The quantity g is the acceleration due to gravity near Earth's surface, 9.8 m/s2.
The fact that it has the units m/s2 further indicates that this is an acceleration. If it were a force, there would be a mass component as well, and it would have units of kg⋅m/s2, a.k.a. newtons, N.
The g value has no mass component, which basically means that it is independent of the mass of the object (sound familiar, from Newton's experiments?)
If a question wants an answer in g's, it's simply asking for that object's acceleration expressed as a multiple (or a fraction) of g. For example, 43.5 m/s2 is the same as
43m/s29.8m/s2=4.4g
