Read the subscription before you answer
A ticket arrives: "My colleague has Gemini in Meet taking notes. I don't. Why?" The quick reply is "you're on a different plan." Sometimes that's true. Often it's wrong, because neither the user nor the person answering has actually looked at the subscription.
Think of it like a hotel key card. Two guests in the same hotel can open different doors because their cards were coded differently. The front desk checks the card. It doesn't go by what the room usually comes with. For you the key card is the user's assigned licence, and the Admin console is where you read it.
This level covers one habit. Find the edition, see what Google lists for it today, and write both down with the date. Add-ons, Frontline, Education, Nonprofit and age limits come in later levels. Here we stay with Business and Enterprise.
Two different things called "Gemini"
Level 1 showed you two separate things. They matter here because Google lists editions for them separately:
- The Gemini app (gemini.google.com and the mobile app). For Business and Enterprise editions Google lists it as a core service with enterprise-grade data protections. It is switched on or off at Menu > Generative AI > Gemini app, and changing that setting needs the Gemini Settings administrator privilege.
- Gemini inside Workspace apps: the side panel and Help me write in Gmail and Docs, Take notes for me in Meet, and so on. Which of these a user gets depends on the edition's feature list.
A user can have the first and not the second. Many "I don't have Gemini" tickets turn out to mean "I have the app but not the Meet feature I saw a colleague use." Ask which one they mean before you check anything.
Walkthrough: find the user's licence (read-only)
# Step 1: open the user
Admin console > Menu > Directory > Users
> search "priya.shah@contoso.example" > click the name
# Step 2: read the Licenses section on the user's page
Licenses
Google Workspace Business Standard Assigned
# Note the exact edition name. "Business" alone is not enough.
# Step 3: confirm what the organisation actually holds
Admin console > Menu > Billing > Subscriptions
# Shows every subscription in the tenant. A firm can hold
# more than one edition, so check which one THIS user is on.
Gotcha: don't answer from the org's main plan. Mixed-licence tenants are common, for example most staff on Business Standard with a few on Business Starter to save money. The user's own page settles it, not the billing contract or someone's memory of it.
Best practice: stay read-only. Viewing a user and reading Billing changes nothing. Moving someone to another licence is a change with cost and data consequences. It goes through your firm's change process and is not a fix you make inside a ticket.
Walkthrough: match the edition to Google's current list
Once you have the edition, open Google's own edition comparison pages in the Workspace Admin Help (Compare Business editions, Compare Enterprise editions) and the Gemini app page. Read the Gemini rows for that edition on today's date.
This is what those pages showed when this lesson was written (3 November 2026). Treat it as a worked example, not a reference. Google changes these lists often.
Edition Gemini app (core service) Examples Google lists
------------------- -------------------------- -------------------------------
Business Starter Yes, "basic access"; Gmail: side panel, Help me write,
limits may change proofread. Narrower set overall.
Business Standard Yes Gmail features + Meet (Take notes
for me, speech translation, etc.)
Business Plus Yes, "Pro access" As Standard
Enterprise Standard Yes, "Pro access" Same Gemini feature set as
Enterprise Plus Yes, "Pro access" Enterprise Standard
Two lessons from this table:
- Enterprise doesn't automatically mean "more Gemini." Google lists the same Gemini capabilities for Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus. Paying for a higher tier doesn't by itself mean a user gets a feature that someone on a lower tier lacks.
- Starter is where most "why don't I have it" tickets come from. The colleague on Business Standard has Meet note-taking. The user on Business Starter doesn't, because Google doesn't list it for Starter.
Trade-off: third-party blogs often summarise these tables, and they disagree with each other, especially about Business Starter. Use Google's page for evidence and nothing else.
Write the evidence into the ticket
Your note should let a colleague check your answer without asking you. Include the edition, where you read it, what Google listed, the URL and the date.
Ticket #4821: "No Take notes for me in Meet"
Checked: 2026-11-03 10:42 by J. Okafor (read-only)
User licence: Google Workspace Business Starter
Source: Admin console > Directory > Users > priya.shah > Licenses
Google's list on this date: Take notes for me is listed for
Business Standard and Plus, not for Business Starter.
Source: Compare Business editions (Workspace Admin Help), URL attached
Gemini app: core service for this edition; enabled for the user's OU
Conclusion: working as licensed, not a fault.
Told user: feature not included in their plan; licence
changes are a manager/IT purchasing decision.
Six months from now the table may say something different, and the dated note shows what was true when you closed the ticket.
Key takeaways
- Before answering any "why don't I have it" question, read the user's own licence at Directory > Users > user > Licenses. Don't go by the org's main plan.
- Ask whether they mean the Gemini app (a core service in Business and Enterprise editions) or a Gemini feature inside an app. Google lists them separately.
- Check the edition against Google's current comparison pages, not memory or blogs. The lists change.
- Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus show the same Gemini feature set. Business Starter shows a narrower one.
- Every ticket note records the edition, where you read it, Google's listing, the URL and the date.