Last month, Google announced that it would be increasing the price of its Workspace plans, and now, that pricing is officially being observed. The company made this move to “reflect the value” in its products and services, which have undergone numerous improvements and changes (some controversial) in recent years.
The price increase varies depending on the plan you’re subscribed to. The Business Starter plan, which is aimed at smaller teams, has increased from $6 to $7.20 per month. The Business Standard plan, which is geared towards mid-sized teams, now costs $14.40 per month, up from $12. The Business Plus plan, which – yep, you guessed it – is for larger teams, has jumped from $18 to $21.60 per month ($3.60 more!). These pricing choices are pretty odd if you ask me.
It’s worth noting that the annual pricing for all plans has not been affected by this change, and the Enterprise and Education plans have not been impacted either. Those who are willing to commit to a yearly payment will save money over time, as they will pay less out-of-pocket overall. As for me and my team, we’re sticking to a monthly payment, just because we’re accustomed to it and can drop off any time we like if our needs change.
Google’s new Workspace Generative AI advancements and implementations have been at the forefront of its mind, along with all of the other improvements and tools it has added over the past few years. This makes it no surprise that the company wants to charge a premium for Workspace and we’ve seen this reflected over and over again over time.
Existing customers will start seeing their price change starting now and all the way through next year depending on a number of factors per organization, such as their number of users, payment plan, and terms. Users with an Enterprise Standard license will also experience a bump in cost, although they will need to reach out to the company to find out what that is and Google didn’t provide a direct number in its blog post.
Let me know in the comments how you feel about the fact that Google keeps sneaking its prices up across the entire company for pretty much all of its services. It’s clearly trying to get away from ad revenue as a driving force for its profit. My only concern is how long we need to wait before we start seeing Google as a brand become less accessible to the everyday user without the need to cough up some cash.
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