Moving a small business from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 costs the Microsoft 365 licenses you choose, the Google Workspace subscription for however long both systems run side by side, and the time it takes to plan, migrate and support people. For a business with up to about 25 users and ordinary mailbox sizes, the move itself usually fits in one to two weeks. This article gives you official list prices with dates and links, a way to estimate the overlap cost, effort ranges by size as general guidance, and a week-by-week timeline.
Who this is for
This guide is for owners, office managers and part-time IT administrators of businesses with roughly 1 to 300 people who are budgeting a move from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. It assumes you have already decided to move; if you are still comparing the two suites, read Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 for small business first. The technical procedure is in the Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration step-by-step guide.
A note on prices: vendors change list prices, run promotions and show different amounts by country, currency and billing term. All prices below are list prices in USD, excluding tax, taken from the linked vendor pages on October 29, 2026. Read the amount on your own checkout or quote before you commit.
Microsoft 365 list prices
Microsoft announced a commercial price update that took effect on July 1, 2026. Its licensing news page lists these USD prices per user per month for the editions that include Teams:
| Plan | Price before July 1, 2026 | Price from July 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | $6.00 | $7.00 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | $12.50 | $14.00 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | $22.00 | $22.00 |
| Office 365 E3 | $23.00 | $26.00 |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | $36.00 | $39.00 |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | $57.00 | $60.00 |
Source: Microsoft 365 Pricing and Packaging Updates, checked October 29, 2026. Microsoft's FAQ for the update says the new prices apply to both annual and monthly billing plans, that existing customers see them at their next renewal after July 1, 2026, and that pricing may vary by country and currency.
Two licensing facts reduce what you buy:
- The Business plans are capped at 300 seats in total across Business Basic, Standard and Premium. Above that, Microsoft points you to the enterprise plans.
- Shared and resource mailboxes do not need a license for up to 50 GB, according to the Exchange Online limits. A Google account that only exists to be a shared inbox such as
[email protected]can often become a shared mailbox instead of a paid user, as long as nobody signs in to it directly.
Which plan matches which Google edition is covered in the licensing section of the step-by-step guide. In short: Business Starter maps to Business Basic, Business Standard to Business Standard, and Business Plus to Business Premium.
Google Workspace list prices and contract terms
Google's billing help lists these USD prices per user per month:
| Edition | Annual/Fixed-Term Plan | Flexible Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Business Starter | $7 | $8.40 |
| Business Standard | $14 | $16.80 |
| Business Plus | $22 | $26.40 |
Source: Compare Flexible and Annual/Fixed-Term payment plans and Flexible Plan in Google Workspace Admin Help, checked October 29, 2026. Enterprise pricing is not published.
The contract type matters more than the price for a migration:
- Flexible Plan: billed monthly for the accounts you have that month, prorated when you add or remove users, and you can cancel at any time without penalty.
- Annual/Fixed-Term Plan: you commit to licenses for the term, can reduce licenses only at renewal, and if you cancel before the renewal date you are charged the remaining balance of the contract.
If you are on an annual plan, check your renewal date before you set a migration date. Moving a few weeks before renewal avoids paying for months of a service nobody uses.
Prices for readers in India
Both vendors charge in local currency. Readers in India see INR prices on Microsoft's India product pages, for example Microsoft 365 Business Basic for India, and on Google Workspace pricing when it is viewed from India, which states that prices are in INR and do not include tax. Use those pages rather than converting the USD figures above, because local prices and promotions are set separately.
Estimate your overlap cost
During the migration you pay for both suites. The overlap is usually the longest of these:
- The time from buying Microsoft 365 licenses to the last mailbox batch completing.
- At least 72 hours after the MX change, which Microsoft advises before you stop synchronization.
- Time to run Google's Data Export if you need a copy: it typically takes 72 hours and can take up to 14 days, and core data such as Gmail and Drive is excluded once the subscription is canceled.
- Your Google contract term, if you are on an annual plan.
A worked example with list prices: a 20-person business on Google Business Standard (Flexible Plan) moving to Microsoft 365 Business Standard, with one month of overlap.
| Line | Calculation | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | 20 users x $14.00 | $280.00 |
| Google Business Standard, Flexible | 20 users x $16.80 | $336.00 |
| Overlap month total | $616.00 |
After the overlap the Google line drops to zero. If the same business were on Google's annual plan with eight months left, the Google line would continue until renewal regardless of the migration. These are list prices before tax and before any promotion, so treat them as a template for your own numbers.
Migration effort by size
The migration tools themselves run from your Microsoft 365 admin centers: the Google Workspace migration in the Exchange admin center or Simplified Gmail Migration in the Microsoft 365 admin center for mail, and Migration Manager for Drive. The effort is mostly people's time. The ranges below are general guidance for planning, not measured results or a quote; your data volume, number of shared drives, DNS access and how much help users need will move them up or down.
| Organization | Typical scope | Elapsed time (general guidance) | Hands-on admin effort (general guidance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-10 users | Mail, calendar, contacts, small Drive | 1 week | 1-3 working days |
| 10-50 users | Adds shared drives, groups, a pilot | 2-4 weeks | 3-8 working days |
| 50-300 users | Several batches, shared drives, device changes | 4-8 weeks | 2-6 working weeks |
| Over 300 users | Enterprise plans, staged batches, change management | Months | Project team |
What pushes effort up:
- Large mailboxes. Microsoft's estimates for its Google Workspace migration grow with mailbox size: a median of 1 day and a 90th percentile of 2 days for 0-10 GB, rising to 5 and 19 days for 100-200 GB. Mailboxes over 200 GB are not supported by that method.
- Lots of Drive data or shared drives. Migration Manager runs at most 50 tasks at once, and Microsoft advises keeping each task under 100,000 items or 1 TB.
- File permissions. Migrating file-level permissions is optional and can slow the migration.
- Content the native tools skip. Shared calendars, room bookings, Google Sites and external sharing links need manual work or a third-party tool.
- DNS access. If nobody knows who manages the domain, finding out can take longer than the migration.
A week-by-week timeline for a small business
This plan suits about 5 to 50 users with ordinary mailbox sizes. Larger organizations repeat Week 2 for each batch.
Week 0: Decide and prepare
- Inventory users, mailbox sizes, Drive sizes, shared drives and groups.
- Check your Google contract type and renewal date.
- Buy Microsoft 365 licenses, verify your domain, and lower the MX TTL to 3,600 seconds.
- Create mail users and both routing subdomains, and allow automatic forwarding in Google and Exchange Online.
Week 1: Pilot
- Set up the Google service account or the Microsoft 365 Mail Migration app.
- Migrate two or three people and measure how long it takes.
- Start Migration Manager scans and pre-provision OneDrive.
- Send users the date and what will change.
Week 2: Migrate and cut over
- Migrate the remaining mailboxes in one batch or a few batches, and assign licenses as each batch starts.
- Run the Drive migration, then a delta pass after users switch.
- Complete the batches, switch MX, Autodiscover, SPF and DKIM, and test mail flow.
Week 3: Settle and close
- Wait at least 72 hours after the MX change before you stop synchronization.
- Fix stragglers: shared calendars, rules, phones, re-shared links.
- Run Google Data Export if you need an archive, download it, then cancel Google Workspace while keeping your domain.
The full set of checks is in the Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration checklist, and the Drive steps are in migrating Google Drive to OneDrive and SharePoint with Migration Manager.
Costs people forget
- Overlap beyond the plan. One slow batch or a late DNS change adds another month of Google charges on the Flexible Plan.
- Desktop apps. Business Basic does not include the desktop Office apps. If staff need desktop Word, Excel and Outlook, budget for Business Standard or Premium.
- Archive and retention. Business Basic and Standard include a 50 GB archive mailbox, while Business Premium and E3/E5 support auto-expanding archives up to 1.5 TB. If you used Google Vault on Business Plus, map that need before choosing a plan.
- Third-party tools. Only needed for content the native tools skip; if you buy one, confirm it does not depend on Exchange Web Services, which Microsoft began disabling in Exchange Online in October 2026.
- User time. Each person spends some time signing in, setting up phones and learning where files went. A short guide and a help channel for the first week reduce that.
Budget checklist
- Count users, shared inboxes that can become unlicensed shared mailboxes, and room calendars.
- Choose Microsoft 365 plans and record the current list price and date from Microsoft's page.
- Record your Google plan, contract type, renewal date and price.
- Estimate the overlap in months and multiply both suites' costs.
- Add staff or partner time using the effort ranges as a starting point.
- Add any third-party tool and data export costs.
- Recheck prices on the day you buy, in your own currency.
References
- Microsoft 365 Pricing and Packaging Updates
- Microsoft 365 Packaging and Pricing Updates Public FAQ
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium FAQ
- Exchange Online limits
- Office applications service description
- Microsoft 365 migration performance and best practices
- Migrate Google Workspace mailboxes with IMAP (TTL and 72-hour guidance)
- Step 2: Scan and assess Google drives
- Step 6: Migrate and monitor Google migration
- Permission settings in Migration Manager
- Deprecation of Exchange Web Services in Exchange Online
- Google Workspace Admin Help: Compare Flexible and Annual/Fixed-Term payment plans
- Google Workspace Admin Help: Flexible Plan
- Google Workspace Admin Help: Export all your organization's data
- Google Workspace pricing
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic (India)
Comments
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