Español – América Latina Português – Brasil User management Google Workspace Help User management If you have a single-user subscription, go instead to Archive a single-user subscription . When an employee leaves your company, you can archive their user account to securely retain their data and prevent them from accessing Google Workspace services. Archiving a user account changes the account state to archived. Data for archived users counts toward your organization's pooled storage limit. What happens to an archived user's account & data? When you archive a user account, Google safely maintains the user's Google Workspace services data. If the user has a Google Vault license or a license from an Archived User subscription that contains Vault, then the user's data is protected according to Vault retention rules and holds and you can search and export the data. Learn more The user's data (from core services, such as Gmail and Google Drive, and non-core services, such as Classroom) is available to other users in your organization who have a Google Vault license. Users' data stays in the same data region set by the administrator. For details, go to Choose a geographic location for your data . Note : Google Workspace for Education accounts, both active and archived, must have an Education Standard or Education Plus license assigned to be covered by data region policies. Users' data stays in the same data region set by the administrator. For details, go to Choose a geographic location for your data . Note : Google Workspace for Education accounts, both active and archived, must have an Education Standard or Education Plus license assigned to be covered by data region policies. Google Drive data loss prevention (DLP) continues to run on users' data. For details, go to Use Workspace DLP to prevent data loss . Google Drive data loss prevention (DLP) continues to run on users' data. For details, go to Use Workspace DLP to prevent data loss . If the user has a license to an add-on subscription, such as Vault or Google Voice, the user keeps the license after you archive them. If the user no longer needs the add-on subscription, you can remove the license after archiving the user account. Learn more about removing licenses . You can archive both active and suspended users . When you archive a user account, their active Google Workspace license becomes available to reassign to another user within 24 hours. After a user is archived After you archive a user, they: Can't sign in to their managed Google Account, on any system. This includes Google Workspace services, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Drive. Don't appear in the Global Address List. In user directory listings, the user appears with the archived status. Go to View the status of a user account . Can be deleted or unarchived, but not suspended in the Admin console. Display the archived status in user reports, making it easy to monitor, manage, and eventually delete archived users. Can't receive new email and calendar invitations as they are blocked when sent to the archived user's account. How unarchiving works When you unarchive a user account, they return to their previous status and regain access to all their previous data. To unarchive a user, you need an available license that matches their Google Workspace edition. If no active license is available, the unarchiving process fails and the user remains archived with their Archived User license. After you unarchive a user account, you need to manually assign them a license for Google Workspace . Before you begin To archive a user, you need an Archived User subscription or the Flexible Plan for billing: Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus —You can buy an Archived User subscription in your Google Admin console. For the steps, go to Add a paid subscription to your account . Business Starter, Business Standard, or Business Plus —You might be able to buy an Archived User subscription in your Admin console. To check, follow the steps to archive a user in Archive or unarchive an individual user account (later on this page). Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, or Education Plus —Archive User licenses are included in your Google Workspace for Education subscription. If you run out, you can request more by contacting Google Workspace support. Flexible Plan for billing —If you don't have an existing Archived User subscription, you can archive a user when you delete their account. For details, go to Archive users without a separate subscription (later on this page). Alternatively, for all editions, you can contact a Google Sales representative or a Google Cloud partner . Archive or unarchive an individual user account For Education customers, go instead to Archive users in Education editions . In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Directory Users . Go to Users Requires having the appropriate User management privilege . Without the correct privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Directory Users . Requires having the appropriate User management privilege . Without the correct privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps. In the Users list, find the user. If you need help, go to Find a user account . To archive a user: Point to the user account and click More options. If you have: Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus —Select Archive user . Business Starter, Business Standard, or Business Plus —Select Delete user click Archive user . If prompted, click Buy archived user subscription and follow the prompts. If this option isn't available, you can't buy an Archived User subscription in your Admin console. Instead, contact a Google Sales representative or a Google Cloud partner . Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus —Select Archive user . Business Starter, Business Standard, or Business Plus —Select Delete user click Archive user . If prompted, click Buy archived user subscription and follow the prompts. If this option isn't available, you can't buy an Archived User subscription in your Admin console. Instead, contact a Google Sales representative or a Google Cloud partner . Click Done to confirm. To unarchive a user: Point to the user and click Unarchive user . Click Done to confirm. Archive or unarchive users in bulk You can archive or unarchive users in bulk using a CSV file or the Admin SDK APIs. To archive or unarchive multiple users using a CSV file:

Follow the directions in Add or update multiple users from a CSV file . In the downloaded CSV template, in the New Status [Upload Only] column, enter Archived to archive a user or Active to unarchive a user. To archive or unarchive multiple users using the Admin SDK APIs: Follow the directions in Method: users.update . Set the archived boolean variable to True or False for each user as appropriate. Archive users instead of canceling subscription If you start to cancel Google Workspace, during the cancellation process you might have the option to archive all your users instead. This option is available if you: Have a Business edition, Enterprise Standard, or Enterprise Plus Are on the Flexible Plan for billing Have between 2 and 300 users Depending on the number of users, it may take several hours before they're all archived. To check the general status of the archiving process, at the top of any page in the Admin console, click Tasks . After you archive all users, you can unarchive one or more of them by following either set of unarchiving steps earlier on this page. For more details on cancellation steps, go to Cancel Google Workspace . Archive users without a separate subscription If you don’t have an Archived User subscription, you can still archive users if you're on the Flexible Plan for billing. This option is available as an alternative to deleting a user. When you archive a user during the user-deletion process, you can assign a delegate to manage access requests to files and future email. If an email is addressed to an archived user, the sender gets a notification about who to contact instead. Assign a delegate for an archived user: In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Directory Users . Go to Users Requires having the appropriate User management privilege . Without the correct privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Directory Users . Requires having the appropriate User management privilege . Without the correct privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps. In the Users list, point to the user that you want to update and click More options Update delegate . Click Delegate name or email and select the delegate from the list. For Decide what the delegate can receive , check the boxes next to the items you want the delegate to receive. Click Save changes . To find out if you can archive a user without a separate subscription: In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Billing Subscriptions . Go to Subscriptions Requires having the Billing management privilege . In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Billing Subscriptions . Requires having the Billing management privilege . On the Subscriptions page, if the Archived User edition is not listed, then you can archive a user without a separate Archived User subscription. For details on deleting a user from your organization, go to Delete or remove a user from your organization . Review archived licenses & users In your Admin console, you can review the number of assigned Archived User licenses. You can also check whether a specific user’s status is active or archived. To check the number of assigned Archived User licenses: In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Billing Subscriptions . Go to Subscriptions Requires having the Billing management privilege . In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Billing Subscriptions . Requires having the Billing management privilege . Check for licenses in one of these locations: If your Archived User subscription is listed —For that subscription, in the Licenses column, check the number of licenses. If no Archived User subscription is listed —For your main Workspace subscription, in the Licenses assigned column, check the number of archived licenses. If your Archived User subscription is listed —For that subscription, in the Licenses column, check the number of licenses. If no Archived User subscription is listed —For your main Workspace subscription, in the Licenses assigned column, check the number of archived licenses. If neither option is available on the Subscriptions page, you can't check the total number of assigned archived licenses. You can instead check an individual user's archived status by following these steps: In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Directory Users . Go to Users Requires having the appropriate User management privilege . Without the correct privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu Directory Users . Requires having the appropriate User management privilege . Without the correct privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps. In the Users list, find the user. If you need help, go to Find a user account . Go to the Status column to check if the user is archived. Add Archived User licenses Switch your Archived User edition Options to preserve former employee data Options to preserve former employee data Archiving users in Education editions Archiving users in Education editions Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License , and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License . For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies . Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Last updated 2026-09-10 UTC.