US secures large government-wide software discount with Google
Google will offer its Workspace software suite to all federal agencies at a temporary discount of 71% on current pricing until September 30, under an agreement reached with the General Services Administration (GSA).
The GSA called it a “landmark agreement” and said: “The Workspace agreement marks a step forward in GSA’s work with Google and other companies to create cost savings for the federal government.”
Workspace includes applications such as Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, as well as AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM.
The discount is available on GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) pricing, a contract programme that allows agencies to purchase products and services from approved vendors at pre-negotiated rates. The Google agreement is based on the volume of the entire government rather than the lower discounts previously available through separate agreements on an agency-by-agency or transactional basis.
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The move comes amid US president Donald Trump’s effort to slash federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk and has cancelled government contracts and drastically downsized agencies.
Last month, Trump issued an executive order centralising procurement under GSA and the GSA announced an initiative to improve the effectiveness of the MAS programme.
“This common-sense pricing model reflects GSA’s growing role as a central hub for government procurement, leveraging the full purchasing power to negotiate cost savings, reduce redundancy and streamline IT acquisition,” a GSA statement said.
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Unified approach
“Google will now approach the federal government as one unified customer – and president Trump’s GSA is working hard on this collaboration to turn that recognition into real savings to secure lower prices for best-in-class technology across all federal agencies,” commented GSA acting administrator, Stephen Ehikian. “By working closely with industry leaders like Google, we will continue to lower the cost of IT while providing improved experiences for the American taxpayers and the federal government.”
Google estimates that the discounted Workspace software “could help federal agencies potentially save up to US$2bn over the next three years with government-wide adoption”, according to a blog post by Tony Orlando, general manager of specialty sales for Google Public Sector.
DOGE said the agreement would be the first of many.
“Good work by [GSA] for inking its first consolidated deal following the president’s executive order: Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement,” said an X post from DOGE. “This will be the first of many bulk discounts as a result of centralised procurement.”
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About Sarah Wray
Sarah has over 15 years’ experience as a journalist with a specialism in the public sector and topics such as digitalisation and climate action. Sarah was formerly the editor of Cities Today and Smart Cities World, as well as a specialist video-based publication in the aerospace sector. She has also written for publications including Smart Cities Dive, Mobile Europe, Mobile World Live and Computer Weekly.
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