3 Ways to Suspend Users in Your Google Workspace Account
Rolling out a new security rule or cleaning up licenses can be stressful when active accounts keep firing off emails and syncing data. Sometimes you just need to hit pause without deleting anyone.
Google Workspace lets you suspend users instead. We’ll walk through three ways, Admin console, bulk CSV, and the Directory API, so you can choose the approach that matches your timeline and skill set.
Table of Contents
Use Google Workspace’s UI
The steps below show how to suspend a user in the Google Workspace Admin console.
1. Sign in to the Admin console
- Go to
admin.google.comand sign in with an admin account.
2. Open the Users page
- From the Admin console dashboard, open the Users section page.
If it isn’t visible, click Menu in the upper-left corner, then scroll until Users appears.
3. Find the account you want to pause
- Scroll through the list or use the search bar at the top.
- Click the user’s name to open their account page.
4. Start the suspension
- In the upper-right corner, select the three-dot More actions button.
- Pick Suspend user.
5. Review what happens next
- A dialog explains that the person can’t sign in, but their email and files remain in place.
- Click Suspend to confirm.
6. Verify the status
- After confirming, you return to the user’s profile right away.
- To undo this later, open the same More actions menu and choose Restore user.
Google’s Help Center article “Suspend a user” walks through the same steps for quick reference.
Use Torii
Many admins use Torii to turn account suspensions into a hands-off process rather than signing into Google Workspace every time. The platform gives teams a single place to manage SaaS apps, handle user onboarding and offboarding, track licenses, and more.
With Torii in place, a predefined trigger kicks off the suspension the instant it fires, whether that trigger is a new hire date, an offboarding event, or a contract renewal. Taking the manual clicks out of this task saves administrators real hours.
To suspend a user inside Google Workspace through Torii, follow these steps:
1. Sign up for Torii
Contact Torii and request your complimentary two-week proof of concept.
2. Connect your Google Workspace account to Torii
Once Torii is set up, link your existing Google Workspace environment. Here are the instructions for the Google Workspace integration.
3. Create a Torii workflow for Google Workspace
Navigate to the Workflows tab in Torii, define your trigger, and add the “Suspend user in Google Workspace” action. Whenever the trigger conditions are met, Torii will automatically carry out the suspension in Google Workspace.
Use Google Workspace’s API
Below you’ll walk through the exact API calls that flip a user’s suspended flag to true in Google Workspace.
1. Get an access token that includes the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user scope
- If you’re using a service account with domain-wide delegation, impersonate a super admin while generating the token.
- Save the token to an environment variable so you can reuse it easily, for example
TOKEN.
export TOKEN="$(gcloud auth print-access-token)"
2. Send a PATCH request that sets suspended to true
Swap USER_KEY for the user’s primary email address or the unique ID Google assigns to that account.
curl -X PATCH \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/USER_KEY \
-d '{"suspended": true}'
Google responds with the updated user object, and a "suspended": true entry confirms the change.
3. Verify the change (optional but smart)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/USER_KEY?projection=basic
Scan the response JSON carefully and confirm it contains a "suspended": true field before moving on.
4. Unsuspend later if needed
When the user needs access again, hit the same endpoint and send {"suspended": false} to flip the flag back.
Once you finish those steps, the suspension workflow is complete and no further configuration is required.
Torii for SaaS Management
Controlling a growing SaaS stack gets tricky for most teams. Reach out. Torii’s SaaS Management Platform delivers the insight and automation you need to stay on top of every subscription:
- Uncover shadow IT: AI sweeps the company around the clock and flags unapproved apps the moment they appear instantly.
- Reduce spend: Drop idle licenses and overlapping tools across departments to keep budgets lean, predictable, and ready for the next audit.
- Automate onboarding and offboarding: Automate joiner, mover, and leaver tasks to save hours, cut mistakes, and give IT time for higher value work.
- Never miss a renewal: Timely alerts keep contract dates from slipping past you, giving ample room to renegotiate or cancel.
Torii brings Finance, IT, and Security together on one source of truth for every app in the portfolio.
See how it works in your environment by visiting Torii and scheduling a quick demo today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Google Workspace lets admins pause accounts through the Admin console, Torii workflows, or the Directory API. In the console, open Users, pick More actions ▸ Suspend user. Torii triggers automate the same step, while a PATCH call setting "suspended": true handles API use.
Suspension blocks sign-in but leaves the mailbox, Drive files, shared links, and calendar events intact. Messages keep arriving and storage stays billed, so you can restore access later without data loss or delete the account when you’re ready.
Yes. Export user IDs or primary addresses to a CSV, add a column named "Suspended" and set the value to TRUE, then upload it in Admin console ▸ Users ▸ Bulk update. Google processes the sheet in minutes, pausing every listed account.
After linking Google Workspace to Torii, build a workflow with a trigger—like off-boarding or renewal—and add the "Suspend user in Google Workspace" action. When the trigger fires, Torii calls Google automatically, removing the need for manual console clicks.
Include the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user when generating your OAuth 2.0 token or service-account credential. The scope authorizes PATCH requests that set a user’s "suspended" field to true or false, letting scripts toggle access programmatically.
Open the user’s profile, choose More actions ▸ Restore user in the Admin console, or send another PATCH request with "suspended": false in the Directory API. Torii workflows can likewise reverse the action by adding an "Unsuspend" step.
