This document is relevant only for customers with Google Workspace for Education Standard or Education Plus subscriptions.
Starting February 1, 2026, Education Standard and Education Plus subscriptions are transitioning to a single, unified license type. This change replaces the old model of separate "Staff" and "Student" licenses to simplify how our partners and customers order and assign seats. Learn more about the licensing changes in the Google Workspace for Education pricing and licensing Help Center article.
License Transition Processes
Transitioning to a single license type: Following your renewal, existing "Staff" subscriptions (Education Standard or Plus) will be canceled. You must convert these users to the new standalone Education Standard or Plus subscriptions. While Google will automatically transition licenses for most customers at renewal, some may require manual conversion.
Google-led Automated License Transition
Google's automated license transition process is designed to remove the complexity and risk of errors associated with manual license reassignment, ensuring a more reliable experience for customers. While Google's automated process handles the transition for most customers, its success depends on proper license management. There is a risk of our automated license transition failing, in which case manual action by the customer will be required.
To ensure Google's automation works: Follow our documented best practices.
If Google's automation is unavailable: You will need to manually convert licenses.
If you purchased from a Google Workspace for Education Reseller: Your reseller manages your subscription settings. Contact them to determine your specific transition path and verify your auto-renewal status.
When automated license transition will be supported:
- Starting February 1, 2026, in cases where subscriptions have auto-renewal settings ON by your reseller, license transitions will occur automatically within 24 hours of the renewal date.
- Starting April 1, 2026, in cases where subscriptions have auto-renewal settings OFF by your reseller, license transitions will occur automatically within 3 business days of the renewal date. Customers renewing between February 1, 2026 and April 1, 2026 will need to follow the manual license transition steps.
How automated license transitions works:
Directly following the renewal, the automated process will:
- Convert all assigned Staff licenses to a new standalone, single license type subscription.
- Adjust any existing automatic licensing rules for the Staff subscription in the Admin console to reference to the new, single paid subscription.
- Cancel the previous Staff subscription. ## Monitoring and Troubleshooting Following renewal, customers should verify all licenses have transitioned to a single license type as expected. While the Google-led automation is highly reliable and usually finishes within 3 business days, customers who don't follow license management best practices may require manual intervention. To avoid any disruption in service, ensure all staff licenses are correctly assigned within 30 days of your renewal date. ### Manual License Transition If your licenses don't transition automatically, you have a 30-day grace period from your renewal date to convert them manually. You should verify your license status in the Admin console promptly after renewal to determine if action is required due to your specific settings or an unsuccessful automated transition.
Understanding notification emails: Workspace Billing Administrators will receive automated notifications regarding the status of Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) subscriptions. Emails are sent at the following intervals:
- Start of the grace period: Immediately following your renewal.
- 30 days before the grace period ends: A mid-period reminder.
- 1 day before the grace period ends: A final notice before the Staff subscription is retired. Note: These notifications are a standard part of the transition. While the emails will mention that your "Staff" subscription is being suspended, this refers only to the legacy Staff license type. Your actual service will remain uninterrupted as long as your licenses are converted to the new standalone subscription before the grace period expires.
Customer required action to transition licenses:
- All users assigned a Staff license should be transitioned to an Education Standard or Education Plus license type using the Admin console, Google Cloud Directory Sync, GAM , Enterprise License Manager API, Google Workspace for Education License Management Tool, or a different license management tool. Administrators can utilize whichever method works best for their institution.
- When the Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) subscription grace period expires, customers will receive an email notification and will no longer see the subscription in the Admin console.
- Administrators can verify their licenses have been transitioned by confirming all users previously assigned an Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) license are now assigned an Education Standard or Education Plus license.
Managing storage during the transition
Confirm with your reseller if you need to reassign Staff licenses, or if this will happen automatically at renewal. If you need to reassign Staff licenses, you should be aware of the impact on storage due to manual storage adjustments while the Staff subscription is in a grace period. You can refer to Google Workspace for Education storage.
During the transition to single license type, if you change the number of assigned users with an Education Standard (Staff) or Education Plus (Staff) license while the subscription is in the grace period, then your institution's total storage quota may vary temporarily until your renewal date. It's recommended to keep the total number of Staff licenses assigned as stable as possible to avoid temporary swings in storage quota as this may create confusion over available storage. Reassignment of licenses between users (that is, to address personnel changes) during the grace period won't impact storage quota as long as the total number of licenses assigned remains consistent. At your renewal date, the manual storage adjustment associated with the Staff subscription will expire and any license reassignment will no longer have an impact on storage quota. Additionally, the storage quota associated with your new single license type subscription will be accurately reflected in your Admin console.
Ensure user access to Google Meet features
This section is relevant only for Education Plus customers.
Previously, some Google Meet features, such as recording, meeting transcription, and live streaming, were disabled by default for the Education Plus student license type. With the transition to a single license type, access to these features is now controlled solely by Admin console settings. When the Education Plus (Staff) subscription is cancelled, following the grace period if applicable, the default settings for these Meet features will be OFF in the Admin console.
Admins can take action, before or after the transition to single license type to set the preferred availability for their users.
- Previously, these features were default ON at the top-level organizational unit. If these feature settings at a user, group or sub-organizational level had previously been adjusted, either ON or OFF, the settings will remain as is after the transition to single license type is complete.
- If default settings were never adjusted, admins will need to turn ON these Meet features for specific users, groups or sub-organizational units to provide access to these features.
If preferred, admins can configure settings for users, groups or sub-organizational units before the transition to single license type, as manually configured settings for these features shouldn't change at the transition.