Everything You Need to Know About Education Plus Licenses

Google Workspace for Education Plus provides institutions with a suite of communication and collaboration tools and advanced security features to enhance security, teacher instruction, and student learning. Last year, thousands of educational organizations found invaluable benefits from the Google Workspace for Education Plus edition features such as:

• Advanced Security and Analytics
• Enhanced Meet Functionality
• Originality Reports 

The enhanced Google Meet abilities are a big reason administrators select Education Plus for their digital infrastructure. As of the new licensing model announced at ISTE 2025, institutions on an Education Plus subscription will no longer use "Full Domain Licensing" with separate staff and student licenses. Instead, there is now a single, unified license type for all users. This simplifies management as a single license grants access to all the same features for any user, regardless of their role.

Do Students Need a Google Workspace for Education License?

Again, Google Workspace for Education Plus features benefit instruction and learning. The Google Meet functionalities, for example, are great for teachers to utilize in the Google Classroom. Administrators often question whether or not students need a Google Workspace license because of the permissions that come with them. CDW Amplified for Education’s team of experts recommends that institutions allocate them to students.

With the new licensing model, the need to allocate licenses to all students is now a requirement to stay in compliance with the new terms.

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View a full list of Education Plus features to find out what requires a license to function for staff or students

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You should assign licenses to students to leverage several security features such as Context-Aware Access, Gmail Security Sandbox, and device management (Windows 10 and Advanced Mobile Device Management), which is user- (not device) based. For administrators who plan on exporting the Gmail logs in BigQuery, it requires a license even though the regular admin logs do not. Another configuration that requires a student license is Data regions, which allows institutions to determine where their cloud data is stored.

There are other features in the Google Workspace roadmap that require a student license, but administrators don’t have to worry about permissions. The only feature an Education Plus student license allows students to initiate and access is Cloud Search, a core service from the Apps Launcher or cloudsearch.google.com. Students may recognize features teachers use, like originality reports, but student licenses will not enable any enhanced Meet features (ex., breakout rooms, live streaming, Q&A, Polls).

Pro Tip: If the recording setting is ON for your student OUs, they can use the record functionality with an assigned Google Workspace for Education Plus license. You can go into your Admin console and check the setting for recording for students and decide if you want that ON/OFF.

What to Avoid for Education Plus Licenses?

Before assigning licenses, Google Workspace admins want to ensure their process is efficient by understanding a few steps that will save them time and energy if avoided. 

• Auto-assigning by OU will assign licenses to all users in that OU, including suspended users. We do not recommend the auto-assign method. More details are in the auto-assign section below.
• When you suspend a user, you must also remove their Education Plus license. This license is then available for reuse later.
• The only ways to license by group are GCDS, GAM/APIs, or CDW Amplified for Education’s licensing tool (for CDW customers only).

How to Assign Licenses to Users?

When institutions have determined who needs access through licenses, admins can assign them to users in a few ways.

1. Individual User Assignments and Removal

To assign or remove Licenses for an individual user, navigate to the Users page in the Admin console.

Click the checkbox next to the user and click more to assign/remove licenses. Admins can also click into the user’s profile, navigate to the licenses section, and toggle ON the license to assign. It will also show how many are available.

This method is excellent for institutions with only a few users who need licenses or need to provide a user license quickly, but it is not scalable for larger organizations.

2. CSV Bulk Upload

The bulk upload method works well for institutions with under 500 users who must be assigned licenses. Admins can use a CSV file to bulk assign licenses. However, it will time out if you try to upload a large quantity. Another thing to note is you cannot use the CSV method to remove licenses from users.  

To bulk assign:

1. Sign in to the Admin console and navigate to the Users page.
2. Click the cogwheel and manage licenses in the user list.

3. Select new column > choose license and then click Save.

   

4. Click download users at the top of the screen. 

   

5. Change Select columns to All user info columns and currently selected columns and click Download.
   
6. Download and open the Google Sheet. Locate the column called New Licenses.

7. Enter the product/service ID for the license you wish to apply. The SKUs are below.

   Note: With the unified license, there is no longer a separate SKU for staff and students.

8. After making changes to the file:
   • Save it as a CSV.
   • Return to the Users section and click bulk upload users.
   • Be sure to enter the SKU numbers in the AJ or New Licenses UPLOAD column (not the read-only column, which is a common mistake). 

For other common errors, see this Google Help article.

3. Auto-Assign License by OU

This method is effective for student licenses because students are in the same OU, but it doesn’t often work well for administrator and teacher licenses since some staff users do need a license applied to them.

If institutions have suspended students in an OU with active students that require an Education Plus license, admins will want to move them to a suspended OU before assigning new users a license; otherwise, the auto-assign will also allocate licenses to suspended users.

Admins should proceed cautiously anytime they use auto-assign because it may attempt to apply more licenses than available. This will lead to the domain running out and the need to spend time analyzing and removing individual licenses from users who shouldn’t have them.

4. GAM

Admins comfortable using GAM can use general commands to assign and remove licenses by either user, OU, or group while eliminating suspended users.

Some example commands are below.

Note: These have been updated for the new unified license. The old SKUs for staff and student are no longer in use. See the full list of updated SKUs here. 

Add a license to anyone in the Staff OU that is not suspended

gam print users query “orgUnitPath=’/Staff’ isSuspended=false” | gam csv – gam user ~primaryEmail add license 1010310008

Add a license to anyone in the Student OU that is not suspended

gam print users query “orgUnitPath=’/Students’ isSuspended=false” | gam csv – gam user ~primaryEmail add license 1010310008

Remove a license from anyone on the domain that is suspended (Staff License)

gam print users query “isSuspended=true” | gam csv – gam user ~primaryEmail delete license 1010310008

Remove a  license from anyone on the domain that is suspended (Student License)

gam print users query “isSuspended=true” | gam csv – gam user ~primaryEmail delete license 1010310008

Create a CSV of all users assigned an Education Plus license

gam print licenses products 1010310002,1010310008 > licenses.csv

5. GCDS to Assign Licenses

If admins already use GCDS for user provisioning, this is the best way to assign licenses. It’s dynamic and can add/remove licenses based on Group membership.

You can also use nested groups. First, admins must ensure they are on the latest version of GCDS, as prior versions may not include the Google Workspace SKU in the license tab. They will also want to simulate any changes in the GCDS Configuration Manager to ensure no unintended impact on your domain. Lastly, they must have auto-assign licensing turned OFF in the Admin console. Institutions needing additional help getting GCDS with CDW Amplified for Education will need a support contract. Our team can help admins customize and configure GCDS to assign their Education Plus licenses.

When purchasing the Google Workspace for Education Plus edition, it is important for institutions to appropriately allocate their domain licenses to provide administrators, teachers, and students with the access they need for management, instruction, and learning.  

If you have purchased Education Plus from CDW Amplified for Education, we can help with your licensing.

We offer our reseller account customers access to a tool for assigning licenses to users by group, which runs on a schedule. We also support those who have purchased a support contract with us. Our experts will find solutions to challenges you may face with the license application, security center, originality reports, advanced Google Meet features, and more. Check out our Support Stacks service to learn how to get the most out of your support hours.

For support with licensing contact our Support team. 

The best way to reach Support is to enter a support ticket through the Help Center. The direct Submit a ticket link is available at the top of every Help Center page. You can also connect with our Support team by emailing [e-mail]. 
If you want to obtain a support contract or have questions, reach out to a Google Customer Support Specialist. 
Learn more about the various ways we can help your team.