Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 for Nonprofits: Which Free Plan Wins?

Both companies give eligible nonprofits a free edition: Google Workspace for Nonprofits is $0 for up to 2,000 users, and Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $0 for up to 300 users. The right choice depends less on price than on what your staff already use, whether anyone needs desktop Office apps, and how you'll grow.

Prices below are as of October 2026, from Google for Nonprofits and Microsoft Nonprofits.

Free editions side by side

	Google Workspace for Nonprofits	Microsoft 365 Business Basic (grant)
Price	$0	$0
User cap	2,000	300
Storage	100 TB shared across all users	1 TB per user
Video meetings	Google Meet, 150 participants	Teams
Apps	Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive (browser and mobile)	Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams (web and mobile only)
Desktop Office apps	Not applicable	Not included
AI	Not covered in our research	Copilot Chat included
Support	Standard	Not covered in our research

The biggest practical differences are the seat cap (300 vs 2,000), storage model (one shared pool vs a fixed amount per person), and desktop apps. If your finance team lives in desktop Excel, Business Basic alone won't cover them.

Paid nonprofit tiers

When the free edition isn't enough, both vendors discount their paid plans heavily.

Plan	Nonprofit price	Commercial list	Key additions
Google Business Standard	$3.50/user/mo (1-yr) or $4.20 monthly	$14/user/mo	2 TB per user, Meet recording
Google Business Plus	$6.16/user/mo (1-yr) or $7.40 monthly	$22/user/mo	5 TB per user, 500-person Meet, Vault, eDiscovery
Google Enterprise	"70%+ off" (no price published)	Not published	1,000-person Meet, DLP, data regions
Microsoft Business Premium	$5.50/user/mo, paid yearly	$22/user/mo*	Desktop Office apps, advanced security
Microsoft E3	$9.75/user/mo, paid yearly	Not covered	Enterprise features
Microsoft Business Standard	Not listed on Microsoft's offers page	$14/user/mo*	Desktop Office apps

Google commercial prices are from Google's pricing page. *Microsoft commercial prices come from secondary coverage of the July 2026 price change because Microsoft's pricing page could not be read; treat them as reported, not confirmed.

Microsoft's nonprofit price for Business Standard isn't shown on its offers page. We've seen conflicting figures elsewhere, so ask Microsoft or your partner for a quote.

What you give up on the free editions

Google Workspace for Nonprofits

• Storage is pooled. 100 TB is shared by the whole organization, not guaranteed per person. That is a lot for most small teams, but one department archiving video can eat into everyone's space.
• No Meet recording listed. Google lists recording only from Business Standard upward. If you record board meetings or trainings, budget for Standard on the accounts that host them.
• 150-person meetings. Larger webinars need Business Plus (500) or another tool.
• Standard support only. Enhanced Support is a paid upgrade on higher tiers.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

• No desktop Office apps. Word, Excel and PowerPoint run in the browser and on mobile only. Complex spreadsheets, mail merges and some add-ins work better on desktop.
• No Business Premium security tools. Premium adds advanced device and threat protection. Since July 2025, there's no free way to get it (see the Business Premium grant change).
• 300-user cap. Larger organizations pay for seats beyond 300.

Worked example: a 12-person nonprofit

Suppose 12 staff, 4 of whom need desktop Excel for finance and grant reporting.

• All Google, free edition: 12 × $0 = $0/year. The 4 finance staff work in Google Sheets.
• All Google, Business Standard (for recording and per-user storage): 12 × $3.50 × 12 months = $504/year.
• Microsoft, mixed licensing: 8 Business Basic at $0, plus 4 Business Premium at $5.50 × 12 = $66 each. 4 × $66 = $264/year.
• Microsoft, all Business Premium: 12 × $66 = $792/year.
• For comparison, commercial Google Business Standard: 12 × $14 × 12 = $2,016/year.

Mixed licensing is the move most organizations miss. You don't have to put everyone on the same plan; assign paid seats only to the people who need what they add.

Running both

Many nonprofits end up with both: Google for email and Drive because it came first, and a few Microsoft licenses because someone needs desktop Excel. That's workable. Microsoft Business Premium seats can be bought for just the people who need them, and Google's free edition stays at $0.

What costs money is duplication: paying for email or storage in both systems, or paying for a separate video tool when Meet and Teams are already included. If you also pay for Zoom, compare it with what you already have (see the Zoom nonprofit discount page).

Switching from one to the other

Changing platforms means moving every mailbox, calendar and shared drive, updating DNS, and retraining staff. We don't have a reliable published estimate of the hours involved; it scales with the number of users and the amount of data. Two lower-effort moves are usually available:

• Already on paid Google Workspace? After Goodstack verification, you can switch the existing tenant to the nonprofit edition in place, with no mailbox or Drive migration.
• Already on commercial Microsoft 365? Nonprofit licenses can usually be applied in the same tenant after verification. Moving people from Business Standard or Premium down to Basic removes desktop apps, so check who uses them first.

Eligibility in brief

• Google: US organizations need 501(c)(3) status (or group-exempt affiliation) and verification through Goodstack. Google excludes government entities, hospitals and health care organizations, schools and universities, and fiscally sponsored organizations without their own 501(c)(3) (Google's eligibility rules).
• Microsoft: Requires recognized nonprofit or charitable status (such as 501(c)(3) in the US) and registration with Microsoft Nonprofits.

Churches have extra questions here; see church eligibility for nonprofit discounts.

Decision table

If your organization...	Choose
Has fewer than 300 staff and already uses Outlook/Teams	Microsoft Business Basic, plus Business Premium for desktop users
Has more than 300 people who need accounts (staff plus volunteers)	Google Workspace for Nonprofits (up to 2,000)
Works mainly in a browser and wants one free system	Google Workspace for Nonprofits
Needs desktop Excel or Word for a few roles	Either base, plus a handful of Business Premium seats
Records meetings regularly	Google Business Standard on host accounts, or Microsoft
Needs stronger device and threat protection	Microsoft Business Premium ($5.50/user/mo)
Is happy where it is	Stay. Switching costs usually outweigh small price differences

For full plan details, see the Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 pages. To see whether you're paying for duplicate tools across your stack, run the free audit.