Understanding Google Drive Storage Limits for Uchicago Students

As a UChicago student, you're likely familiar with Google Drive, a cloud storage service that allows you to store and access your files from anywhere.

Google Drive offers a generous 30 GB of free storage to all UChicago students, which is more than enough to store your documents, photos, and videos.

However, it's essential to keep in mind that this storage limit applies to your entire Google Drive account, not just the files you store on UChicago's Google Drive instance.

If you need more storage space, you can upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at 100 GB for $1.99 per month.

Additional reading: Does Google Photos and Google Drive Share Storage

If you're a student at UChicago, you might be wondering how Google Drive's storage limits work. The storage limits impact email, so if you're over quota, some services like creating a new Google Doc may cease to function.

Gmail will continue to send and receive email normally, but you'll get a warning if you're over the quota. Attachments over 25 MB are saved in Google Drive, which applies to your overall quota.

A different take: How Much Space Do You Get with Google Drive

SU Staff have a My Drive storage quota of 10 GB per user, and users over the quota will get a warning and be able to view, export, and remove files to bring their storage consumption under the quota.

If you're over the quota, you should delete or export your data from your g.syr.edu account. Google Takeout is a recommended tool for migrating your data to another Google Workspace account.

There are three ways to get more storage for your institution: purchasing Teaching and Learning licenses, Education Plus licenses, or buying additional storage. Each Teaching and Learning license adds 100 GB to your pool, while each Education Plus license adds 20 GB.

Here's a comparison of the costs:

The choice between these options depends on your institution's scale, budget, and needs.

Google Drive for Education is a robust cloud storage solution designed specifically for educational institutions.

The storage limits for Google Drive for Education vary depending on the plan. For the free plan, Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, there is a pooled storage cap of 100 TB, which includes storage for Google Drive, Google Photos, Gmail, and more.

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You can purchase licenses for the Teaching and Learning (T&L) upgrade to get an additional 100 GB of storage per license. Alternatively, you can buy Education Plus licenses, which add 20 GB of storage per license.

If you need more storage, you can also buy instances of the Google Workspace Additional Storage license, which is 10 TB of additional storage each, costing $300 per month or $3,600 per year.

Here's a comparison of the storage options:

Google Drive for Education also has a file count limit for shared drives, which is 400,000 items. However, individual accounts do not have a file number limit, although Google recently experimented with capping it at five million items before reverting back to unlimited.

Suggestion: Google Drive Shared File Easy Transfer to My Drive

You can store up to 400,000 items in a shared drive, including files, folders, and shortcuts.

To avoid storage issues, SPAs need to reduce their My Drive space to below 150 GB by Autumn 2024.

Individual accounts don't have a file number limit, but shared drives do, and it's relatively easy to keep them under control.

Google rolled out a file number limit for individual accounts as an experiment, capping it at five million items, but it was met with broad backlash and rolled back.

Files stored on Google Drive are encrypted, and virtually no Google employees can access individual user or entity accounts.

Intrusion into Google accounts usually comes from compromised user accounts or phishing victims, not technical exploits or security holes.

Google offers a lot of baseline security features, including two-factor authentication, even to free Education Fundamentals customers.

To minimize security risks, only a few users should be "load-bearing", with highly restricted accounts and implemented security features.

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Google Workspace for Education is the platform you'll be using as a UChicago student, and it comes in four different versions. These versions are determined by the scope and scale of your needs, as well as whether or not you're a qualifying institution.

The Plus plan is $5 per student per year and has one staff license for each four-student license. This plan offers more features than the previous plans, making it a good choice if you need more storage or have specific organizational needs.

Community colleges, public universities, and other higher education facilities can qualify for the Plus plan. If you purchase multi-year contracts, Google will offer a long-term deal on the pricing automatically.

Google Drive for Education has a cost associated with it, but it's not as daunting as you might think. The Plus plan is $5 per student per year.

Community colleges, public universities, and other higher education facilities can qualify for this plan. This includes institutions like public K-12 schools, which can also take advantage of the plan.

Google's examples of what doesn't qualify for the plan include driving schools, churches, teacher or student websites, student organizations, and sports teams. These types of organizations won't be able to get the discounted rate.

If you need more features than what the previous plans offer, or if you want a combination of both, the Plus plan is the way to go. It's generally the best choice for those with more complex needs.

Purchasing multi-year contracts can also get you a discount on the pricing. This is a long-term deal that Google will offer automatically.

All pricing is an annual contract, even if you're paying monthly for the Upgrade. This means you can reevaluate your needs and change your contract each year, but you can't upgrade or downgrade mid-year.

Customers who purchase the Teaching and Learning Upgrade can add Education Standard at any time, and vice versa. This gives you flexibility in case your needs change.

Google Workspace for Education is the platform you'll be using as an institutional administrator. It comes in four different versions, and your choice of version will depend on the scope and scale of your needs.

Each version of Google Workspace for Education includes access to Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Classroom, Assignments, Sites, Groups, Drive, Admin, Tasks, and Jamboard.

Your choice of version will be determined by whether or not you're a qualifying institution.

Expand your knowledge: Google Workspace Delegation of Google Drive

SU Staff Storage is about to change with Google Drive. Beginning November 1, 2023, SU Staff will have Google Drive storage quotas applied.

SU Staff will have a 10 GB per user My Drive storage quota. Users over the quota will be presented with a warning and be able to view, export, and remove files to bring their storage consumption under the quota.

SU Staff that are over storage quotas should delete or export their data from their g.syr.edu accounts. The recommended option for migrating your data over to another Google Workspace account would be through Google's migration tool, Google Takeout.

Staff can use Google Takeout to migrate their data, but Syracuse University ITS does not support this process due to its intricacies. For further instructions, please visit the page on Google Takeout.

If you need to create and manage group-based shared drives, you should consult with your IT support for available shared group storage solutions.

Additional reading: Create a Shared Drive in Google

If you're over your Google Drive storage limit, some services like creating a new Google Doc may stop working.

Gmail will continue to send and receive email normally, even if you're over quota.

In Gmail, attachments under 25 MB stay in Gmail and apply to the Gmail portion of your overall usage.

Larger attachments are saved in Google Drive and apply to the Drive portion of your overall usage, contributing to your overall quota.

This means that any files you attach to an email that are too big will still be saved in Google Drive, using up your storage space.

Consider reading: Google Drive Quota Exceeded

SPAs, or Student Personnel Administrators, need to reduce their content in My Drive space to be below 150 GB by Autumn 2024.

This applies to all SPAs, so it's essential to start planning and organizing your files now.

To give you a better idea of the storage limits, here's a quick comparison of the costs:

As you can see, the costs vary significantly depending on the option you choose.