Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
If you’re part of a business or school that is a G Suite legacy free edition user, your organization will soon have to sign up for a paid subscription to continue using Google Workspace (via 9to5Google). Google will automatically upgrade free plans to a Google Workspace subscription “based on the features you currently use” if your organization doesn’t sign up for a paid plan by May 1st.
The free edition was initially available in Google’s first iteration of Workspace, called Google Apps, which launched in 2006. Google Apps rebranded as G Suite in 2016, before becoming the Google Workspace we know today in 2020 by bundling Gmail, Docs, Meet, Sheets, and Calendar along with some extra perks. Google stopped offering the legacy free edition…