How to Manage Storage Quotas for Specific Users in Google Workspace

The End of Unlimited Storage

For many years, Google Workspace offered unlimited pooled storage for enterprise customers. However, as Google transitions to a metered storage model, system administrators must actively monitor and enforce storage limits across their organization to prevent surprise billing overages. If a single employee decides to use their corporate Google Drive as a personal backup repository for terabytes of 4K drone footage, they can rapidly exhaust the entire company’s storage pool.

To prevent this, you can configure strict storage quotas in the Admin Console, allowing you to assign massive limits to the Video Production department while enforcing a strict 10GB limit on standard data-entry clerks.

Step 1: Understand Organizational Units (OUs)

In Google Workspace, you cannot simply click on an individual user and type “10GB” next to their name. Storage quotas, like almost all Google Workspace policies, must be applied at the Organizational Unit (OU) level, or via Configuration Groups.

If you have not already organized your employees into specific OUs (e.g., “Marketing”, “Executives”, “Contractors”), you must do that in the Directory > Organizational Units menu before proceeding.

Step 2: Access Storage Settings

1. Log into the Google Workspace Admin Console (admin.google.com).
2. In the left-hand navigation menu, click on Storage.
3. You will see a global overview of your company’s total storage usage. At the top of this page, click on Manage in the “Storage settings” box.

Step 3: Define the Quota

By default, the master policy at the root of your organization is set to “Off,” meaning everyone shares the master pool with no individual restrictions.

1. On the left side of the screen, select the Organizational Unit you wish to restrict (e.g., “Contractors”).
2. In the main window, look for the User storage limit setting.
3. Change the toggle from “Off” to On.
4. A text box will appear. Enter the maximum amount of storage you want to allocate to each individual user within this OU (e.g., 15).
5. Use the dropdown menu to select the unit of measurement (e.g., GB).
6. Click the Save button at the bottom right.

What Happens When a User Hits the Limit?

The policy applies almost instantly. If a contractor in that OU is currently storing 20GB of data, and you just applied a 15GB limit, they will immediately be placed in a state of violation.

Google will not automatically delete their files. However, the user’s account will be heavily restricted until they clean up their Drive:

• They cannot upload any new files to Google Drive.
• They cannot create any new Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
• They cannot back up any new photos to Google Photos.
• Crucially: Depending on the severity of the overage, they may stop receiving incoming emails, as Gmail shares the same storage quota.