Removing a user safely

When someone leaves your organization, you need to remove their Google Workspace account. But deleting an account right away can mean losing their emails and files forever. This guide walks you through the safe way to do it.

What you'll need

Admin access to the Google Admin console
Somewhere to transfer the leaving user's files (usually a manager or replacement)

Step 1: Suspend the account immediately

Suspending an account cuts off the user's access right away: Gmail, Drive and the rest become unavailable to them, and new email and calendar invitations are blocked. Nothing is deleted. This is the first thing to do when someone leaves.

Go to admin.google.com and sign in.

Go to Menu → Directory → Users.

Point at the leaving user in the list, then click More options → Suspend user. (You'll also find Suspend user at the left of their account page.)

Click Suspend to confirm. The user is locked out immediately.

Suspending does not reduce your bill

Google is explicit about this: "Suspended accounts are still charged at the same rate as active accounts on both the Annual billing plan and the Flexible plan." Suspension is a safety step, not a money-saving one. If you want to keep a leaver's data long-term without paying a full license, ask Google (or ask us) about an Archived User license.

Step 2: Transfer their files

Drive files someone owns are deleted with their account unless you move them first. Transferring does not change who already has access to the files.

In the Admin console, go to Menu → Apps → Google Workspace → Drive and Docs.

Click Transfer ownership.

For From user, enter the leaving person's email address and pick them from the results.

For To user, enter the new owner's email address: usually the manager or the person taking over, and pick them from the results.

Click Transfer Files. Everyone involved gets a confirmation email when it finishes.

Two things that catch people out. Items in the user's Trash are not transferred, so move anything that matters out of Trash first. And the new owner has to be an active account in your organization with enough storage space. You can't transfer directly to a personal Google Account or to someone in another organization.

Email and calendars don't transfer the same way

The Drive transfer tool moves Drive and Docs files. It does not move Gmail: for that, Google's options are to migrate the mail into another account, or to redirect incoming mail (Step 3). Calendars are separate again, if the person owns a group or team calendar, transfer it before you delete them. Google's own notes contradict each other here: one says group calendars a user owns aren't deleted with them today, another says a deleted owner's secondary calendars are deleted from early 2026 onwards. Either way, once the owner is gone no further transfers are possible, and Google's advice is the same as ours: transfer first. See Transferring files when someone leaves for more detail.

If you're a super admin, there's a shortcut: you can transfer Drive and Docs files and primary Calendar data as part of the deletion itself, in Step 4 below. Other admins have to transfer first.

Step 3: Redirect their email (optional but recommended)

If people may still write to the leaving user's address, send those messages to the right person instead.

In the Admin console, go to Menu → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Routing: the page called "Routing", not "Default routing".

On the left, select your top-level organizational unit.

Scroll to "Email forwarding using recipient address map" and click Configure (or Add Another Rule if you already have one).

Name the rule, click Add, then enter the old address under Address and the new one under Map to address.

Save. Google says changes can take up to 24 hours, though they usually happen sooner.

Tick Also route to original destination if you want the original mailbox to keep a copy as well as forwarding it on. Leave it unticked to redirect the mail outright.

A simpler option once the account is gone: add the old address as an email alias on the person who is taking over, so mail sent to it lands in their inbox. You can also rename an account to take over the address. Either way, only one user can hold a given address.

Step 4: Delete the account

Once you're sure all data has been transferred and any important email is saved:

In the Admin console, go to Menu → Directory → Users and find the user.

Point at the user and click More options → Delete user. (You'll also find Delete user at the left of their account page.)

Deal with the data prompt. As a super admin you can choose Transfer and pick who receives their Drive and Docs files and primary Calendar data: double-check the destination account. Other admins just confirm they understand the impact.

Click Delete User. If you chose to transfer data, the account stays suspended until the transfer finishes, and is then deleted.

You have 20 days to undo a deletion

After you delete a user, a super admin can recover the account for up to 20 days. After that, the data is gone permanently. See Recovering a deleted user or files if you need to undo a deletion.

Checklist before deleting

Before you delete the account

0 of 8 done

Account is suspended (user can't log in)
Drive files transferred to the right person, and anything needed moved out of their Trash
Any group or team calendars they own transferred to a new owner
Email redirected or the address reassigned if needed
Someone else has Manager access to any shared drives they managed
They've been removed from any groups or aliases
Any third-party apps that used their account have been updated
Their mobile devices wiped and their sign-in cookies reset

Saved in this browser only.

Common questions

What happens to the freed seat: do I save money?

It depends on your billing plan, and this is the part people get wrong. On the Flexible Plan, deleting a user prorates your monthly rate: Google's example is that a user added on 1 April and deleted on 15 April is charged for half a month. On the Annual/Fixed-Term Plan, deleting a user does not reduce the number of licenses you're paying for; it only frees the license so you can assign it to someone else. And if you later restore the deleted user, you'll need another license.

What if I want to keep the email address active for someone else?

You have a window. Google removes a deleted user's email address from Google Workspace 20 days after deletion, but you can reassign the address to another managed user before that window closes: allow up to 24 hours for it to take effect. After that you can still add the address as an alias on another account. Note that if you want to use the address for a personal (unmanaged) Google Account, Google asks you to wait 30 days to avoid account conflicts.

The person left suddenly: what should I do first?

Suspend first, always. Suspending takes seconds and cuts off access immediately. You can do everything else in your own time after that. Google's own guidance is the same: don't delete an account just to block someone temporarily.