How do I cancel a Google Workspace trial?

So there are different steps you need to take when cancelling a Google Workspace trial depending on how far into the trial period you are; and what actions you’ve already taken as part of the trial.

Scenario One: Haven’t completed all the trial steps and haven’t got any data in Google Workspace

Your Google Workspace subscription will be automatically cancelled if

a. you don’t verify your domain within 9 days of starting the free trial.

b. you haven’t set up billing by the end of the trial.

Leading up to these two events you’ll get an email from Google Workspace to the secondary email account that you provided when you first set up the free trial.

If you haven’t got any data (like emails or documents) in Google Workspace and just want the free trial to lapse then ignore the emails and all will be good.

Scenario Two: Haven’t completed all the steps but do have data in Google Workspace

In this scenario, you’ll need to take action when you get the email warning you that your free trial is going to end, otherwise you’ll lose any emails and/or documents that you’ve created in Google Workspace.

Although Google does offer a way of quickly exporting data (called Google Takeout) this isn’t my preferred option, as there are actually some things (like Tasks and Google Keep notes) that can be exported but can’t then be imported anywhere!

Instead I recommend that if you’ve:

• created any Google Docs, Sheets, Slides etc. – you either download all of these so you have local copies on your computer, or share them with another Google account that can then create online copies of the documents.
• created any Google Keep notes you upload them to a Google Doc and then either download that document(s) or share them.
• received or sent any emails from this Google Workspace installation -you forward them to a secondary email account otherwise you will lose access to them once the trial is cancelled.
• created any Google Tasks – you duplicate those tasks elsewhere, either in handwritten format or using another task app (even another Google Account).
• added events to the Google Calendar – you export that calendar and then import it into any other calendar app that you might want to use.

Sadly there aren’t any Administrator tools for this either – everything will need to be done manually if you don’t want to lose any data.

Scenario Three: Might want to set up Google Workspace again with this domain

This scenario can apply in conjunction with either scenario one or two – where you don’t want to continue with Google Workspace right now, but you think there’s a fair chance you might want to in the future.

In this case, you’ll want to manually cancel the subscription and then delete your Google Workspace account completely. If you don’t do this, then you may not be able to use your domain with another Google Workspace account for up to 50 days.

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING Bill Robinson

Only do this once you’ve a)saved all your data elsewhere and b)set up your email address elsewhere (if you were receiving email to Google Workspace during this trial).

• From the Admin Console go to Billing / Subscriptions
• click on the name of your license (e.g Google Workspace Business Standard)
• then click on Cancel Subscription / cancel subscription)
• choose a reason for why you’re leaving and then click Continue
• click the checkbox next to “I have read the information above and want to proceed with cancelling my subscription” and type in your Google Workspace administrator email address
• click on Cancel my subscription
• now click on delete your account /Delete Account
• click the checkbox next to “I have read the above and want to proceed with deleting my organisation’s account.”
• click on Delete Account

And that’s it – you’ll be returned to the main Google Workspace product page with all your Google Workspace data and accounts deleted.