‘G Suite Legacy’ users can keep the free custom-domain mail service, for personal-only use.
Almost five months after telling people who had spent years using a free Gmail-hosted address with a custom domain name that they’d have to pay up or get out, Google is now offering a plan C: Stay put at no cost if you vouch for non-business use. The news broke Monday in an update to a “G Suite legacy free edition” support note Google had posted in mid-January: “For individuals and families using your account for non-commercial purposes, you can continue using the G Suite legacy free edition and opt out of the transition to Google Workspace.”
The note instructs those people to choose an “Opt-out of the automatic transition by confirming your legacy subscription is for personal use” option in their account’s admin page by Aug. 1 to avoid having their accounts suspended. A separate Google FAQ covers what free legacy accounts maintain (“You can continue using your custom domain with Gmail, retain access to no-cost Google services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and keep your purchases and data”) and lose (“G Suite legacy free edition does not include support, and in the future we may remove certain business functionality”).
