Accelerate workflows with eSignatures

An electronic signature is an efficient way to collect legally enforceable signatures for many electronic documents.

eSignatures are legally binding in many countries or regions for many types of documents. This includes the U.S. and EU. For example, the U.S. federal government established the validity of e-signature through the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act or ESIGN in 2000. This act grants eSignatures the same legal status as handwritten signatures in most contexts.

Google Workspace's tool for eSignature is designed to comply with generally applicable requirements for electronic contracts in many countries or regions, including:

• elDAS simple electronic signatures (SeS) (European Union)

• ESIGN Act 2000 (United States)

This tool is built on Google Workspace’s common infrastructure that is designed to comply with a number of general security and data laws and standards, such as SOC 2 Type II, Department of Defense IL4 authorization, ISO/IEC 27001, GDPR. For the full list, please refer to Google Cloud Compliance Hub.

eSignature in Workspace will be available at no cost for users on the following plans: Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Education Plus.

For eligible users, you can follow these steps to start your eSignature request:

From Google Docs: Go to Tools > eSignature. 

From Google Drive: Open your PDF contract in Drive > top-right menu (three vertical dots) > eSignature.

For detailed instructions, check out this Help Center article.

Yes. Google’s eSignature tool utilizes certificates issued by a certificate authority that is an approved member of the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) program.