Model the cost of keeping former employee Google Workspace data on Archived User licences, and what comes back when you migrate it to Lightning Legacy Search.
A quick model of what your organisation is paying today to keep former-employee Workspace data searchable via Google's Archived User licence, and what Legacy Search can give back.
Enter your active headcount, tune the archive multiplier(how many former staff you're carrying), then decide what percentage of those archives are candidates for migration.
Your current Archived User spend, the annual saving from migrating a share of those accounts to Legacy Search, and cumulative savings over three and five years.
Former-employee accounts as a share of current active headcount. High-turnover sectors (education, retail, gov) often sit at 200%+.
Google's published AU licence cost per former user per month. Default reflects the public list rate; adjust for your contract.
Not every archived account needs to migrate. Dormant content that hasn't been touched in years is the obvious first wave. We model 50% as a realistic baseline.
Archive volume
12,500 former-employee accounts at £1.90 / user / month
Current Archived User spend
£285,000/ year
Projected annual saving
£142,500
New annual spend: £142,500
Share of retained content moved to Legacy Search
Cumulative over 1, 3 and 5 years
12,500
At 125% of your active base
£1.90
Per former user, per month
50%
Based on 50% migrated to Legacy Search
Send your scenario to the team and we'll walk you through how a Google Workspace export → GCS → Lightning Legacy Search flow looks end-to-end.
Figures are illustrative and based on Google's published Archived User pricing plus your inputs. Your contracted rates and Workspace edition may vary.
