports of it going live this afternoon. You have until June 27 to pick a transition path.

Most notably, you can “continue using your custom domain with Gmail.” Some thought they’d just be switched over to a free @gmail.com address. In a survey this January, Google wanted to see how many people used the legacy offering “for personal use or to manage my family” with 10 accounts or less.

Besides the custom Gmail domain, you will “retain access to no-cost Google services” and “keep your purchases and data.”

You will retain access to the no-cost version of Google Workspace services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and additional Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube
You will retain access to paid content such as movie purchases at Google Play and data stored on Google Workspace

However, you must confirm to Google that your usage is “for non-commercial personal use.”

Google may remove business functionality from this offering and transition businesses to Google Workspace. Additionally, this option will not include support.

Update: Those that started paying for Workspace following the migration prompt at the start of this year, but fall under the personal use exception are told to contact Google Support:

If you transitioned to Google Workspace after January 19, 2022 and used G Suite legacy free edition for personal use, you can contact Support.

At the end of the day, Google just wanted businesses to pay for Workspace. There would have been considerably less confusion if the company realized how much personal usage there was and exempted those legacy users from the beginning.