What is Google Workspace for Education?

by Alexa Sander on March 18, 2021

G Suite for Education has evolved into Google Workspace for Education—What does it mean for you?

G Suite for Education is out, and Google Workspace for Education is in. On February 19, 2021, Google announced the change to Google Workspace for Education. You can register for an on-demand version of their announcement to hear all about their latest product news. Here’s a summary of the changes that you need to know about.

Originally, there were two versions of G Suite for Education, a free version called G Suite for Education, and a paid upgrade to G Suite for Education Enterprise Edition. Starting in April 2021, Google will offer the following editions, and you’ll find more detailed descriptions of these editions below:

Free: Education Fundamentals (was G Suite for Education)
New Paid: Education Standard
Paid: Education Plus (was G Suite Enterprise for Education)
New Paid Upgrade for Fundamentals and Standard: Teaching and Learning Upgrade

If you have a current contract with Google, you won’t see changes to their billing until it is time for you to renew your contract. But it’s always good to know what’s coming and to start thinking about how you’re going to respond to these upcoming changes. You may need The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Googleverse!

The new Teaching and Learning Upgrade will change the situation for many districts. For example, if your district has already upgraded to G Suite Enterprise Edition, or if you’re considering doing so for the advanced Classroom, Meet, and other learning features, then you’ll need to reevaluate based on the new product and pricing.

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New Google Workspace for Education Editions

Let’s take a look at the new Google Workspace for Education editions. We’ll point out where the edition is the same as what you may be using today, and where the new editions are different.

Free: Education Fundamentals

This is the same as the free G Suite for Education edition that many of you have come to know and love. It includes all the same apps, admin, and security tools that you have with the free edition today.
Of course, you can also expect Google to continue to roll out new features and functionality in the free edition moving forward, like they have in the past. Currently, the free edition includes the same suite of tools that are in G Suite for Education, including:

Communicate with Gmail, Chat, and Meet
Collaborate with Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Jamboard and Meet
Manage classes with Classrooms and Assignments
Data loss prevention is the same as before for Gmail and Drive
Retain, hold, search, and export user data for compliance and eDiscovery with Vault
Temporary Meet Recordings (up to 30 days)

New Paid: Education Standard

Google Workspace for Education Standard edition is a new paid upgrade tier that will become available in April 2021. This edition provides the advanced admin and security features of G Suite Enterprise Edition without any of the Enterprise Edition classroom learning or teacher tools. It includes all of the Education Fundamentals capabilities, plus the following:

Security Center
Device and App Management
Gmail log export and Big Query for analysis
Audit Logs for Drive, Classroom, Devices, LDAP and Meet
Investigation Tool

Pricing for Education Standard:

$3 per student per year, based on total enrollment numbers
Staff / Faculty Accounts provided for free at a 4:1 ratio

Therefore, you receive one free staff license for every four students. For example, if you had a total enrollment of 1,000 students, you would receive 250 free staff licenses.

New Paid: Teaching and Learning Upgrade

The Teaching and Learning Upgrade is available for Fundamentals and Standard Editions. This new upgrade allows districts to purchase licenses for advanced teaching and learning tools and features. The Teaching and Learning Upgrade includes everything that is included in either your Fundamentals or Standard Editions with some enhanced features. Please note that all the features in the Upgrade are included in the Education Plus Edition described below.

The enhanced features provided in the Upgrade affect Google Meet, Classroom, and Assignments, for example:

Google Meet
- Video conferencing for up to 250 participants at one time, or a live stream to up to 10,000 in-domain viewers
- Enhanced engagement with live polls, Q&A, attendance tracking and breakout rooms
- Recording for Google Meet where you can save, archive, and transcribe them all in Google Drive
Google Classroom
- Integration with third-party tools, with more announcements in the future
- Unlimited originality reports

Pricing for the Teaching and Learning Upgrade:

$4 per user per month, available for staff as an “as needed” license, meaning you can pay for 10 or 100 licenses, depending on your requirements

Paid: Education Plus

Google Workspace for Education Plus is virtually the same as today’s G Suite for Education Enterprise Edition. It includes all of the features in Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, plus the following:

Google Meet live streaming for up to 100,000 in-domain viewers
Enterprise Cloud Search
Google Classroom sync with SIS vendors in the future Note: Google is still building the capabilities for this, but expect to be able to roll out broader capabilities this year
Built-in approvals process directly from Gmail, Drive, Docs, etc.
Faster response time from the Google support team (compared to other license levels)
Increased storage capacity

Pricing for Education Plus:

$5 per student per year, based on total enrollment numbers
Staff / Faculty Accounts provided for free at a 4:1 ratio

Therefore, you receive one free staff license for every four students. For example, if you had a total enrollment of 1,000 students, you would receive 250 free staff licenses.

Which Google Workspace for Education Edition is Right for You?

More options are a great thing for school districts, but they can also complicate the decision process. Some districts may have an easy decision. For example, if you are currently using the free G Suite for Education edition, and you’re happy with it, you won’t need to do anything. All you’ll see is a name change to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.

However, if your district needs to take advantage of some of the upgraded features and tools, you have a bit of research and thinking to do! Keep in mind that the G Suite for Education security issues are still the same.

To assist you in your research, we’ve prepared a Google Workspace for Education Selection Guide. You can download the Guide, which covers classroom and learning considerations. In addition, you’ll find information about data loss prevention, phishing and malware threat protection, and student safety monitoring considerations that can be overlooked when making purchase decisions.