Committed use discounts

This page describes how spend-based committed use discounts (CUDs) work with BigQuery.

BigQuery supports two different types of commitments:

  • Capacity commitments, which are a commitment to purchase a specific number of slots with an edition in an administration project.

  • Spend-based commitments, which are described on this page.

BigQuery spend-based CUDs

Spend-based CUDs for BigQuery provide discounted prices in exchange for your commitment to use BigQuery PAYG capacity in a particular region for a one- or three-year term. BigQuery spend-based CUDs are ideal for workloads with predictable spend across hours. You commit to a consistent amount of spend, measured in cost per hour of equivalent pay as you go spending, for a one- or three-year term. In exchange, you receive a discounted rate for BigQuery PAYG SKUs on the applicable usage your commitment covers. You can purchase spend-based CUDs from any Cloud Billing account, and the applicable discount applies to any eligible usage in projects that the Cloud Billing account pays for. When you purchase a BigQuery spend-based CUD, you pay the same commitment fee for the entirety of the commitment term, even if the price of applicable usage changes. The commitment fee is billed monthly. Any overage in usage is charged at the PAYG rate.

When deciding to purchase spend-based CUDs, keep the following in mind:

  • Regions: You purchase spend-based CUDs for individual regions. If you're running in multiple regions, calculate and purchase spend-based CUDs in each separate region.
  • Projects: Determine the consistent hourly PAYG slot usage per project.
  • BigQuery capabilities: Spend-based CUDs work across all BigQuery PAYG SKUs.

BigQuery spend-based CUDs usage types

Spend-based CUDs automatically apply to aggregate BigQuery instance usage in a region, which gives you low, predictable costs without needing to make any manual changes or updates. This flexibility helps you to achieve high utilization rates across your commitments, saving you time and money. BigQuery spend-based CUDs apply to all BigQuery PAYG usage. BigQuery spend-based CUDs apply to usage from all supported compute capacity types, which include the following:

  • BigQuery editions
  • Composer 3 (also referred to as BigQuery engine for Apache Airflow)
  • BigQuery governance
  • BigQuery services

For a complete list of all applicable SKUs, see SKU Groups - BigQuery PAYG.

Purchase BigQuery spend-based CUDs

To purchase a BigQuery spend-based CUD, see Purchase spend-based commitments. After purchasing a spend-based CUD, the commitment is effective starting within the next hour. The discounts are automatically applied to eligible usage in the region you specified. Once you purchase a spend-based CUD, you can't cancel it. Before you purchase a commitment, read the Service Specific Terms regarding Committed Units. To learn more, including how to purchase spend-based commitments, see Committed use discounts.

Calculate spend-based CUD discount

The following example describes how to calculate the cost of using BigQuery with a spend-based CUD.

Key points to keep in mind:

  • BigQuery spend-based CUDs apply only to the PAYG capacity of the features previously listed.
  • BigQuery spend-based CUDs don't apply to storage or on-demand.
  • BigQuery spend-based CUDs apply to all PAYG slot SKUs in a given region.
  • BigQuery spend-based CUDs are measured in dollars per hourly PAYG commitment.

When you calculate the hourly rate for BigQuery PAYG in the region where you want to purchase a CUD, first consider whether it saves money for your situation. Any usage greater than the commitment is charged at the regular on-demand price.

For example, assume you are running a workload that uses Enterprise edition slot-hours in the us-central1 region for BigQuery.

You commit to spend $1 per hour on BigQuery for three years in us-central1 across all projects, at the Enterprise edition slot-hour price.

You are charged a minimum of $1 * 90% = $0.90 per hour for the whole year, independent from actual usage.

Once you make the commitment, you're charged that amount even if you decide to stop or reduce the hourly usage.

Pricing

For more information about BigQuery spend-based CUDs pricing, see BigQuery pricing. The discounts are the same in all regions and multi-regions.

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