Google Is Quietly Screwing Business Owners

If you ever want to use Gmail to have a custom @domain email address, bookmark this and save hundreds $$.

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Backstory: I own a small startup incubator. We partner with college students to launch products and services.

Most fail, some succeed. 

This means we are buying domains and creating firstname@customdomain . com email accounts on a regular basis.

If you want to use Gmail for a custom email address you'd go to workspace . google . com. I recommend buying your domain elsewhere like Namecheap.

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Verify your domain and then head to the pricing page:

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Here's where the funny business starts. Last month they didn't even tell you what it would cost at signup. They just made you opt-in for an $18/month/user(!!) account!

Now, they graciously show you the price. It dropped, how generous!

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There's no option to downgrade tiers. Funny how they say "we recommend" when you literally can't choose anything else.

This is incredibly misleading, because there ARE cheaper options, but you have to jump through hoops, later on in the process, to find them. 

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Choose monthly

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After getting to the Admin screen, navigate to the billing section and then click on the plan that you just selected at signup.

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In grey, down on the left you'll see upgrade or downgrade. Click that, then click "Business Starter" on the next page.

That's what you want. Last month it was $6/user, but it's $7.20 now.

There's no reason to get the more expensive tiers at this stage, or likely ever.

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What's funny is that up until last month, Google didn't even offer any discount for the yearly option. How dumb. It was $6/month or $72/year.

Now they offer a discount but make the pricing even more misleading and hard to change.

Do this RIGHT when you sign up.

Now that OpenAI is eating their lunch I guess this is how they keep the lights on?

I still think $7.20/month is an incredible value for everything that Google Workspace provides, just don't pay more than you need to.

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BTW, Google Voice is now an EXTRA $10/month/user.

Hope this helps a young startup save some much needed cash.