Google announced a LOT of new updates this week at the ISTE conference in San Antonio, TX. They also snuck in a pretty important update on pricing for premium workspace domains.

Summer Google updates

There were so many updates that I decided to compile them into this image. Most of these features are user-focused and will be a nice addition to the classroom. Feel free to share ​this video​ or this ​blog post​ with your teachers for more details.

Next up, let’s talk about some important updates to the admin console and pricing.

Price increase for some customers

Yesterday morning I ​received an email​ from Google announcing a price increase for EDU plus domains. This announcement was not included with any of the ISTE related releases.

To reflect the value added and to support ongoing investment in Google Workspace for Education, we are updating our pricing and licensing model for Education Plus users…

Starting February 1, 2026, the cost of EDU Plus will increase from $5/user/year to $6/user/year. Additionally, Google is eliminating the distinction between student and staff licenses. All active users will need an EDU Plus license at a cost of $6/user/year.

The combination of these two pricing changes results in an approximate price increase of roughly 28%. You can use my ​updated cost analysis tool​ to compare the impact on your domain.

Related: Google Workspace for Education: Upgrade options

The email did NOT mention any changes to the education standard or teaching and learning product tiers.

Google is also moving several premium features down into the free tier. This includes ​access to Google Vids​ and some nice ​AI enhancements for Google Classroom​. These features will be available to all domains at no cost.

Is this new feature worth the price increase?

Google has added a TON of additional value to the EDU Plus tier over the past 2-3 years. While a price increase is never fun, EDU Plus remains a good value, especially when you consider the addition of Class tools, coming this fall.

Class tools is a new management feature that gives teachers the ability to manage student Chromebooks including the ability to lock screens, push out links, and facilitate live translation. This new feature is tied to the EDU Plus upgrade, but has the ability to potentially eliminate other expensive subscriptions within your district.

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