How to Configure Password Policies for Your Google Workspace Users

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Google Workspace administrators

As the Google Workspace admin, you have access to a few security settings related to user passwords.

Google Workspace password policies you can set up

You can:

Enforce the usage of strong passwords
Specify a minimum and maximum password length
Allow or disable password reuse
Make passwords expire within a time frame.

How to configure password policies for Google Workspace users step-by-step with images

Step 1

Go to https://accounts.google.com/signin/recovery and click Forgot email?

Step 2

Select Password management.

Step 3

On the left, under Organizational Units, select the OU containing the users you want to apply the Enforcement setting to. All sub-OUs nested under the OU you choose will have the same setting applied to them.

By default, if you don’t select an OU, you will add your setting to the top OU, named after your domain. By applying a setting to the top-level OU, you apply it to all users in the account.

You can also search for an OU to find it faster if you have a large OU structure.

If you are not familiar with OUs, click here.

Step 4

First is the password Strength – check the box to make sure all users will have strong passwords.
Next is password Length, which allows you to specify the minimum and maximum password length.
You also have the option to Enforce password strength and length policies the next time users sign in.
After that comes the Allow password reuse box, which determines whether users can or can’t reuse old passwords. Don’t allow this.
Finally, there’s the Password expiration setting. You use it to specify how often users will be forced to reset their passwords. The more often they have to do it, the better.
Click SAVE after any updates. Changing these settings may take up to 24 hours to take effect for all users.