How to set storage limits for users?

Set storage limit for users

To allocate your organization’s pooled storage, you can set storage limits for users. Without admin-set storage limits, user storage use is limited only by the total pooled storage for your organization.

If you don't set storage limits, users in your organization won't see storage limit indicators in Google Workspace products.

Steps to set storage limits for users:

1. In the Admin console, go to Menu > Storage.

2. In the Storage settings section, click Manage.

3. At the left, click the entity whose users you want to apply a storage limit to:

1. 1. Organizational unit–Click the organizational unit.
   2. Group–Click Groups. Click the search field and begin entering the name of the group, then click the group.
      Note that group storage limits always override organization storage limits, and you can arrange which groups override each other through group settings. Learn more about configuration groups

4. If the user storage limit section isn't open already, click it.

5. Select On and enter the amount of storage allowed for each user. 

 

6. Click Save. If you set limit for a child organizational unit that was previously inheriting a limit from a parent organizational unit, click Override. If you previously set a limit for a child organizational unit and you want it to inherit the limit from a parent organizational unit, click Inherit.

If some users in an organizational unit already exceed the storage limit, you are warned. You’re warned for group members only if the group is set as a filtering group. For details, on this page see Storage limit warning messages.

7. For Gmail and Photos, it can take up to 24 hours for the storage limit to apply. For Drive, the storage limit applies after the user next adds or edits a file. 

What happens when users go over storage limits:

If users exceed their storage limit, they can be blocked from creating Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, among other service degradations. If your user goes over storage limits:

• They can’t add new files or images to Google Drive.
• They can’t create new files in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard. Until they reduce storage use, nobody can edit or copy their affected files or submit forms owned by the user.
• They can't add any photos and videos to Google Photos.
• Their ability to send and receive emails in Gmail will be impacted. Note: Education customers are exempt from this.
• They can’t record new meetings in Google Meet.

Note: Users over their storage limit can still sign in to and access their Google Workspace account and view and download files. 

Some users already exceed the storage limit:

When you apply a user storage limit to an organizational unit or group, some users might already use more storage than your policy allows. For organizational unit-based limits, you see an alert indicating that some users may exceed the storage limit you are about to apply. For group-based limits, you see an alert if the group is set as a filtering group. Before you apply the policy, understand what happens to users over storage limits.

To find which users are over the limit:

1. In the Admin console, go to Menu > Storage.
2. Click View all users.

On this page, you can filter users by specific organizational units and by how much storage they use.

After you apply a user storage limit, users see a status bar in Google Drive that shows how much storage they’re using and alerts them if they're low on storage.