Google licensing covers the commercial terms under which Google sells its business software and cloud services to organizations. Most of what a software asset manager meets falls into four families: Google Workspace, licensed per user on a monthly or annual plan; Google Cloud, where infrastructure and platform services are metered by consumption and third-party licenses can be brought onto dedicated hardware; Google’s Gemini models and apps, which are sold both by tokens and by seat; and a group of adjacent products such as Google Maps Platform and ChromeOS upgrades, which have their own units.[1][2][3][4][5] Since the version last modified on 2026-09-02, the Google Workspace Terms of Service have been folded into a single Google Cloud Terms of Service that also covers Google Cloud Platform, Looker (original), SecOps and Cloud Identity, taking effect for existing customers at their next renewal.[6]
Google’s licensing is almost entirely subscription or consumption based, and hosted by Google. There is no processor or core metric for Google’s own software, so the effective license position for Google usually reduces to three questions: how many users hold a license on each plan, how much metered usage has been billed, and whether any third-party software running on Google Cloud is licensed correctly under its own vendor’s rules. The detail is in the guides listed at the end of this article.
Product families and how they are licensed
| Family | Unit | Commercial model | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace (Business, Enterprise, Frontline, Essentials, Education) | User license (End User Account) | Flexible Plan (monthly) or Annual/Fixed-Term Plan | Google Workspace and Google Cloud licensing |
| Workspace add-ons (AI Expanded Access, Archived User, Google AI Pro for Education) | Per user | Add-on subscriptions on the same plans | Google Workspace and Google Cloud licensing |
| Compute Engine sole-tenant nodes | Node (whole physical server) | Per-second billing of node resources plus a sole-tenancy premium | Google Workspace and Google Cloud licensing |
| Google Cloud Marketplace | Vendor’s own metric, or BYOL | Flat hourly, usage-based, SaaS or BYOL plans | Google Workspace and Google Cloud licensing |
| Gemini Developer API and Gemini on Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) | Input and output tokens per 1 million; GSU for Provisioned Throughput | Free and Paid tiers; pay-as-you-go; term commitments | Google Gemini API and Vertex AI licensing |
| Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Code Assist | Seat or license per user | Monthly or annual per-seat subscriptions | Google Gemini API and Vertex AI licensing |
| Google Maps Platform | Calls or load events per SKU | Pay as you go, or fixed-price subscription plans | None yet |
| ChromeOS Enterprise, Education and Kiosk & Signage Upgrades | Device | Annual or perpetual upgrades; perpetual upgrades bundled with some devices | None yet |
Google Workspace
Workspace licensing is user based. A user “needs a license to use a Google service”, and one license cannot be shared by several users even if each uses only some of the tools.[1] The Terms of Service count End User Accounts, the Google-hosted accounts through which End Users use the services.[6] Business Starter, Standard and Plus can be bought for at most 300 users, while Enterprise plans have no minimum or maximum.[7] Google publishes USD prices for the Business editions on both plans and sends Enterprise and other pricing through Google sales and resellers.[8] Each edition, add-on and Archived User variant has its own SKU ID in Google’s Enterprise License Manager product list, which is the most reliable key for reconciling assignments against purchases.[9]
Education follows a different floor. Every active user needs an Education Fundamentals license, and paid Education Standard or Education Plus subscriptions must cover the total student enrollment plus active staff, with a minimum of 50.[10] Leavers can be moved to an Archived User license that matches their edition, and extra Gemini capacity is sold as the AI Expanded Access add-on for selected editions.[11][12]
Google Cloud
Google Cloud services are billed on metered usage. For bring-your-own-license software with dedicated-hardware requirements, Google’s mechanism is the sole-tenant node, a physical server dedicated to one project’s virtual machines.[2] A node is billed for all of its vCPU and memory plus a sole-tenancy premium of 10% of those resources, with a 1-minute minimum and per-second billing after that.[13] Google Cloud Marketplace sells third-party products; for a BYOL product, access and use are governed by the vendor’s own license agreement, and Vendor Products may not be resold.[14] Marketplace pricing plans can be flat hourly, usage-based, SaaS or BYOL, in which case the vendor bills the license and Google bills the infrastructure.[15]
Gemini models and apps
Gemini reaches business customers by several routes. The Gemini Developer API is metered per 1 million input and output tokens with a Free tier and a Paid tier, and Gemini on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, the new name of the Vertex AI Platform, is also metered per token with optional Provisioned Throughput bought in generative AI scale units.[3][16][17] Whether usage is paid matters beyond cost: under the Gemini API Additional Terms, Google may use content submitted to Unpaid Services to improve its products, but does not do so for Paid Services.[18] On Google Cloud, the Service Specific Terms state that Google will not use Customer Data to train or fine-tune AI/ML models without the customer’s prior permission or instruction.[19] The Gemini Enterprise app is sold per seat, with Business limited to 300 seats, and licenses are specific to a Google Cloud project and location.[20][21] Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise are per-license subscriptions on monthly or 12-month commitments.[22]
Google Maps Platform
Google Maps Platform is priced per product SKU on calls to an API or on map and panorama load events. On pay-as-you-go pricing the SKUs fall into Essentials, Pro and Enterprise categories with 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000 free calls per SKU each month respectively, and Google also offers fixed-price subscription plans that cover its most popular products at one price.[4] The unit is therefore an API call counted in a Google Cloud billing account, not a user or a device.
ChromeOS upgrades
ChromeOS devices are managed from the Google Admin console only after an upgrade is bought for each device. Google sells standalone ChromeOS Enterprise Upgrade and Kiosk & Signage Upgrade as annual upgrades and ChromeOS Education Upgrade as a perpetual upgrade, and no flexible plan is available for them. Devices sold with bundled upgrades need no separate purchase, because “Each device has an integrated perpetual upgrade that covers the life of the device.”[5] An upgrade inventory is therefore reconciled against enrolled devices, not users.
Purchasing programs and agreements
The Google Cloud Terms of Service are the master agreement for Workspace, Google Cloud Platform, Looker (original), SecOps and Cloud Identity. They are read with Order Forms, the Service Specific Terms for each product, and, where the customer buys through a partner, a Reseller Order.[6] For Workspace and Cloud Identity, the Terms offer two billing options:
- The Flexible Plan, billed monthly in arrears on daily usage, where a partial day counts as a full day and users can be added or removed at any time.[6][23]
- The Annual/Fixed-Term Plan, a commitment to a number of licenses for the term. Licenses can be added at any time, prorated to the end of the term, but cannot be removed until renewal, and licenses cannot be transferred between Google accounts.[24]
On Google Cloud, the documented programs are Bring your own licenses on sole-tenant nodes, Google Cloud Marketplace and Google’s summary of Microsoft BYOL on Google Cloud.[2][14][25] Gemini adds its own commercial wrappers: the Paid tier’s prepaid credits, Provisioned Throughput commitments from one week to one year, and the Gemini Enterprise editions.[3][17][20]
Renewal and price changes. Flexible Plan Order Terms renew monthly unless cancelled in the Admin Console, and the Terms set separate renewal rules for Annual/Fixed-Term Plans.[6] Google may change Fees at any time unless an addendum or Order Form says otherwise; for Workspace, Looker (original) and Cloud Identity only, Google gives at least 30 days’ notice and the new price applies when the Order Term renews after that period.[6] For Google Cloud Platform services, the published price at the time of use therefore applies unless a contract fixes it.
Support and maintenance
There is no separate maintenance fee for Google’s hosted services, because updates are part of the service. Technical support is a separately priced layer. Subject to payment of support Fees, Google provides Technical Support Services (TSS) under the TSS Guidelines, which are published separately for Google Cloud Platform, SecOps and Looker (original), and for Workspace; certain TSS levels include a minimum recurring Fee.[6] If a customer downgrades its TSS level during a calendar month, Google may continue to provide and charge for the previous level for that month.[6] Looker is an example of support being moved into the Google Cloud model: Looker Support is no longer available when a Looker support subscription is renewed, and customers choose a Google Cloud Customer Care offering instead.[26]
Audit and compliance
The Google Cloud Terms of Service do not contain a traditional software audit clause of the kind found in on-premises license agreements. Instead, compliance is enforced through metering and billing:
- Google’s measurement tools decide usage. For Google Cloud Platform, Workspace, Looker (original) and Cloud Identity, “Google’s measurement tools will be used to determine Customer’s usage of the Services.”[6]
- Anti-circumvention. For Workspace, if Google finds bad-faith dealing or use designed to avoid Fees, it may bill the whole month for every End User Account used at any time in that month, including accounts later disabled. The Services may not be resold, sublicensed or transferred.[6]
- Education disclosures. Google may require an Education customer to disclose its enrollment and staff numbers and to buy additional licenses if the real total is higher than the number purchased.[27]
- Assignment limits. On the Annual/Fixed-Term Plan, license assignments cannot exceed the number of licenses purchased.[1]
For these services the practical compliance risk is therefore an unexpected bill rather than an audit finding. The exception is third-party software running on Google Cloud, where the other vendor’s audit rights apply in full (see software license audit).
Cloud, virtualization and BYOL
Workspace, Gemini apps and Maps are hosted services, so virtualization rules do not apply to them. For third-party software on Compute Engine, the sole-tenant node’s host maintenance policy controls how many physical servers a VM can touch: the default live-migrates VMs to a new node, restart in place keeps them on the same physical server, and migrate within node group keeps them inside a fixed group of servers.[28] Google recommends restart in place or migrate within node group when licenses are assigned per physical core, and reports the physical server ID so that historical server usage can be reviewed.[2][28] Google adds no charge for bringing images with existing licenses, but the licenses themselves must still be paid for, and images based on Google’s premium images are not eligible.[2]
For Microsoft software, Google summarizes two routes: License Mobility through Software Assurance, and bring-your-own-license on sole-tenant nodes for products released before 1 October 2019 under Outsourcing Software Management rights. Microsoft’s own Product Terms govern those rights.[25] See cloud BYOL and virtualization and partitioning for the cross-vendor picture.
Recent licensing changes
- Single Terms of Service (2026). The Google Workspace Terms of Service were integrated into the Google Cloud Terms of Service, last modified 2026-09-02, with effect for existing customers at their next renewal.[6]
- Vertex AI renamed. The Vertex AI Platform is now Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, and Gemini pricing pages and documentation use the new name.[16]
- Gemini API Prepay. To reach the Paid tier, a customer links a billing account and prepays credits, with the Prepay system introduced from 2026-03-23.[31]
- Gemini in Workspace. Gemini features are included in Workspace editions with usage limits, and extra capacity moved to the AI Expanded Access add-on.[12]
- Maps Platform categories (2025-03-01). Google organized Maps Platform SKUs into Essentials, Pro and Enterprise categories and replaced the USD $200 monthly credit with free monthly calls per SKU. User interactions such as zooming or panning are not charged.[4]
- Security acquisitions. Google completed its acquisition of Wiz on 2026-03-11 and said Wiz products would remain available across other major clouds; Mandiant, acquired in 2022, kept its brand within Google Cloud.[29][30] The deals are summarised on the acquisitions page.
Guides
The Google articles in this wiki, from the most general to the most specific:
- Google Workspace and Google Cloud licensing: Workspace editions and SKU IDs, Flexible and Annual/Fixed-Term Plans, license assignment, Archived User and AI Expanded Access licenses, Education floors, sole-tenant BYOL, Microsoft BYOL and Google Cloud Marketplace.
- Google Gemini API and Vertex AI licensing: token metering on the Gemini API and Agent Platform, Provisioned Throughput in GSUs, data-use terms by tier, and seat-based Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Code Assist.
Cross-vendor background is in named user licensing and subscription and consumption licensing.
Out of scope
- Consumer Google products and consumer Google AI plans.
- Google Cloud list prices and committed use discounts beyond what the guides cite.
- Looker, Google Security Operations, Mandiant and Wiz product licensing, which have no guide yet.
- Detailed Google Maps Platform SKU prices and ChromeOS upgrade prices, which Google publishes on its pricing pages and through partners.
- Android and Google Play distribution terms.