Team Chat and Messaging Software
Google Chat review
Google's team chat with spaces and threads, included in every paid Google Workspace plan alongside Gmail, Drive and Meet.
Google Chat at a glance
- Category
- Team Chat and Messaging Software
- Starting price
- $7 per user/month (Workspace Starter, annual commitment billed monthly)
- Pricing model
- per user (bundled in Workspace)
- Public pricing
- Yes
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free trial
- Yes
- Contract
- annual commitment option (16% saving) or monthly billing
- G2 rating
- No G2 rating found
- Headquarters
- Mountain View, US
- Funding or owner
- Part of Alphabet
- Integrations
- Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Gmail
Buying Google Chat: security, admin and contract
- SAML SSO
- SAML and OIDC supported; plan eligibility not confirmed.
- Data residency
- Enterprise data regions listed on the Enterprise plan.
- Contract
- Annual commitment or monthly billing; Starter to Plus max 300 users.
- Public DPA
- Yes, public: https://cloud.google.com/terms/data-processing-addendum/.
Questions to ask Google Chat before you sign
- Is SCIM provisioning included, or a paid add-on?
- Which plan includes audit logs, and how long are they kept?
- What will the price be at renewal, and is the increase capped?
Questions are listed where Google Chat's public pages leave the answer open.
Who Google Chat is for
Choose Google Chat if
- Teams already on Google Workspace that want chat without a second license.
- Small companies under 300 users that want one bundled bill.
Look elsewhere if
- Teams on Microsoft 365 that would run two suites.
- Buyers who want a deep app marketplace and advanced workflow tooling comparable to Slack.
Google Chat pricing
| Plan | Price | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Starter | $7 | user/month | 100 Meet participants, 30 GB pooled storage |
| Business Standard | $14 | user/month | 150 Meet participants, 2 TB, recording |
| Business Plus | $22 | user/month | 500 Meet participants, Vault, eDiscovery, Secure LDAP |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | user/month | 1,000 Meet participants, DLP, context-aware access, data regions |
Google's pricing page shows EUR when served in Germany (Starter 6.80, Standard 13.60, Plus 21.10). USD figures may reflect promotional variants and are not confirmed against Google's USD price list; Google runs a 12-month introductory discount for new customers on the first 20 users. Starter, Standard and Plus are capped at 300 users. Chat itself has a free consumer version with a personal Google account.
Google Chat features by buying criteria
| Criterion | What we found |
|---|---|
| Channels and threading | Spaces with threaded replies and direct messages. |
| Built-in video and huddles | Google Meet built in; participant cap depends on Workspace plan (100 Starter to 1,000 Enterprise) |
| Security and admin controls | Workspace supports SAML and OIDC SSO; Secure LDAP on Plus; DLP and context-aware access on Enterprise. |
| Pricing model and transparency | Bundled per-user Workspace license; no separate Chat price. |
| Target company size | Small to enterprise; Starter to Plus limited to 300 users. |
What reviewers say about Google Chat
Praised for
- Simple and easy to use.
- Tight fit with the rest of Google Workspace.
Common complaints
- Limited feature depth compared with chat-first tools.
- File-sharing size limits and occasional slowness reported.
Themes paraphrased from public reviews on G2 and similar sites, not quotes.
What most Google Chat reviews leave out
- Chat is not sold separately: you pay for a Workspace seat starting at the Starter plan.
- Starter, Standard and Plus can be bought for at most 300 users; above that you need Enterprise.
- Annual commitment saves 16% per Google's pricing page, but billing is still monthly.
- Google's data processing terms are public and cover Workspace as a processor.
- Meet participant limits, not Chat limits, are what differ across plans (100, 150, 500, 1,000)
Google Chat alternatives
SlackTeams wanting channel-based chat with a large app ecosystem.$8.75/user/month monthly, about $7.25/user/month billed annually (Pro)
Microsoft TeamsOrganizations already on Microsoft 365 and Entra ID.$4.00/user/month paid yearly (Teams Essentials)
Zoom WorkplaceTeams whose main need is reliable video meetings with chat attached.$14.16 per user/month billed annually (Pro); $16.99 billed monthly
MattermostOrganizations that must self-host or run air-gapped chat.Contact sales
Zoho CliqTeams already on Zoho apps (CRM, Projects, Workplace) that want chat inside that suite.Free; paid Standard plan (USD amount not verified)
ChantySmall teams wanting cheap per-user chat with tasks.Free up to 5 members; Business 3 EUR per user/month billed annually (EUR only)
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from Google Chat's own pricing, product or documentation pages, G2 and company records, checked on October 24, 2026. Unknown values are left out instead of estimated.