Reference
Google Workspace limits and quotas
A Google shared drive holds 500,000 items nested up to 100 levels deep, a Workspace mailbox sends to 2,000 external recipients a day, and Business editions stop at 300 users. Those four numbers decide more migration plans than total storage ever does, so check them during discovery rather than mid-copy.
| 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 |
| Items per shared drive | 500,000 files and folders |
|---|---|
| Nesting depth in a shared drive | 100 levels of subfolders |
| Individual file upload | 5 TB, subject to available pooled storage |
| Google Docs document | 1.02 million characters |
| Google Sheets spreadsheet | 10 million cells or 18,278 columns |
| 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 |
Limits fail in a specific 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 in a single top-level directory. Nesting depth breaks second, silently, when a copy tool flattens or truncates paths it cannot recreate.
Sending limits break later 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 with an authenticated subdomain, not a bigger seat.
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.
Questions we get asked
- 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.
- 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 Drive Help: files you can store in Drive
Last checked 2026-08-06.
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.