Storage & quotas in Google Workspace

How Google Workspace storage works, how much you have, where it's used, and what to do when you're running low.

Every Google Workspace organization has a shared pool of storage used across Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos. Knowing how storage works helps you avoid running out — which stops photo backups straight away, and before long stops people uploading files or creating new documents.

Quick summary

Storage is pooled across your whole organization. Business Starter gives 30 GB per user, Business Standard gives 2 TB per user, and Business Plus gives 5 TB per user. You can see total usage under Storage in the Admin console. If you run out, Google Photos backups stop immediately and file uploads and new documents stop shortly after — but email keeps working.

How storage is pooled

In Google Workspace Business plans, storage is pooled — not assigned individually per user. Here's what that means:

On Business Starter with 5 users: your total pool is 5 × 30 GB = 150 GB, shared across everyone.
On Business Standard with 5 users: your pool is 5 × 2 TB = 10 TB.
One user can use more than their "share" if others use less. If that's a problem, an admin can set storage limits for individual users and for shared drives from the Storage page — Google recommends doing this to share the pool fairly.

What uses storage?

Service	What it stores
Gmail	All email messages and attachments, including whatever is sitting in Spam and Trash
Google Drive	Uploaded files (PDFs, images, videos, Office files, Meet recordings), content in shared drives, and anything in Trash until it's permanently deleted
Google Docs, Sheets & Slides	Files created or edited after 2 May 2022. Older untouched files still don't count
Google Photos	Photos and videos backed up to Google Photos

Does not count against storage:

Drive shortcuts
Google Chat messages and attachments
Files shared with someone — they only count against the owner's storage
Version history of Docs, Sheets and Slides files, unless someone chooses to keep an older version

How to check your organization's storage

As a Workspace admin:

Go to admin.google.com and sign in.

Open Menu, then Storage. It's a top-level section of the left menu. You need the Storage administrator privilege to see it.

Read the figures at the top — how much your organization is using, and your total limit. Point at each service to see how much Drive, Photos and Gmail use. Further down, "Users using the most storage" and "Shared drives using the most storage" show where it's going.

Bear in mind that it can take up to 24 hours for a change in storage to show on that page.

Individual users can check their own usage by clicking Storage in the left-hand menu in Drive — that view also lists their files largest first.

What happens when storage runs out

It happens in two stages.

As soon as your organization goes over its limit:

Google Photos backups stop

Then, once you're 25% over the limit or 14 days over it — whichever comes first:

Users cannot add new files or images to Drive
Users cannot create new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings or Forms, and until they free up space nobody can edit or copy the affected user's files
Users cannot record new Google Meet meetings

Email keeps working throughout: people can still sign in, send and receive email, and view and download files. That's still a serious disruption, so it's worth monitoring storage before it becomes a problem.

Freeing up storage

Delete large or old files from Drive

Open Google Drive and click Storage in the left-hand menu. Your files are listed largest first.

Review files you no longer need and move them to Trash.

Empty the Trash. Files in Trash still count towards storage until they're permanently deleted. Open Trash on the left, click Empty trash at the top right, then Delete forever. Anything left in the Trash is deleted automatically after 30 days anyway.

Clean up large emails in Gmail

In Gmail, search for has:attachment larger:10M to find emails with attachments over 10 MB. filename:.pdf larger:5M and older_than:2y has:attachment are useful too.

Delete emails you no longer need.

Empty Gmail's Trash — go to the Trash folder and click "Empty Trash now."

Upgrade your plan

If your team genuinely needs more storage, upgrading from Business Starter to Business Standard increases storage from 30 GB to 2 TB per user. See Google Workspace plans explained and Google Workspace billing explained.

Common questions

How do I see how much storage each user is using?

In the Admin console, open Menu → Storage. The "Users using the most storage" section ranks your heaviest users, and View all users lists everyone. You can also open a single person's account page under Directory → Users — the top of the page shows the percentage of mail and Drive storage they're using. Through the Admin console, admins only ever see these totals, never the files themselves.

Can I buy extra storage without upgrading my plan?

Yes — Google sells extra pooled storage as an add-on, called Google Workspace Additional Storage, and what you buy is added to your organization's pool. Upgrading your plan or adding users also increases the pool. Ask Google or your reseller what's available on your edition.

What's a Google Workspace pool?

Pool means the total storage is shared — think of it like a water tank that all users draw from. No single person "owns" a specific portion. If one person uses very little and another uses a lot, that's fine as long as the total stays within the pool.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.