Google BigQuery: Pricing, Features & Alternatives
BigQuery has no clusters to size. On-demand pricing charges $6.25 per TiB of data a query processes, and the first 1 TiB each month is free. Teams that want a fixed bill use capacity pricing instead, paying per slot-hour in the Standard, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus edition, with optional one or three-year commitments. Storage is billed separately; the first 10 GiB of active and long-term logical storage is free each month.
Who it’s for: Teams on Google Cloud, or anyone who wants a warehouse with nothing to size and a monthly free allowance.
Category
Cloud Data Warehouses
Pricing
Free tier available
Free tier
Yes
Best for
Cloud Data Warehouses: serverless, pay per query, Google Cloud
Google BigQuery at a Glance
- What it is
- Serverless cloud data warehouse
- How you pay
- Per TiB scanned, or per slot-hour
- Free access
- 1 TiB queries and 10 GiB storage free a month
- Clouds
- Google Cloud (Omni reaches AWS and Azure)
- How compute scales
- Automatic; no clusters
Checked November 2026 against BigQuery pricing.
Google BigQuery Pricing Plans (2026)
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free tier | $0 (1 TiB queries + 10 GiB storage / month) |
| On-demandPopular | $6.25 / TiB scanned |
| Editions (capacity) | Per slot-hour |
Pricing summary: Free · paid from $6.25/mo. Always confirm current pricing on the official site.
Key Google BigQuery Features
- On-demand: $6.25 per TiB processed; the first 1 TiB each month is free
- First 10 GiB of active and long-term logical storage free each month
- Capacity pricing per slot-hour in Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions
- One and three-year slot commitments on Enterprise and Enterprise Plus
- BigQuery Omni on AWS and Azure regions at $9.125 per TiB on demand
Pros
- +Nothing to provision
- +Monthly free tier for queries and storage
- +Per-query pricing suits spiky workloads
- +Tight Google Cloud integration
Cons
- −A careless SELECT * scans and bills a whole table
- −Google Cloud only
- −Capacity pricing takes planning
Best Google BigQuery Alternatives
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Google BigQuery Compared
Google BigQuery FAQ
What is Google BigQuery used for?⌄
Google BigQuery is a cloud data warehouses tool. Serverless Google Cloud warehouse: $6.25 per TiB scanned on demand, with the first 1 TiB of queries and 10 GiB of storage free each month.
Is Google BigQuery free?⌄
Yes. Google BigQuery has a free tier you can start with, and paid plans for more usage and features.
How much does Google BigQuery cost?⌄
Google BigQuery offers a free tier, with paid plans starting at $6.25/month. Some plans are usage-based (pay-as-you-go).
What are the best Google BigQuery alternatives?⌄
Popular Google BigQuery alternatives include MotherDuck, Snowflake, Amazon Redshift. Compare pricing and features on our Google BigQuery alternatives page.
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