Reference
Google Workspace limits and quotas
Google Workspace has no per-mailbox size limit: storage is pooled at 30 GB per user on Business Starter, 2 TB on Business Standard and 5 TB on Business Plus. A mailbox sends to 2,000 external recipients a day, a shared drive holds 500,000 items nested 100 levels deep, and Business editions stop at 300 users.
Last checked · checked against Google Admin Help articles · See what changed
Google Workspace mailbox size limit and storage quota
There is no per-mailbox cap in Google Workspace. Storage is pooled: Google multiplies the per-user allowance by your licence count, and every mailbox, shared drive and Photos library draws from that single pool. One mailbox can legitimately consume the whole tenant's storage, which is why the useful question is never "how big can a mailbox get" but "what happens when the pool runs out". When it does, sending continues and receiving stops.
| Business Starter | 30 GB pooled per user |
|---|---|
| Business Standard | 2 TB pooled per user |
| Business Plus | 5 TB pooled per user |
| Enterprise Standard and Plus | 5 TB pooled per user, more on request |
| Per-mailbox cap | None. A mailbox can consume the whole pool |
Pool running out and unsure whether to buy storage or move editions? work out the cost per edition.
Gmail sending limits and attachment size
| Messages sent per day (Workspace account) | 2,000 external recipients per day |
|---|---|
| Recipients per message | 2,000, of which 500 may be external |
| Attachment size | 25 MB send limit; larger files are converted to Drive links |
| Mailbox size | Bounded by the edition's pooled storage, not a per-mailbox cap |
| Labels per account | 10,000, with 100 nested levels |
Sending limits break later than storage limits and look like a mail problem rather than a design problem. A finance mailbox that blasts 3,000 remittance advices on invoice day will be throttled, and the fix is a transactional mail service on an authenticated subdomain, not a bigger seat.
Mail being throttled or landing in spam after a volume change? see how we split bulk mail off the tenant.
Tenant, seat and admin limits
| Users per Business edition | 300; above that you move to an Enterprise edition |
|---|---|
| Groups per account | Practically unbounded; membership per group is capped |
| Org units | 35 levels of depth |
| Audit log retention | Varies by log; export to BigQuery for retention past the default |
| Domain aliases | 600 per account, plus 20 secondary domains at signup |
The 300-seat ceiling on Business editions is the limit organisations meet by growing rather than by doing anything wrong. Crossing it is a licensing move to an Enterprise edition, not a migration, and it is worth planning a quarter ahead because the security controls available above 300 seats are the ones most tenants actually want.
Which limits break migrations, and in what order
Limits fail in a predictable order on a real migration. File counts break first, because a source file server with fifteen years of nested project folders exceeds the shared drive item cap inside a single top-level directory. Nesting depth breaks second, and silently, when a copy tool flattens or truncates paths it cannot recreate. Storage pressure appears third, usually mid-copy, when nobody counted the archive mailboxes.
What this doesn't cover
- Google changes quotas without notice; treat every number here as accurate at the review date and verify against the linked Admin Help article before you design around it.
- Education, Nonprofit and Frontline editions carry different caps that are not listed here.
- API and Apps Script quotas are separate from end-user limits and are not covered on this page.
Hitting one of these limits in production?
Three fields. We tell you whether the limit can be raised, worked around, or whether it means you are on the wrong edition.
Prefer to talk? Call +44 20 7183 3436 (Mon–Fri 08:00–18:00 GMT), or message WhatsApp +44 7403 423563.
Questions we get asked
- What is the Google Workspace mailbox size limit?
- There is no per-mailbox cap. A Workspace mailbox is bounded by the edition's pooled storage: 30 GB per user on Business Starter, 2 TB on Business Standard and 5 TB on Business Plus, shared across the whole tenant. One mailbox can consume the entire pool, which is why archiving policy matters more than any single number.
- What is the Google Workspace storage quota per user?
- Storage is pooled, not per user. Google multiplies the per-user allowance by your licence count and the tenant draws from that pool: 30 GB per user on Business Starter, 2 TB on Business Standard, 5 TB on Business Plus and Enterprise editions.
- How many files can a Google shared drive hold?
- 500,000 files and folders, nested up to 100 levels deep. Large migrations hit the item count long before they hit a storage limit, which is why file-count discovery matters more than total gigabytes.
- What is the Gmail sending limit for Google Workspace?
- 2,000 messages a day to external recipients per account, with 2,000 recipients per message of which 500 may be external. Bulk sending belongs in a mail platform, not in a Workspace mailbox.
- How many users can a Google Workspace Business edition have?
- 300 per Business edition — Starter, Standard or Plus. Beyond 300 seats you move to an Enterprise edition, which is a licensing change rather than a migration.
- Which limit breaks migrations most often?
- The 500,000-item shared drive cap and the 100-level nesting depth. Source estates with deep nested folder trees have to be restructured before the copy, not after.
Sources
- Google Admin Help: Gmail sending limits
- Google Admin Help: shared drive limits
- Google Admin Help: storage limits by edition
- Google Drive Help: files you can store in Drive
Last checked 2026-09-19.
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Workspace Migration Services, "Google Workspace limits and quotas", https://workspacemigration.services/reference/google-workspace-limits (last checked 2026-09-19).HTML with source link
<p>Google Workspace has no per-mailbox size limit: storage is pooled per edition, and a shared drive holds 500,000 items nested 100 levels deep. Source: <a href="https://workspacemigration.services/reference/google-workspace-limits">Google Workspace limits and quotas</a> — Workspace Migration Services.</p>Embed this table
<table>
<caption>Google Workspace limits and quotas — Workspace Migration Services, 2026-09-19</caption>
<tr><th>Business Starter</th><td>30 GB pooled per user</td></tr>
<tr><th>Business Standard</th><td>2 TB pooled per user</td></tr>
<tr><th>Business Plus</th><td>5 TB pooled per user</td></tr>
<tr><th>Enterprise Standard and Plus</th><td>5 TB pooled per user, more on request</td></tr>
<tr><th>Per-mailbox cap</th><td>None. A mailbox can consume the whole pool</td></tr>
</table>
<p><a href="https://workspacemigration.services/reference/google-workspace-limits">Google Workspace limits and quotas</a> — data maintained by Workspace Migration Services.</p>Related pages
Not sure which limits your estate is about to hit?
Discovery counts mailboxes, files, folder depth and shared drive membership before anything is copied, so the plan is built around the caps rather than discovering them at 2am. Mon–Fri 08:00–18:00 GMT.