Here we cover frequently asked questions for Gemini related to:
Purchasing
Do I need to purchase Gemini Education licenses for my entire domain?
No. Unlike Workspace for Education Standard or Plus, which are whole-domain licenses, you may purchase as few or as many Gemini Education or Education Premium licenses as you wish. This is similar to purchasing Teaching & Learning Upgrade licenses.
Who can purchase Gemini Education?
Gemini Education is an add-on for Google Workspace for Education institutions. To purchase Gemini Education, your institution must be a verified educational domain by Google with at least Workspace for Education Fundamentals.
Is Gemini Education included with Workspace for Education Plus?
No. Gemini Education is an add-on product that is separate from your existing Workspace for Education subscription.
Is there a minimum order quantity?
No. You may purchase as few or as many Gemini Education or Education Premium licenses as you wish.
Can I purchase a mix of Gemini Education and Education Premium licenses?
Yes. You can “mix and match” your Gemini licenses.
Can I add additional Gemini licenses during my subscription term?
Yes. Additional licenses purchased will co-term with your initial subscription term, prorated.
Does Gemini Education co-term with our existing paid Workspace edition?
No. Gemini Education is a separate term from your Google Workspace for Education subscription.
Can we reduce the number of licenses in our subscription when we renew?
Yes. But all purchased licenses must be paid for the duration of the original term.
Licensing Users
Can I move licenses between users?
Yes. You can un-assign a Gemini Education or Education Premium license from one user and then assign it to another user. Keep in mind that the user you un-license will lose features like “Help me write” and the sidebar.
When I suspend or delete a user, what happens to their Gemini license?
Just like other Workspace licenses, Gemini licenses do not automatically get un-assigned from suspended users. However, they will be un-assigned when a user is deleted.
Are there automation options for assigning licenses to users?
Yes. The CDW for Education licensing tool does support Gemini licensing at this time. In addition to automating license assignment through CDW Education's licensing tool, you can also use other tools like GAM or GCDS (formerly GADS).
For more information, please contact onboarding@amplifiedit.cdw.com or support@amplifiedit.cdw.com.
Can Gemini Education or Education Premium licenses be assigned to students or users under 18?
At this time, yes you can assign a license to a student or under-18 user. However, since Gemini is not currently available to users under 18, the app integrations like the sidebar will not be available. Therefore, we do not recommend assigning licenses to under-18 users as this will consume a license without granting any functionality or access to the end user. You would get better ROI by assigning that license to a staff member.
Features & Access
Who can use Gemini Education?
Gemini Education is intended for educators, administrators and students aged 18 or older within institutions with Google Workspace for Education licenses. In the coming weeks, US students age 13–17 will be able to access Gemini with their school accounts if enabled in the Admin console.
How do I enable Gemini in my Google Workspace for Education environment?
If you have not purchased Gemini Education or Education Premium, you can find Gemini under Apps > Additional Google services. When you purchase Gemini Education or Education Premium, Gemini moves to Apps > Google Workspace > Gemini. In either case, Gemini can be enabled for the entire domain, or by OU or group.
What are the technical requirements to use Gemini Education?
Gemini Education works within a web browser and requires no additional software installations.
How do I get the Gemini sidebar in Gmail, Docs and other apps?
The sidebar, just like “Help me write” in Docs and Gmail, is a feature that is available only with Gemini Education or Education Premium. Users can only access this feature if you purchase Gemini Education or Education Premium licenses and apply a license to a user.
What is the difference between the free Gemini and Gemini Education?
Gemini.google.com is free of charge and available to all users in your institution who are 18 or older. This is the basic chatbot interface with Gemini. Gemini Education brings the power of Gemini into core apps like Docs, Sheets, Gmail, Slides, Drive and Meet.
Is Gemini available to users under 18?
Not at this time. Later this year, Google will be granting access to Gemini Chat (gemini.google.com) to US users ages 13–17. When this is rolled out, it will be off by default, so you can choose if and when to enable it. Coupled with the data protections coming soon, this means that should you turn on Gemini for your teen users, their interactions with Gemini will be protected as well.
When the Gemini teen experience is released, how will Google/schools identify 13+ users?
Right now, there is no mechanism to identify 13+ by OU or configuration group, only by 18+. Google hasn't said anything about how admins can manage these age brackets yet.
How can a school pull a report of their Gemini usage/prompts? (aka what/how users are using Gemini)
There is yet to be a way to see individual inputs into Gemini to determine prompts used, just the high-level data.
What is the difference between Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium?
Please see this Help Center article for a breakdown of the differences between these two licenses.
What is Gemini Alpha?
Alpha is a Gemini setting that grants your licensed users early access to new Gemini features that are still in development. You can enable this by going to Account > Account settings > Gemini for Google Workspace. As with any pre-release feature, Alpha features may not work as expected. Alpha is off by default. You can turn this on for your entire domain, or you can turn it on for a pilot or tester group.
Data Privacy
How secure is Gemini? Is my data private?
At this time, this depends on how you have configured Gemini in your domain. In addition to turning on Gemini, there are two options for access in the Admin console:
- Only allow users with a Gemini Education or Education Premium license to access Gemini with Customer Data protections
- Allow all users access to Gemini
- Data from users without a Gemini Education or Education Premium license may be used to improve the LLM or be seen by humans.
- Data from users with a Gemini Education or Education Premium license will not be used to improve the LLM or be seen by humans. Gemini Education falls under the same terms of service as other Workspace services, including data protection.
Note: Google will be extending these customer data protections to all education users, regardless of license, in the coming weeks. This means that in the near future, all your users’ data will not be used for LLM improvement or seen by humans.
| Document Version | Date | Description of Change |
| 1.0 | 1/3/2024 | Original publish |
| 1.1 | 10/8/2024 | Added 13+ and report usage questions |
| 1.2 | 10/30/2024 | Added license tool info |
| 1.3 | 10/31/2024 | Changed article title |