Capacity commitment plans

This document describes the capacity commitment plans that BigQuery provides. It is intended for users who have a general understanding of capacity commitments and reservations in BigQuery.

BigQuery offers three types of capacity commitment plans:

Flex slots
Monthly
Annual

The minimum commitment size is 100 slots, and commitments are available in 100-slot increments, up to your slot quota. There is no limit on the number of commitments you can have.

You are charged from the moment your commitment purchase is successful. For information about BigQuery costs, see BigQuery pricing.

Flex slots plans

With a flex slots capacity commitment, you pay for the specified number of slots for 60 seconds, and for each second thereafter, until you delete your commitment or convert it to another type of commitment plan (monthly or annual).

You cannot delete a flex slots commitment until 60 seconds after the commitment becomes active.
After 60 seconds, you can delete at any time, and you will be charged only for the seconds your commitment was active.
For example:
- If you purchase a commitment on 6:00:00 October 5th, you start being charged at that moment.
- You cannot delete until 6:01:00 October 5th.
- If you delete on 6:01:01 October 5th, you will be charged for 61 seconds (6:00:00 October 5th - 6:01:01 October 5th).
If you do not delete the commitment, you continue to be charged.

Monthly commitment plans

With a monthly commitment, you pay for the specified number of slots for one month, and for each second thereafter, until you delete your commitment or convert it to an annual commitment plan.

You cannot delete a monthly commitment until 30 days after the commitment becomes active.
After 30 days, you can delete at any time, and you will be charged only for the seconds your commitment was active.
For example:
- If you purchase a commitment on 6:00:00 October 5th, you start being charged at that moment.
- You cannot delete until 6:00:00 November 4th.
- If you delete on 7:10:10 November 5th, you will be charged for 30 days plus one day, one hour, ten minutes, and ten seconds (6:00:00 October 5th - 7:10:10 November 5th).
If you do not delete the commitment, you continue to be charged.

Annual commitment plans

With an annual commitment, you pay for the specified number of slots for one year. After that, you are charged according to the renewal plan associated with your commitment.

A renewal plan is the capacity commitment plan that takes effect after an annual commitment ends. Like capacity commitment plans, a renewal plan is one of the following:

Flex slots
Monthly
Annual

You select a renewal plan when you purchase an annual commitment, or when you convert another commitment plan to an annual commitment. The default renewal plan is Monthly. You can change the renewal plan for an annual commitment at any time until the annual commitment ends.

You cannot delete an annual commitment until 365 days after the commitment becomes active.
Prior to the commitment end date, you can choose to either renew the annual commitment, convert it to a monthly commitment, or convert it to a flex slots commitment. You do this by setting its renewal plan, as follows:
- Renew for another year. After 365 days, your commitment renews for another year.
- Convert to a monthly commitment. (Default) After 365 days, your commitment converts to a monthly commitment. You are charged at the monthly rate, and you can delete the commitment after 30 days.
- Convert to a flex slots commitment. After 365 days, your commitment converts to a flex slots commitment. You are charged at the flex slots rate, and you can delete the commitment at any time.
For example:
- If you purchase a commitment on 6:00:00 October 5th 2019, you start being charged at that moment.
- You cannot delete or renew the commitment until 6:00:00 October 4th 2020 (2020 is a leap year).
- If prior to 6:00:00 October 4th 2020, you choose to auto-renew, then at 6:00:00 October 4th 2020 your commitment renews for another year.
- If prior to 6:00:00 October 4th 2020, you choose to renew to a monthly commitment, then at 6:00:00:00 October 4th 2020 your commitment rolls over to a monthly commitment, you begin to be charged at the monthly commitment rate, and you cannot delete the commitment for 30 days.
- If prior to 6:00:00 October 4th 2020, you choose to renew to a flex slots commitment, then at 6:00:00:00 October 4th 2020 your commitment rolls over to a flex slots commitment, you begin to be charged at the flex slots rate, and you can delete the commitment at any time.

Deleting commitments

After you create a commitment, it is not possible to delete it until after the commitment expires.

To delete an annual commitment, set its renewal plan to flex slots. After the annual commitment expires, and is renewed as a flex slots commitment, you can delete the commitment.

For more information, see Delete a commitment.

If you accidentally purchased a commitment or made a mistake when you configured your commitment, contact Cloud Billing Support for help.

Limitations

Reservations that you buy cannot be shared with other organizations.
You must create a separate reservation and a separate administration project for each organization.
There is a limit of 5 administration projects for each organization that can have an active commitment in a given location.
Idle capacity cannot be shared between organizations or between different administration projects within a single organization.
Commitments are a regional resource. Commitments purchased in one region or multi-region cannot be used in any other regions or multi-regions. Commitments cannot be moved between regions or between regions and multi-regions.
Commitments purchased in one project cannot be moved to a different project.

Quotas

Quota is the maximum allowable number of BigQuery slots you can purchase in the Google Cloud console. You are not billed for quotas; you are only billed for purchased commitments. Quotas are defined per region. For information about increasing your slot quota, see Requesting a quota increase.