Datastream pricing

This page describes pricing for Datastream. To see the pricing for other products, read the Pricing documentation.

Datastream introduces a perpetual Free Tier for specific first-party Google Cloud sources like AlloyDB and Spanner, providing up to 100 GiB of Change Data Capture (CDC) data free every month.

If you pay in a currency other than USD, then the prices listed in your currency on Google Cloud SKUs apply.

Pricing summary

Datastream's pricing model is based on the volume of gibibytes (GiBs) processed. It's important to note that the "processed byte" is an internal representation of the source data, and for most use cases, this can be 2-5 times larger than the actual data.

Usage is billed in per-byte increments. There are no additional costs for running streams other than data processed, and an idle stream does not incur any cost.

Free Tier highlights

Accelerate your insights with the Datastream Free Tier! We’re making it easier and more cost-effective than ever to build real-time data pipelines. Starting now, Datastream introduces a perpetual Free Tier for specific first-party Google Cloud sources. Whether you are synchronizing operational data from AlloyDB or Spanner, you can now take advantage of seamless change data capture (CDC) at no cost for your initial workloads.

Datastream offers a permanent free tier to help you start small and prototype your pipelines risk-free from the first party sources.

100 GiB free every month: process up to 100 GiB of CDC data from eligible first-party sources every month, per billing account, at zero Datastrem cost.
Eligible sources and destination: the free tier currently applies exclusively to streams originating from AlloyDB and Spanner to BigQuery.
Aggregate usage: The 100 GiB credit is aggregated across all your eligible AlloyDB and Spanner streams within a single billing account.

Change data capture (CDC) and backfill

Datastream streams data from a source to a destination by one of two methods:

Change data capture (CDC): Datastream captures ongoing changes from the source in real time.
Backfill: Datastream takes a historical snapshot of data that exists in a table.

Each streaming method is charged at a different rate, described in Pricing details.

Note: Events that are read by Datastream but not written to the destination aren't counted.

Pricing details

In this section, you'll see the charges that apply for each streaming method when using Datastream.

To see the costs that you'll incur for using Datastream for a region where Datastream is available, select a region from the drop-down menu below.

Datastream CDC costs are tiered, meaning that as your usage increases, the price per GB decreases. The reduced price applies only to usage within the tier (GBs processed in lower tiers will still be charged based on the cost for that tier). Backfill uses a flat rate, but the first 500 GB each month is free. See a detailed example below.

Streaming method	Price (USD)
CDC	0 gibibyte to 2,500 gibibyte $2.00 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 2,500 gibibyte to 5,000 gibibyte $1.50 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 5,000 gibibyte to 10,000 gibibyte $1.20 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 10,000 gibibyte and above $0.80 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account

If you pay in a currency other than USD, the prices listed in your currency on Cloud Platform SKUs apply.

Contact sales for pricing beyond 10 TB (CDC).

Item	Price (USD)
Backfill	0 gibibyte to 500 gibibyte $0.00 (Free) / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 500 gibibyte and above $0.40 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account

If you pay in a currency other than USD, the prices listed in your currency on Cloud Platform SKUs apply.

Contact sales for pricing beyond 10 TB (CDC).

Pricing details for Free Tier

In this section, you'll see the charges that apply for each streaming method for the applicable free tier sources and destination. To see the costs for a specific region, select it from the drop-down menu in the Google Cloud Console.

CDC (Change Data Capture)

Datastream CDC costs are tiered for non-free usage. Once you cross the 100 GiB threshold for eligible sources, standard tiered pricing applies automatically.

Streaming method	Price (USD)
CDC (AlloyDB & Spanner)	0 gibibyte to 100 gibibyte $0.00 (Free) / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 100 gibibyte to 2,500 gibibyte $2.00 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 2,500 gibibyte to 5,000 gibibyte $1.50 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 5,000 gibibyte to 10,000 gibibyte $1.20 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 10,000 gibibyte and above $0.80 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account
CDC (all other sources)	0 gibibyte to 2,500 gibibyte $2.00 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 2,500 gibibyte to 5,000 gibibyte $1.50 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 5,000 gibibyte to 10,000 gibibyte $1.20 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 10,000 gibibyte and above $0.80 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account

Backfill

Streaming method	Price (USD)
Backfill	0 gibibyte to 500 gibibyte $0.00 (Free) / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account 500 gibibyte and above $0.40 / 1 gibibyte, per 1 month / account

Usage of other Google Cloud resources

In addition to the cost of data processed by Datastream, you're billed for any resources that you use to transfer, store, or process your data, such as:

Pricing example

As an example, consider a stream that processes data from a source with the following characteristics:

Calculations
Backfill of data currently in the source	600 GiB
Volume of changes in a month (CDC)	3,000 GiB
Destination	BigQuery
Region	Iowa (us-central1)

This Datastream stream will perform a one-time backfill of existing data, as well as capture ongoing changes from the source. The data is written directly to BigQuery, so there are no additional charges for ingesting the data in BigQuery.

Datastream pricing would use the following formula:

Backfill charge = (backfill size - 500 GiB) * backfill price = (600 - 500) * $0.40 = $40.00

CDC charge = (2,500 GiB * $2.00/GiB) + (500 GB * $1.50/GiB) = $5,000.00 + $750.00 = $5,750.00

Total Datastream charge = Backfill charge + CDC charge = $40.00 + $5,750.00 = $5,790.00

Note: After Datastream writes the data to BigQuery, BigQuery change data capture (CDC) updates your BigQuery tables by processing and applying the changes to existing data. BigQuery processing costs are charged separately from Datastream. For more information about controlling your BigQuery costs, see BigQuery CDC pricing.

Pricing example for Free Tier

This Datastream stream performs a one-time backfill of existing data and captures ongoing changes.

TCO Calculation with Free Tier

Usage Component	Calculation	Price (USD)
Backfill Charge	(600 GiB - 500 GiB free*) × $0.40/GiB	$40.00
CDC Free Tier	First 100 GiB (Eligible Sources)	$0.00
CDC Tier 1	2,400 GiB (remaining of first 2,500) × $2.00/GiB	$4,800.00
CDC Tier 2	500 GiB × $1.50/GiB	$750.00
Total Monthly Cost	$40.00 + $0.00 + $4,800.00 + $750.00	$5,590.00

*Note: Datastream includes a 500 GiB one-time backfill credit per billing account.

The impact of the Free Tier:

By using the new Free Tier for applicable sources (AlloyDB and Spanner), the CDC charge for the first 100 GiB is waived.

Previous CDC Cost: $5,750.00
New CDC Cost: $5,550.00
Total Savings: $200.00 per month.

Note: After Datastream writes the data to BigQuery, BigQuery change data capture (CDC) updates your BigQuery tables by processing and applying the changes to existing data. BigQuery processing costs are charged separately from Datastream. For more information about controlling your BigQuery costs, see BigQuery CDC pricing.

What's next

Read the Datastream documentation.
Get started with Datastream.
Try the Pricing calculator.
Learn about Datastream solutions and use cases.

Request a custom quote

With Google Cloud's pay-as-you-go pricing, you only pay for the services you use. Connect with our sales team to get a custom quote for your organization.