Generally Available: The copyComments query parameter on the files.copy method is now generally available.

This parameter allows you to copy open comments and suggestions when copying a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file. For more information, see Copy comments.

Generally Available: The fileContentChangeBehavior field on the approvals resource is now generally available.

This field allows you to determine the behavior of an approval when the file content is changed while the approval status is IN_PROGRESS. You can set this field through the start method on the approvals resource.

Developer Preview: The copy_file tool is now available for the Google Drive MCP server. AI agents or client applications can use this tool to copy an existing file in Google Drive, with options to specify a new title and redirect it to a specific parent directory.

To learn more about configuring and using the Drive MCP server, see the following pages:

• Set up the Drive MCP server
• Drive MCP tool reference

Generally Available: Subscriptions are now generally available for Google Drive events.

For details, see Subscribe to Google Drive events in the Google Workspace Events API documentation. For information on how to receive Google Drive events from Google Cloud Pub/Sub, see Work with events from Google Drive.

Generally Available: Updates to Drive API usage quotas

A new tiering model with updates to API usage quotas will start to roll out. For more information, see Google Workspace standardized model for agent tools and APIs.

Announcement

Generally Available: To help align resource usage in the Google Drive API, usage quotas will change to be measured in quota units instead of the number of requests. Additionally, Google Workspace users can now only egress 1 TB per day. For more information, see Google Drive API usage limits.

Developer Preview: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Google Drive is now available in developer preview. MCP is an open protocol that enables seamless integration between AI applications and your Drive files. By configuring the Drive MCP server, you enable AI agents to securely search your files and take actions, such as reading content or creating files.

For example, you can ask your AI agent: "Summarize the file 'Marketing Plan'."

To get started with the Drive MCP server, see the following documentation:

• Set up the Drive MCP server
• Drive MCP tool reference

To find more available MCP servers, see Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in Google Workspace.

Generally Available: The Google Drive API now lets you start and manage approvals on Drive files through the approvals resource. The following API methods have been added:

• approvals.start
• approvals.approve
• approvals.decline
• approvals.reassign
• approvals.cancel
• approvals.comment

You can still retrieve and list the status of your approvals using either the approvals.get or the approvals.list method.

For details, see Manage approvals.

Generally Available: The enforceExpansiveAccess query parameter is now deprecated for all methods in the permissions resource (v2 and v3). To restrict item access, use the folders with limited access setting instead.

Generally Available: The Google Drive API now supports the reading of content approvals on Drive files through the approvals resource. To retrieve approvals on a file, you can use either the get or list method.

For details, see Manage approvals.

Feature

(Developer Preview): You can now get approval events in Google Drive. The following event types are supported:

• An approval is created, cancelled, reset, or completed on a file.
• An approval reviewer is changed on a file.
• An approval reviewer responded to an approval on a file.

For details, see Subscribe to Google Drive events in the Google Workspace Events API documentation. For information on how to receive Google Drive events from Google Cloud Pub/Sub, see Work with events from Google Drive.

(Developer Preview): You can now get comment and reply events in Google Drive. The following event types are supported:

• A user posts a comment in a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file.
• A user replies to a comment.

For details, see Subscribe to Google Drive events in the Google Workspace Events API documentation. For information on how to receive Google Drive events from Google Cloud Pub/Sub, see Work with events from Google Drive.

The Drive API has changed how download, print, and copy restrictions are applied.

Users with the role of owner or organizer can apply restrictions to other users with writer roles, in addition to reader roles. Users can directly apply restrictions on files using the itemDownloadRestriction field within the DownloadRestrictionsMetadata object. Determination of whether file restrictions can be changed is controlled by the new capabilities.canChangeItemDownloadRestriction field.

Similarly, users with the role of shared drive organizer can directly apply restrictions on shared drives using the downloadRestriction field within the Restrictions object. Determination of whether shared drive restrictions can be changed is also controlled by the capabilities.canChangeDownloadRestriction field.

While the previous field (copyRequiresWriterPermission) that controlled download, print, and copy restrictions is still available, the functionality is different for both reading from and writing to the field. We recommend that you use the new DownloadRestriction object to enforce how users can download, print, and copy files.

For more information about how download, print, and copy restrictions are now applied for My Drive and shared drive files, see:

• Protect file content
• Manage shared drives

(Developer Preview): You can now subscribe to events in Google Drive. The following event types are supported:

• A file is added to a folder or shared drive.
• A file is moved to a folder or shared drive.
• A file is edited or a new revision is uploaded.
• A file is trashed or removed from the trash.
• An access proposal is created or resolved on a file.

For details, see Subscribe to Google Drive events in the Google Workspace Events API documentation. For information on how to receive Google Drive events from Google Cloud Pub/Sub, see Work with events from Google Drive.

Generally Available: The Google Drive API now supports folders with limited access which allow you to restrict folders to specific users. Folders with limited access broadens the expansive access model from shared drives to My Drive.

To limit access to a folder, developers can set the boolean inheritedPermissionsDisabled field on the files resource to true. Developers can also opt in to expansive access API behavior in My Drive ahead of any future mandatory enforcement by setting the enforceExpansiveAccess request parameter to true on the permissions.delete() and permissions.update() methods.

To learn more, see Manage folders with limited and expansive access.

The Google Drive API returns a long-running operation (LRO) every time you call the files.download method to download blob file content or export Google Workspace document content either through the Drive API or its client libraries.

The files.download method returns an Operation resource to the client. You can use the Operation interface to asynchronously retrieve the status of the API method by polling the operation through the GetOperationRequest method.

The files.download method is the only way to download Google Vids files in MP4 format and is typically best suited to downloading most video files.

To learn more, see Manage long-running operations.

The Google Drive API now supports the drive.meet.readonly scope. This restricted scope lets you view Drive files created or edited by Google Meet.

For details, see Choose Google Drive API scopes.

You can now get a list of the user's installed apps in v3, with information about each app's supported MIME types, file extensions, and other details.

The apps resource represents a user's list of installed apps and it supports the following methods:

• Get a specific installed app.

• List all the installed apps.

Each user can have up to 500 million items that were created by that account, no matter where those items reside. Previously, users could create an unlimited number of items in Drive.

A user's My Drive can't contain more than 100 levels of nested folders. Previously, folders in My Drive could be at an unlimited depth.

A new content restriction parameter that only the file owner can modify (ownerRestricted) was added.

In addition, three capabilities were added:

• capabilities.canModifyEditorContentRestriction
• capabilities.canModifyOwnerContentRestriction
• capabilities.canRemoveContentRestriction

For details, see Protect file content.

Deprecated

The capabilities.canModifyContentRestriction parameter was deprecated.

The Google Drive API is now generally available.