This page describes Spanner editions and its key features.
Starting September 24, 2024, Spanner is introducing a new, tier-based pricing model that provides different capabilities at different price points:
Standard edition: provides a comprehensive suite of established capabilities that include all of the current features that are Generally Available (GA) in single-region (regional) configurations.
Enterprise edition: builds on the Standard edition and is a tier that offers multi-model capabilities including graph, full-text search, and vector search. It also offers enhanced operational simplicity and data protection using managed autoscaling and incremental backups.
Enterprise Plus edition: designed for the most demanding workloads that require 99.999% availability with multi-region configurations and geo-partitioning support. Includes all Standard edition and Enterprise edition features.
Editions features
The following table lists the features available for each edition.
| Standard | Enterprise | Enterprise Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Availability SLA | 99.99% availability SLA | 99.99% availability SLA | Up to 99.999% availability SLA |
| Configurations | Regional | Regional Optional custom read-only replicas |
Regional, dual-region, and multi-region Optional custom read-only replicas |
| Multi-model capabilities | Relational (GoogleSQL, PostgreSQL) Key-value |
Relational (GoogleSQL, PostgreSQL) Key-value Graph |
Relational (GoogleSQL, PostgreSQL) Key-value Graph |
| Search capabilities | Full-text search Vector search (KNN, ANN) |
Full-text search Vector search (KNN, ANN) |
|
| Resource management | Managed autoscaler Asymmetric read-only autoscaling (upcoming) |
Managed autoscaler Asymmetric read-only autoscaling (upcoming) Geo-partitioning |
|
| Analytics | BigQuery federation Spanner Data Boost Reverse ETL (BigQuery to Spanner) |
BigQuery federation Spanner Data Boost Reverse ETL (BigQuery to Spanner) |
BigQuery federation Spanner Data Boost Reverse ETL (BigQuery to Spanner) |
| Data protection | Standard backups 7-day PITR Scheduled backups (upcoming) |
Standard backups 7-day PITR Scheduled backups (upcoming) Incremental backups (upcoming) |
Standard backups 7-day PITR Scheduled backups (upcoming) Incremental backups (upcoming) |
| CUD | 20% for 1 year; 40% for 3 years | 20% for 1 year; 40% for 3 years | 20% for 1 year; 40% for 3 years |
What you need to do
If you aren't under a Google Cloud commitment, you need to do the following:
Review Spanner editions: Standard edition, Enterprise edition, and Enterprise Plus edition.
For more information, see the Spanner editions features table.
Select an edition: Starting on September 24, 2024, select an edition for your instances. If you're using higher-tier features, select the edition that supports those features. After you select your edition, you are billed with the new Spanner editions SKUs. For more information see, Pricing changes.
Starting November 1, 2024, Spanner no longer offers its current pricing model. The Spanner editions pricing model is applicable for all new instances. You can't create Spanner instances with the current Spanner pricing model after this date unless you are a Spanner customer under a Google Cloud commitment with discounts on existing SKUs.
After January 13, 2025, if you haven't self-updated to editions, your instance will automatically update to the lowest edition that matches your usage pattern to avoid workload disruption. In general:
- Regional instances will update to the Standard edition.
- Regional instances with additional configurable read-only replicas or those using Enterprise edition features will update to the Enterprise edition.
- Multi-region instances or those using Enterprise Plus edition features will update to the Enterprise Plus edition.
If you are a Spanner customer under Google Cloud commitments with discounts on existing SKUs, no action is required on your part. You can continue to use legacy SKUs until the expiration of your contract. You also have the option to upgrade to Spanner editions. We recommend contacting your sales team to understand the existing contractual obligation and renew your contracts to include the new editions SKUs, so you can optimize your total cost of ownership and get access to new capabilities that are only offered in editions.
Pricing changes
Spanner editions offers tier-based, pay-as-you-use pricing and optional one-year and three-year committed use discounts (CUDs), which remain the same. Key changes include:
- Per replica billing: compute and storage will be billed per replica, replacing the former per node pricing model.
- Pay-for-usage replication pricing: data replication costs will be unbundled from compute costs with new SKUs for additional transparency.
- Reduced read-only replica pricing: read-only replicas will be priced the same as read-write replicas based on the edition that is used instead of a flat rate.
- No storage costs for witness replicas: storage costs for witness replicas will be eliminated.
New compute capacity pricing
With the current pricing model, you are charged for the number of nodes multiplied by the hourly rate. With the new editions-based pricing model, you are charged for the number of servers, which is the physical representation of the node, multiplied by the hourly rate:
- Each node in a base regional instance configuration has three servers.
- Each node in a base dual-region instance configuration has six servers.
- Each node in a base multi-region instance configuration has at least five servers.
Example scenarios
If you create a base regional instance in us-central1 with one node,
then your total compute capacity cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $0.90 per hour | Standard edition: $0.30 per server hour * 3 servers = $0.90 per hour Enterprise edition: $0.41 / server hour * 3 servers = $1.23 per hour Enterprise Plus edition: $0.57 / server hour * 3 servers = $1.71 per hour |
If you create a base dual-region instance dual-region-australia1 with one
node, then your total compute capacity cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $4.59 per hour | Standard edition and Enterprise edition: Not available Enterprise Plus edition: $0.57 / server hour * 6 servers * 1.35 (regional multiplier) = $4.62 per hour |
If you create a base multi-region instance nam13 with one node, then your
total compute capacity cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $3.00 per hour | Standard edition and Enterprise edition: Not available Enterprise Plus edition: $0.57 / server hour * 5.2 servers (includes regional multiplier) = $2.96 per hour |
If you create a custom instance configuration and add one read-only replica
us-central1 to the base regional instance configuration us-west3 and
provision one node to this custom instance configuration, then your total
compute capacity cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
Base instance configuration us-central1: $0.90 per hour Additional read-only replica us-west3: $1.00 per hour Total: $1.90 per hour |
Standard edition: Not available Enterprise edition: Base instance configuration us-central1: $0.41 / server hour * 3 servers = $1.23 per hour Additional read-only replica us-west3: $0.41 * 1.2 (includes regional multiplier) = $0.49 per hour Total: $1.72 per hour Enterprise Plus edition: Base instance configuration us-central1: $0.57 / server hour * 3 servers = $1.71 per hour Additional read-only replica us-west3: $0.57 * 1.2 (includes regional multiplier) = $0.68 per hour Total: $2.39 per hour |
If you create a custom instance configuration and add one read-only replica
us-east1 to the base multi-region instance configuration nam7 and provision
one node to this custom instance configuration, then your total compute capacity
cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| Base instance configuration nam7: $3.00 per hour Additional read-only replica us-east1: $1.00 per hour Total: $4.00 per hour |
Standard edition and Enterprise edition: Not available Enterprise Plus edition: Base instance configuration nam7: $0.57 / server hour * 5.2 servers (includes regional multiplier) = $2.96 per hour Additional read-only replica us-east1: $0.57 per hour Total: $3.53 per hour |
New storage pricing
With the current pricing model, you are charged for the average amount of data in your Spanner databases multiplied by the monthly rate. With the new editions-based pricing model, you are charged for the amount of data in your read-write and read-only replicas multiplied by the monthly rate. The storage cost for each read-write and read-only replica is $0.10 per GB per month plus regional variation. There is no storage cost for witness replicas.
Example scenarios
If you create a base regional instance us-central1, which has
three read-write replicas, then your total storage cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $0.30 per GB-month | $0.30 per GB-month |
If you create a base dual-region instance dual-region-australia1, which has
four read-write replicas, then your total storage cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $0.54 per GB-month | $0.54 per GB-month (includes regional multiplier) |
If you create a base multi-region instance nam13, which has four read-write
replicas, then your total storage cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $0.50 per GB-month | $0.40 per GB-month |
If you create a custom instance configuration and add one read-only replica
us-central1 to the base regional instance configuration us-west3, then your
total storage cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $0.46 per GB-month | $0.46 per GB-month (includes regional multiplier) |
If you create a custom instance configuration and add one read-only replica
us-east1 to the base multi-region instance configuration nam7, which has
four read-write replicas, then your total storage cost is as follows:
| Current pricing | New editions-based pricing |
|---|---|
| $0.60 per GB-month | $0.52 per GB-month (includes regional multiplier) |
New replication pricing
With the current pricing model, replication is bundled with compute capacity costs. With the new editions-based pricing model, replication is charged separately:
- Intra-region replication remains free of charge.
In a dual-region or multi-region instance configuration, Spanner automatically replicates your data between regions. For example, when you select an instance configuration with replicas A, B, and C, Spanner writes to a server in replica A, and that data is automatically replicated to servers in replica B and C. With the new editions-based pricing, you are charged for the volume of data replicated between regions.
For more information, see the following Spanner editions inter-region data replication pricing table.
Inter-region data replication pricing
You are charged for data transfer for the volume of data replicated.
| Source location | Destination location | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern America | Europe | Asia | Indonesia | Oceania | Middle East | Latin America | Africa | |
| Northern America | $0.04/GiB | $0.07/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.14/GiB |
| Europe | $0.07/GiB | $0.04/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.14/GiB |
| Asia | $0.11/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.14/GiB |
| Indonesia | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB |
| Oceania | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.13/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB |
| Middle East | $0.14/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.11/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.14/GiB |
| Latin America | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB |
| Africa | $0.14/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.14/GiB | $0.17/GiB | $0.14/GiB |
Frequently asked questions
What are the changes if I'm previewing Enterprise edition or Enterprise Plus edition features?
If you're previewing Enterprise edition or Enterprise Plus edition features and would like to continue using these features, select the appropriate edition that offers the feature.
After January 13, 2025, if you haven't self-updated to editions, your instance automatically updates to the lowest edition that matches your usage pattern to avoid workload disruption.
What are the changes if I'm using a Spanner free trial instance?
If you're using a free trial instance, it will default to the Enterprise edition when you upgrade it to a paid instance. To convert to a paid Standard edition instance, you must delete your free trial instance and create a new, paid Standard edition instance.
Can I upgrade my instance?
Yes, you can upgrade your instance to the Enterprise edition or Enterprise Plus edition. There is no data migration involved when you change the edition of your instance.
Can I downgrade my instance?
Self-service downgrade is not currently available. To downgrade the edition of your instance, file a support ticket. This process might take some time (order of weeks) to complete, assuming that your application isn't using any higher-tier features. We are developing a self-service option.