BigQuery Cost Calculator
Compare BigQuery on-demand per-TiB scanning against slot capacity pricing, with pruning and long-term storage.
Inputs
A partition filter and a clustered predicate routinely cut scanned bytes by more than half.
BigQuery bills at least 10 MB per table referenced, so tiny queries are not free.
Standard edition lists near $0.04 per slot-hour; Enterprise is higher and commitments are lower.
Monthly Cost
$1,304.74
Query or Compute Charge
$585.94
Storage Charge
$716.80
Billed Bytes Scanned
93.75TiB
On-Demand Cost
$585.94
Slot Capacity Cost
$14,600.00
Cheaper Model
On-demand — you are not scanning enough to fill the reservation
Break-Even Scan Volume
2,336.00TiB
Step by step
Values used
Queries per month = 20,000 queries; Average table bytes touched per query = 12 GiB; Reduction from partitioning and clustering = 60 %; Minimum billed bytes per query = 10 MB; On-demand price per TiB scanned = 6.25 USD/TiB; Pricing model = On-demand (per TiB scanned); Reserved slots = 500 slots; Price per slot-hour = 0.0400 USD/slot-hour; Hours the reservation is active = 730 hours; Active storage (touched in 90 days) = 20 TiB; Active storage price per GiB = 0.0200 USD/GiB-month; Long-term storage (idle 90 days) = 30 TiB; Long-term storage price per GiB = 0.0100 USD/GiB-month; Streaming inserts = 200 GiB; Streaming price per GiB = 0.0100 USD/GiB
BigQuery Cost
on-demand = queries × max(bytes touched × (1 − pruning), 10 MB) ÷ 1,024 × per-TiB price; capacity = slots × slot price × hours; storage = active GiB × active price + long-term GiB × long-term price.
Monthly Cost
= 1,304.74
Query or Compute Charge
= 585.94
Storage Charge
= 716.80
Billed Bytes Scanned
= 93.75 TiB
On-Demand Cost
= 585.94
Slot Capacity Cost
= 14,600.00
How it works
On-demand BigQuery charges for bytes the engine reads, not bytes stored, so a partition filter and a clustered predicate are the two levers that move the bill most — and a 10 MB floor per referenced table means thousands of tiny queries still add up. Capacity pricing swaps that for a flat slot-hour charge, which wins once your scan volume passes the break-even figure shown here. The same warehouse can cost wildly different amounts depending on whether analysts write filtered queries and whether you reserve slots, and long-term storage silently halves the rate on partitions nobody touches. Confirm the per-TiB and per-slot-hour prices for your region and edition in the Google Cloud pricing calculator.
Formula
BigQuery Cost
on-demand = queries × max(bytes touched × (1 − pruning), 10 MB) ÷ 1,024 × per-TiB price; capacity = slots × slot price × hours; storage = active GiB × active price + long-term GiB × long-term price.
- pruning
- Share of bytes a partition filter and clustering keep BigQuery from reading
- 10 MB minimum
- Floor BigQuery bills per table referenced, regardless of query size
- long-term storage
- Half-price rate applied automatically once a table partition is untouched for 90 days
- break-even
- Scan volume at which the reservation costs the same as on-demand
Frequently Asked Questions
How is BigQuery Cost calculated?
on-demand = queries × max(bytes touched × (1 − pruning), 10 MB) ÷ 1,024 × per-TiB price; capacity = slots × slot price × hours; storage = active GiB × active price + long-term GiB × long-term price. On-demand BigQuery charges for bytes the engine reads, not bytes stored, so a partition filter and a clustered predicate are the two levers that move the bill most — and a 10 MB floor per referenced table means thousands of tiny queries still add up. Capacity pricing swaps that for a flat slot-hour charge, which wins once your scan volume passes the break-even figure shown here.
Why does BigQuery Cost matter?
The same warehouse can cost wildly different amounts depending on whether analysts write filtered queries and whether you reserve slots, and long-term storage silently halves the rate on partitions nobody touches. Confirm the per-TiB and per-slot-hour prices for your region and edition in the Google Cloud pricing calculator.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 15 inputs: Queries per month, Average table bytes touched per query, Reduction from partitioning and clustering, Minimum billed bytes per query, On-demand price per TiB scanned, Pricing model, Reserved slots, Price per slot-hour, Hours the reservation is active, Active storage (touched in 90 days), Active storage price per GiB, Long-term storage (idle 90 days), Long-term storage price per GiB, Streaming inserts, Streaming price per GiB. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Does SELECT * cost more than selecting a few columns?
Much more. BigQuery is columnar, so it bills only the columns a query reads. Replacing SELECT * with an explicit column list is often a bigger saving than any infrastructure change.