BigQuery's pricing model is designed to be flexible and transparent, offering a pay-as-you-go model that allows users to pay only for the resources they use. There are two factors that make up BigQuery pricing: storage costs and query costs.

• Storage costs are based on the amount of data stored in the platform and are calculated on a monthly basis. The pricing for storage varies depending on the location and type of storage used, with Nearline and Coldline storage being cheaper than Regional and Multi-Regional storage.
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• Query costs are based on the amount of data processed during queries, with pricing calculated based on the total amount of data processed. The price per query is based on the amount of data processed, with the first terabyte being free every month. After the first terabyte, pricing is based on a tiered model, with discounts available for larger volumes of data processed.

BigQuery offers a free tier option that allows users to explore the platform's features and capabilities. The free tier allows up to 1 terabyte (TB) of data storage and up to 1 terabyte of queries processed per month. Additionally, users are allowed to run up to 10,000 load jobs, 1,000 export jobs, and 1 gigabyte (GB) of streaming inserts per month.

In addition to storage and query costs, BigQuery also offers features such as machine learning and streaming analytics, which are priced separately based on usage. However, these features are not included in the free tier and require additional payment to use.

Note that the prices are subject to change, so it's always a good idea to check the official pricing page on the Google Cloud website for the most up-to-date information.

BigQuery offers two main pricing tiers: flat rate and on-demand. Each pricing tier has its own unique features and benefits, which makes it important to choose the one that best suits your needs.

Flat Rate Pricing

The Flat Rate pricing tier offers a predictable monthly cost, making it ideal for companies with a fixed budget. With the Flat Rate pricing tier, you pay a fixed monthly cost for a set amount of BigQuery processing power. This makes it easy to budget for your BigQuery usage, as you know exactly how much you'll be paying each month.

• For example, if you have a set budget of $10,000 per month for BigQuery, you can purchase a flat rate package that offers you up to 1,000 slots per month. This means that you'll be able to process up to 1,000 concurrent queries each month, regardless of how much data you're analyzing or how complex your queries are.

This predictable pricing structure makes it easy to manage your BigQuery costs and ensures that you don't exceed your budget.

On-Demand Pricing

The on-demand pricing tier, on the other hand, charges you based on the amount of data processed by your queries. This pricing structure is ideal for companies with unpredictable query volumes or who are just getting started with BigQuery. With on-demand pricing, you only pay for what you use, which means that your costs can vary greatly from month to month.

• For example, if you're a startup with limited data, you may only process a few queries per month. With on-demand pricing, you'll only be charged for the amount of data that is processed by these queries. However, if your business grows and you start processing more queries, your costs will increase accordingly.

The on-demand pricing tier also offers the flexibility to scale up or down as needed. For example, if you suddenly have a large influx of data that needs to be analyzed, you can quickly scale up your processing power to handle the additional load. Once the data has been analyzed, you can then scale down your processing power to save costs.