If you have the free edition of Cloud Identity, you can subscribe to the Premium edition to give users access to an upgraded set of features. Likewise, if you have Cloud Premium but have users who only need the core features, you can subscribe to the free edition of Cloud Identity.
About upgrades and downgrades
You can’t directly upgrade or downgrade from one Cloud Identity edition to the other.
To switch to or add the Premium or free edition, just sign up for that edition. If you have both editions, you can assign some users a free license and some a Premium license. License assignment depends on the edition.
If you have one or both Cloud Identity subscriptions, you can also add a Google Workspace subscription to let users access additional features such as Gmail and Google Drive.
Change or add a subscription
Before you begin
If you start with the free edition of Cloud Identity and want to add a Premium subscription, keep these points in mind:
- When you signed up for the free edition, everyone in your organization automatically got a free license, in addition to licenses you assigned for other Google services. Cloud Identity Premium works differently. You need to either turn on automatic licensing for this subscription or manually assign licenses to users.
- You can’t cancel your free subscription. Even if you assign Premium licenses to everyone in your entire organization, your free Cloud Identity subscription remains available in your Admin console.
Add a Premium subscription
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
Billing
Get more services.
- Under Categories, click Cloud Identity.
- Next to Cloud Identity Premium, click Start Free Trial.
- Follow the on-screen setup instructions.
- After you sign up, manually or automatically assign Cloud Identity Premium licenses to users.
Important: Complete this step so that users can access Premium features.
Before you begin
If you start with the Premium edition of Cloud Identity but want to give some or all of your users access to only the free edition features, keep the following points in mind:
- To make sure new users only get the free features, turn off automatic licensing for Cloud Identity Premium if you have it turned on.
- When you sign up for the free edition, all new users in your organization automatically get a free license.
- If you sign up for the Cloud Identity free edition and all your users only need the free features, you can cancel your Premium subscription. Existing users who had a Premium subscription automatically get a free Cloud Identity license.
Add a free subscription
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
- Under Categories, click Cloud Identity.
- Next to Cloud Identity, click Find Out More.
- Follow the on-screen setup instructions.
- (Optional) Cancel your Cloud Identity Premium subscription.
Before you begin
You can add a Google Workspace subscription to either or both Cloud Identity subscriptions. Here are some important things to know:
- Similar to Cloud Identity Premium, you need to actively turn on automatic licensing or manually assign licenses for Google Workspace.
- A user can have both a Cloud Identity license and a Google Workspace license.
- If you have free Cloud Identity, and you either remove a user’s Google Workspace license or cancel your Google Workspace subscription, the user gets a free license automatically.
- Read more about how licensing works if you have both Google Workspace and one or both Cloud Identity editions.
Add a Google Workspace subscription
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
- Below the Google Workspace edition you want, click Start Free Trial or Add It Now.
- Follow the on-screen sign-up instructions.
- After you sign up, manually or automatically assign Google Workspace licenses to users.