BigQuery exposes a graphical web UI in the GCP Console that you can use to create and manage BigQuery resources and to run SQL queries.
See the BigQuery web UI quickstart for a working introduction to the web UI.
Before you begin
Before you can use the BigQuery web UI, you must create or select a project and enable billing using the GCP Console.
-
Sign in to your Google Account.
If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.
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Select or create a Google Cloud Platform project.
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Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud Platform project.
- BigQuery is automatically enabled in new projects. To activate BigQuery in a pre-existing project, Enable the BigQuery API.
Opening the BigQuery web UI
To open the BigQuery web UI:
Open the GCP Console.
In the navigation pane, click BigQuery.
You can also open the BigQuery web UI directly by entering the following URL in your browser.
https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery
Clicking the button below will open the BigQuery web UI directly using your most recently accessed project.
Switching to the classic web UI
If you prefer to use the classic web UI, you can switch to it by using the information icon to the right of the title bar. To switch to the classic web UI, click the Go to Classic UI button at the top of the window.
BigQuery web UI overview
The BigQuery web UI has three main sections:
- The left side of the page (the navigation panel):
The navigation panel contains a list of BigQuery resources you can view.
- The Query history section displays your project's query jobs.
- The Saved queries section displays your saved and shared queries.
- The Job history section displays your project's load, export, and copy jobs.
- The Transfers section opens the BigQuery Data Transfer Service UI.
- The Scheduled queries section displays your scheduled queries.
- The BI Engine section displays the BI Engine console.
- The Resources section contains a list of pinned projects. Expand a project to view datasets and tables that you have access to. A search box is available in the Resources section that allows you to search for resources by name (project name, dataset name, table name, or view name) or by label. The search bar finds all resources that match, or contain matches, within your current and pinned projects.
- The details panel:
- Contains information appropriate to the selected action in the navigation panel. For example, if you click a dataset in the navigation panel, the details panel displays information about the dataset.
- The query editor:
- When you click Compose new query, the query editor appears above the details panel. Click Hide Editor to hide the editor when you no longer need it.
Displaying resources
The navigation panel lists datasets that you can browse in the current
project. Click the 
icon next to your project to display the datasets in that project. Click the
icon next to any dataset to expand it and to show the tables within that dataset.
Clicking a dataset or table will show information about the resource in the details panel. When you click a table in the navigation panel, you can then click the Query Table button on the right side of the details panel to populate the query box with a basic query for that table. You can modify the query by hand to specify fields or customize the query however you like. You are not limited to querying the currently selected table. For more information on querying tables, see Running interactive queries.
Working with projects
All of your BigQuery work is done within a project. This project's name can be seen in the navigation panel below the filter datasets box. You can also view the current project by using the platform bar at the top of the page.
All of your work within the project is charged to the billing account attached to the project. For more information on BigQuery charges, see the pricing page.
In the web UI, you can:
- Switch to a different project
- Add (or pin) additional projects
- Remove pinned projects
Switching projects
To switch projects in the BigQuery web UI:
In the platform bar at the top of the page, click your project.
In the projects dialog, click the name of the project in the list. This replaces your previous project in the UI with the one you chose.
Pinning (adding) a project
You can add or "pin" a project in the web UI by using the pin project option.
You can pin a project in one of the following ways:
- Switch to the project, then pin it.
- Use the Pin Project option in the navigation panel.
Option 1: Open a project then pin it
To pin a project after opening it:
Switch to the project you want to pin to the navigation panel.
In the navigation panel, click the project ID.
In the details panel, on the right side, click Pin Project.
Option 2: Use the Pin Project option
To pin a project using the Pin Project dialog:
In the navigation panel, in the Resources section, click Pin Project.
In the Pin Project dialog, click the Select a project drop-down list. You can choose a project from the Recently selected projects list, or you can use the "Filter by..." box to quickly scan the All projects list.
After choosing the project, click Pin Project to close the Pin Project dialog.
Removing a project from the UI
To remove a project you previously added (or "pinned"):
Click the project ID in the navigation pane.
In the details panel, on the right side, click Unpin Project.
Viewing job and query history
As you run jobs and run queries using the BigQuery web UI, your history is preserved in the navigation panel. Queries are also a type of job, but your query history is preserved separately for ease of use.
The job and query histories in the UI include all load, export, copy, and query jobs you submitted in the past 6 months (up to 1,000 entries). The limit of 1,000 jobs is cumulative across all job types.
To list all available jobs in the history, use the
jobs.list API method or the
bq ls CLI command.
Viewing job history
To view your job history, click the Job History link in the navigation panel.
In the job history details panel, click an individual job to see the details or to repeat the job. You can repeat a load job by using the web UI, but you cannot repeat an export or copy job.
Viewing query history
To view your query history, click the Query History link in the navigation panel.
In the query history details panel, click an individual query job to see the details or to open the query in the query editor. When you open the query in the query editor, you can repeat the query by clicking Run query.
Web UI display limits
The BigQuery web UI has the following display limits:
- Only 1,000 datasets can be displayed in the navigation panel.
- Up to 50,000 tables are displayed in the navigation pane per dataset. You can display a cumulative total of 1,000,000 tables across all datasets (including datasets in pinned projects).
Keyboard shortcuts
The following keyboard shortcuts are supported in the BigQuery web UI:
| Key combination (Windows/Linux) | Key combination (Mac OS) | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Ctrl + Enter | Cmd + Enter | Run current query |
| Tab | Tab | Autocomplete current word |
| Ctrl | Cmd | Highlight table names |
| Ctrl + click table name | Cmd + click table name | Open table schema |
| Ctrl + E | Cmd + E | Run query from selection |
| Ctrl + / | Cmd + / | Comment current or selected line(s) |
| Ctrl + Shift + F | Cmd + Shift + F | Format query |
Examples
You can find web UI examples throughout the How-to guides section of the BigQuery documentation.
To see examples of loading data and querying data using the BigQuery web UI, see the Quickstart using the BigQuery web UI.
What's next
- See the BigQuery web UI quickstart for a working introduction to the web UI.
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