Use cases → Reporting and data
Report on Drive storage usage across the entire organisation
Audit and track Google Drive storage usage for every user, producing a reliable, up-to-date organisational report.
| Who it is for | IT and compliance teams monitoring storage consumption and policy adherence. |
|---|---|
| APIs | Drive API, Admin SDK |
| Typical scopes | drive.readonly, admin.directory.user.readonly |
The problem
Drive storage can be consumed rapidly and invisibly, especially with shared drives and large file uploads. Admins are often surprised by sudden quota limits or bill increases, and per-user breakdowns are not available in the standard admin UI.
How it works
- Enumerate all active users using the Admin SDK.
- Impersonate each user with domain-wide delegation to list files and sum their sizes via the Drive API.
- Collect and aggregate per-user and shared drive totals.
- Write the results to a central sheet or database for further analysis.
What changes
A full, up-to-date view of storage usage by user and shared drive, enabling proactive management and cleanup.
Watch it explained
“Setting up BigQuery Log Export from Google Workspace” — Google Workspace Admins on YouTube. Third-party video, included because it covers this ground well. We are not affiliated with the channel.
Questions people ask
Can this include shared drives?
Yes, but you must enumerate shared drives separately and process their contents. Shared drive membership does not map directly to users.
Does this catch orphaned files?
Only if you explicitly query for files with no parents. They are not included in normal folder listings and can be missed.
Want this built?
This is a pattern we run in production. We will set up the delegation and build this on top of it — $500 per hour, most of it working the same day.
Talk to us Or read the setup guideRelated use cases
Score calls or meetings against a rubric, nightly
Turn recordings and transcripts into a consistent, ranked scorecard your team can act on.
Report on meeting room utilisation across the domain
Aggregate and analyse meeting room bookings to understand how spaces are used, directly from the domain’s Calendar data.
Sync bulk Google contacts to your CRM
Use a delegated service account to export and synchronise Google contacts in bulk to a third-party CRM, maintaining consistency across systems.