Cloud Storage retrieval and data transfer fees will apply to BigQuery requests

Beginning February 01, 2025, BigQuery users will start seeing charges for Cloud Storage usage, as per pricing documentation, which was not metered before due to a billing bug: 

• Retrieval fees for Nearline, Coldline, and Archive storage classes will be charged per existing pricing documentation and retrieval SKUs
• Inter region network data transfer fees will be charged when a BigQuery job in one location reads data stored in a Cloud Storage bucket from in a different location. These charges are covered by following SKUs:
• GCP Storage Data Transfer between continent 1 and continent 2 (for example, GCP Storage Data Transfer between Northern America and Europe for data transfer from us-central 1 to europe-west1 BigQuery dataset)
• Network Data Transfer GCP Inter Region within a continent (for example, Network Data Transfer GCP Inter Region within Northern America for data transfer from us-east4 to US BigQuery dataset)

Who will be affected?

This change will be particularly impactful for users who: 

• Query data from Cloud Storage associated with Coldline, Nearline, and Archive classes
• Import data into the BigQuery from remote Cloud Storage regions

Will this change impact your previous bills?

No, this change won't affect any of your previous bills.

What can I do to minimize these charges?

To mitigate potential cost increases, the following actions may be taken:

• To minimize retrieval fees, consider:
• Enabling Autoclass on the bucket
• Migrating your data from Nearline, Coldline, or Archive to Standard storage class
• To minimize inter-region data transfer charges, store your data in a Cloud Storage bucket local to the destination BigQuery dataset if you import data from remote Cloud Storage locations. For example:
• If you are reading data into BigQuery US multi-region, consider placing your Cloud Storage bucket in us-central1
• If you are reading data into BigQuery us-west1, consider placing your Cloud Storage bucket in us-west1
• Additionally, if you want to co-locate an existing Cloud Storage bucket to your BigQuery dataset, you can use Storage Transfer Service to move your Cloud Storage bucket