Google has just announced that it will be increasing its subscription rates for Flexible Plan subscriptions to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Standard Plus by 20% starting April 2023.

Google explains this increase by pointing out the new features it has added to Google Workspace in 2022 alone. For Google’s summary of these upgrades, click here.

Google currently offers 2 pricing plans. Most of Atlas’ Google Workspace clients are on the Flexible plan. But Google does offer an Annual Term plan as well. The increase only applies to the Flexible Plan. Prices for the Annual Plan will remain unchanged until at least 2024.

What is Google’s Flexible Plan?

Google’s Flexible plan allows clients to:

1. Pay month by month with no long-term commitment.
2. User licenses can be added or removed from the subscription at any time with the changes in licensing costs being applied to future payments.

For these subscribers, pricing will change as follows:

	Current Pricing	New Pricing for Flexible Plan*
Google Workspace Business Starter	$7.80/month/user CAD	$9.63/month/user CAD
Google Workspace Business Standard	$15.60/month/user CAD	$18.72/month/user CAD

What is Google’s Annual Term Plan?

Google also offers an Annual Term Plan. The Annual Term Plan will be at the current pricing levels for at least the next year. It requires clients to:

1. Commit to an annual contract subscription for their current number of users.
2. Additional user licenses can be added at any time with the increase cost added to the agreement and billed at the time of the increase but a decrease in the number of licenses cannot be made mid-term.
3. Individual users can be removed from the account, thereby freeing up a license for a new or future user.
4. Any reduction in user licenses is only allowed at the annual renewal data of the subscription.

How Does Atlas Currently Bill its Customers?

Atlas currently invoices most of our larger clients (clients with at least 3 users) monthly for Google Workspace. To make things easier for our smaller clients who have smaller monthly invoices, we invoice them annually for the year in advance, while prorating changes in the number of licenses accordingly.

How will Atlas be Helping Clients with this Increase?

To help clients with this increase, we will be giving our choice of moving their account to the Annual Term Plan. This will lock in your current pricing for the coming year. Because we will be committing to pay Google for your subscription on your behalf, we will move these accounts to an annual, paid-in-advance billing cycle.

This will result in no increase in pricing for your Google Workspace subscription. And for our smaller clients with less than 3 users, there will be no increase in costs or change to your billing cycle—at least for the next year.

However, for our larger customers who currently are invoiced monthly, this means that you will need to prepay for your subscription in advance for the next 12 months but without any increase in total cost for your subscription.

Any increase in the total number of licenses needed over the coming year will be prorated and invoiced at the time of the increase.

Can We Stay with the Flexible Plan?

Yes. For those on a monthly billing cycle, we will increase your invoice to reflect the new pricing passed down by Google starting with our April 1, 2023 billing cycle.

For customers who prepaid for the year in advance, you will get a one-time invoice on April 1, 2023 to cover the prorated cost of Google’s increase until your normal annual renewal date with Atlas, when your annual invoice will be sent out with the new Google pricing for the next year.

What Will This Mean for Smaller Customers?

For customers who currently prepay for the year, you currently are on the Flexible Plan. This has allowed some smaller clients to reduce their number of licenses or cancel their account all together in the past. Any credits from such changes have been reflected in your account balance.

Your choices are:

1. Remain on the Flexible Plan. In this case, you will get an invoice on April 1 representing Google’s Increase based on your current number of licenses for the months remaining until you renewal date with Atlas.
2. Move to the Annual Plan. In this case, Atlas will move you to an annual plan with an annual renewal expiry in April 2024 (one year from now). You will get an invoice on April 1 representing your current number of licenses at your current cost for the number of months between your current renewal date with Atlas and April 2024. No refund for early cancelation will be possible. Any reduction in your license count will only be possible at the new renewal data.

How Will We Choose our Option?

Please fill out the following Google Form with your business’ decision regarding whether to move to Google’s Annual Term Plan or stay with Google’s Flexible Plan.

Please have this form filled out by an officer, manager, or owner of your company who has authority to make purchasing decisions. Please send this form from your Google business email address.

Clients who do not fill out the form or make other arrangements, will be automatically left on the Flexible Plan with the price increase reflected on their April 1, 2023 invoice.