Born in Fürstenau, he was the fifth child and third (but second surviving) son of George Albert I, Count of Erbach-Schönberg and his third wife Elisabeth Dorothea, a daughter of George Frederick II, Count of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg in Schillingsfürst.
Because he and his brothers were still minors at the time of their father's death in 1647, the guardianship and rule over the Erbach domains were assigned to their eldest half-brother George Ernest, who ruled alone until his death in 1669, without issue.
The death of George IV in 1678 without surviving issue forced another division in the Erbach patrimony; this time George Louis received the districts of Michelstadt and Breuberg.
George Louis I died in Arolsen aged 49 and was buried in Michelstadt.
In Culemborg on 26 December 1664 George Louis I married with Countess Amalia Katharina of Waldeck-Eisenberg (13 August 1640 – 4 January 1697), a daughter of Philipp Dietrich, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg and his wife Maria Magdalena von Nassau-Siegen.