Key takeaways
- Google shows Drive storage on the Admin console Storage page and in the Accounts report, and you add the shared drives total to the per-user total before dividing by 1,024 to report GB.
- A super admin runs Data > Data import & export > Data export for the entire organization, the only scope that includes shared drives; Google typically needs 72 hours and deletes the files after 60 days.
- Google Vault exports Drive files in Office formats with a record of who had access, and is included in Business Plus and above or sold as an add-on.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your size in GB, years of history and file-owner count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Google Drive data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Google Drive data is the library of files a company keeps in Google's online file storage: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs and the folders that organize them. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy a copy because these files hold the written knowledge a business uses to run itself, such as proposals, procedures, project plans and pricing sheets.
What a Google Drive records
Google Drive is the file storage in Google Workspace, the subscription that gives a company's staff business email and shared apps on the company's own web address. Each employee has a personal area called My Drive. A company can also create shared drives, which belong to the team rather than to one person, so the files stay put when an employee leaves.
Over time these areas fill with the working documents of the whole company. Many files pass through several drafts, and the final version usually sits in a shared drive beside the other files for the same client or project.
Why a file library teaches an AI model something
An AI model learns by studying a very large number of examples and finding the patterns in them, and those examples are called training data. Public text rarely includes the documents that businesses actually write for themselves, such as a service procedure, a price list or a project plan. A company's Drive holds many of them, written for real jobs and in the format people really used.
Folder names and shared drive names label the content without any extra work. A contract, the spreadsheet that models its price and the slide deck that presented it are often saved together, which ties several formats to one piece of work.
AI labs now want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, and an agent learns a job from records of that job being done. A data vendor can turn anonymized documents into worked examples that an agent studies like an answer key. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Google Drive fits into a dataset
Drive is one of several apps in a company's dataset, which usually also includes email, chat and tickets. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to. The price covers the whole dataset, not each app on its own, and what your data is worth explains what moves it.
02
Where does Google Drive show how much data you have?
The short answer
Google reports Drive storage in two places in the Admin console, the Storage page and the Accounts user report, and admins with the Storage or Reports privilege can open them. Add the Drive storage used by people to the storage used by shared drives, and divide megabytes by 1,024 to report gigabytes (GB).
How to read your Drive storage
Google measures files by the space they take, so the steps below end in a size in GB. Each step names the menu you need.
- Go to admin.google.com and log in as a super admin, or as an admin who holds both the Storage and Reports privileges.
- Open Storage from the Admin console menu (Menu > Storage, which Google's storage guide words as Menu > Apps > Storage) and hover over the usage chart to see how much of the organization's storage is in Drive.
- Further down that page, the Shared drives using the most storage panel has a View all shared drives link that opens a ranked list of every shared drive.
- For figures per person, open Menu > Reporting > User Reports > Accounts, download the report with every column selected, and total the Drive storage used (MB) column.
- Add the shared drive total to the people total and divide by 1,024. Changes to storage can take up to 24 hours to appear on the Storage page.
Who can open the reports
Any Google Workspace edition has these views. What differs is the admin privilege each one needs.
| Where | Privilege needed | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Storage page | Storage admin privilege | Drive's share of organization storage, and a ranked list of shared drives. |
| Accounts report | Reports admin privilege | Drive storage used (MB) for each user. |
| Both | Super admin | Holds every privilege, so it can open both. |
What the Drive figure counts
Trashed files keep counting until they are permanently deleted, and Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms files created after May 2, 2022 take up storage as well. Each shared file is charged to its owner alone, so the people it was shared with do not add to the total.
Why the figure can fall short of the all-time total
Version history does not count toward storage, so the full record of how documents changed is larger than the number shown. Files that were permanently deleted are gone, and deleting a user deletes their Workspace data, so the total only reflects what still exists.
03
What should you know about your Google Drive data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: how many GB of files your Drive and shared drives hold, how many years they cover and how many people own files. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. You don't need to run an export to find them, and applying through micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, shares no data.
The size in GB
The size is the Drive storage of your people plus the storage of your shared drives, in GB. Email has its own line on the Gmail page, so leave Gmail and Photos out of this number.
The years of history
The years of history run from the year your company began using Google Workspace, and the oldest files in long-lived shared drives make a good cross-check.
The number of file owners
The count is the Workspace users who own files. Suspended users and users on Archived User licenses are part of it, and since a shared file belongs to one owner, nobody is counted twice for the same document.
What you don't need to do first
You don't need to export anything to apply, and you don't need to clean or scrub an export. The data vendor anonymizes the records before anyone else sees them, and nothing moves until a lawyer-reviewed license is signed. The application, the intro call and each later step are laid out in how to sell your company's data.
04
How do you export your full Google Drive history?
The short answer
A super admin starts the export in the Admin console under Data > Data import & export > Data export and chooses the whole organization, which is the choice that includes shared drives. Google typically needs 72 hours and can take up to 14 days, and it deletes the files 60 days after the start. For Office-format files and a record of who had access, use Google Vault.
What the person exporting needs
Only a super admin can run the export, the account must be older than 30 days, and 2-Step Verification must be switched on for it, as Google's guide to exporting all your organization's data requires. Organizations with more than 1,000 users should contact Google Workspace support first.
The Data Export tool: the steps
- Confirm that the super admin account meets the requirements above.
- In the Admin console, go to Menu > Data > Data import & export > Data export and press Set up new export.
- Pick Export all user data for the entire organization. Only this choice includes shared drives, because an export limited to chosen users does not.
- Press Start export. Google places the finished data in a Google Cloud Storage bucket (online file storage that Google provides), arranged as zip files for each service.
- Move the Drive archives out of the bucket before the 60th day after the start, which is when Google deletes them.
Google Vault: the steps for Office formats
Google Vault is Google's archiving and search tool for Workspace data, used for legal and compliance work. It converts Google's own file types into formats other programs can open and lists who could reach each file.
- Sign in at vault.google.com as an admin who holds the Manage Matters, Manage Searches and Manage Exports privileges.
- Open a matter, which is Vault's folder for one piece of work, and search Drive for the accounts, shared drives and dates you want.
- Press Export and download the result within 15 days, when Vault deletes it. An organization can run up to 20 Vault exports at once.
Vault covers shared drive files and adds a file named custodian-docid.csv that lists the users with access to each exported file. It turns Google's own file types into ordinary ones (Docs become DOCX, Sheets XLSX, Slides PPTX, Drawings PDF, Vids MP4, and Forms a zip holding HTML and CSV files), and it packs the output into zip files of up to 10 GB, as Google's Vault export contents page describes.
Vault is bundled with the Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus editions and with every Education edition, among others, as Google's Vault overview lists. Business Starter and Business Standard need Vault add-on licenses.
Why the choice of scope matters
A full-organization export includes shared drives, while a filtered export for chosen users does not, because shared drives belong to no single person. The diagram compares the two scopes of the Data Export tool.
Limits and leftovers to plan around
Accounts that are active, suspended, archived or Vault Former Employee are all covered by the Data Export tool. On most editions, Google lets you run a full export only once every 30 days, while Enterprise Plus, Education Plus and Assured Controls editions have no minimum gap.
Users can download their own files with Google Takeout if the admin allows it, but Takeout works for one account at a time and each archive expires after about 7 days. Because deleting a user also erases that person's Workspace data, keep former employees suspended or on Archived User licenses until the export is done.
What to settle before exporting files
A Drive can hold personal data, customer files and documents that belong to other companies, so the company's lawyer should confirm that licensing them is allowed under its contracts and privacy policies. Is it legal to sell company data covers the questions to ask. Leaving out HR, finance and legal folders is a normal way to begin.
How long an export takes
Google says a Data Export typically takes 72 hours, can take up to 14 days depending on size, and is not available sooner than 48 hours after it starts. Plan for the 60-day download window from the day you press Start export.
Sources: Google Workspace Admin Help, Review storage use across your organization, Export all your organization's data, Vault export contents and Vault overview. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Google Drive data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which shared drives and people are exported, and the data vendor replaces names and other personal details with consistent stand-ins before an AI lab sees anything. The company keeps ownership of its files, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
HR, finance and legal folders can be left out by exporting only the shared drives and users you pick. The data vendor also deletes records too sensitive to clean safely instead of anonymizing them.
Names are replaced before a lab sees them
Anonymization means replacing every detail that identifies a person or a client, such as a name or an address, with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears. The document still reads as it was written, so a lab can learn from it, but it no longer says who the people are. The diagram below shows one short extract before and after.
The method, including what is deleted outright and how you review samples, is in how company data is anonymized for AI training.
Ownership and payment
Licensing gives the buyer limited rights to a copy, while the company keeps ownership of the originals. The terms that matter, such as exclusivity, permitted use and deletion, are covered in data licensing. micro1 pays in full within 30 days of accepting the data, usually as a single payment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Will our Google Docs and Sheets open in Word and Excel after export?
Yes, if you export through Vault, which converts Docs to DOCX and Sheets to XLSX, along with Slides to PPTX, Drawings to PDF, Vids to MP4 and Forms to a zip of HTML and CSV. The Data Export tool instead delivers zip archives for each service.
Do our shared drives come along in the export?
They do when you export the entire organization or use Vault. If you filter the Data Export to chosen users, shared drives are skipped, since no single user owns them.
Does version history count toward Google Drive storage?
No. Google lists version history among the things that do not count toward storage, so the real volume of edits is larger than the figure on the Storage page.
Can we still export files that belonged to former employees?
Yes, as long as the account was suspended or moved to an Archived User license rather than deleted, because the Data Export tool covers those accounts. A deleted account takes its Drive files with it.
How do I find out how much space our shared drives use?
Open the Storage page in the Admin console and look under Shared drives using the most storage, then choose View all shared drives. Add that total to the Drive storage of your users from the Accounts report.
Do we need to export Google Drive before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your approximate size in GB, your years of history and your file-owner count for the intro call, and the Storage page and Accounts report give you the size. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is Google Drive data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Drive files are priced as part of a whole dataset rather than on their own. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, and the price depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Google Drive, then see what it is worth
You don't need to export anything to apply. Apply in two minutes, describe your records on the intro call, and micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, prices the whole dataset and sends an offer 1–2 days later.
Not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures come from micro1's published pages and public reporting as of November 2026.