Spanner

Spanner

Always on database with virtually unlimited scale

Build intelligent apps with a single database that brings together relational, graph, key value, and search. No maintenance windows mean uninterrupted mission-critical apps.

In addition, new Google Cloud customers get $300 in free credits.


Features

Write and read scalability with no limits

Spanner decouples compute resources from data storage, which makes it possible to transparently scale in and out processing resources. Each additional compute capacity can process both reads and writes, providing effortless horizontal scalability. Spanner optimizes performance by automatically handling the sharding, replication, and transaction processing.


Automated maintenance

Reduce operational costs and improve reliability for any size database. Synchronous replication and maintenance are automatic and built in. 100% online schema changes and maintenance while serving traffic with zero downtime.

Spanner Graph

Reveal hidden relationships and connections. Spanner Graph supports ISO Graph Query Language (GQL), the new international standards for graph databases, offering an intuitive and concise way to match patterns and traverse relationships in your data. It combines the strengths of SQL and GQL, enabling you to query structured and connected data in a single operation. Spanner Graph, in Preview, interoperates with full-text and vector search capabilities, enabling you to deliver a new class of AI-enabled applications.

Vector search

Search vector embeddings at virtually unlimited scale in Spanner with exact nearest neighbor (KNN) and approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) vector search (both in Preview) for highly partitionable workloads. The built-in vector search support in Spanner eliminates the need for separate, specialized vector database solutions, providing transactional guarantees of operational data, fresh and consistent vector search results on a scale-out serverless architecture with zero manageability. 

PostgreSQL interface

Combine the scalability and reliability of Spanner with the familiarity and portability of a PostgreSQL interface. Use the skills and tools that your teams already know, future-proofing your investment for peace of mind. 


Automatic database sharding

Never worry about manually resharding your database again. Built-in sharding automatically distributes data to optimize for performance and availability. Scale up and scale down without interruption.

Geo-partitioning

Retain the manageability of your single, global database while improving latency for users who are distributed around the globe. Geo-partitioning in Spanner allows you to partition your table data at the row level, across the globe, to serve data closer to your users. Even though the data is split into different data partitions, Spanner still maintains all your distributed data as a single cohesive table for queries and mutations.

Single-region, dual-region, and multi-region configurations

No matter where your users may be, apps backed by Spanner can read and write up-to-date strongly consistent data globally. Additionally, when running a dual-region or multi-region instance, your database is protected against a regional failure and offers industry-leading 99.999% availability.

Strong transactional consistency

Rely on industry-leading external consistency without compromising on scalability or availability.

High-performance, workload-isolated query processing

Spanner Data Boost enables users to run analytical queries, batch processing jobs, or data export operations faster without affecting the existing transactional workload. Fully managed by Google Cloud, Data Boost does not require capacity planning or management. It is always hot, ready to process user queries directly on data stored in Spanner's distributed storage system, Colossus. This on-demand, independent compute resource lets users easily handle mixed workloads and worry-free data sharing. 

Full-text search

Eliminate separate search tools and associated extract, transform, and load (ETL) pipelines by utilizing high-performance text search powered by learnings from Google Search. Full-text search provides transactionally consistent search results, along with powerful capabilities such as phonetic search, and NGRAMs-based matching for spelling variations. To learn more, read this whitepaper.

LangChain integration

Easily build gen AI applications that are more accurate, transparent, and reliable with LangChain integration. Spanner has three LangChain integrations—Document loader for loading and storing information from documents, Vector stores for enabling semantic search, and Chat Messages Memory for enabling chains to recall previous conversations. Visit the GitHub repository to learn more.

Vertex AI integrations

Perform online inference on embedding, generative AI, or custom models served in Vertex AI using Spanner’s ML.PREDICT SQL function. Use the Spanner to Vertex AI Vector Search Workflow to perform similarity search on your Spanner data with Vertex AI Vector Search.

Database Center

Gain a comprehensive view of your entire database fleet, spanning multiple engines, versions, regions, projects and environments. Database Center, in Preview, helps proactively de-risk your fleet with intelligent performance and security recommendations. With Gemini enabled, Database Center makes optimizing your database fleet incredibly intuitive. Use a natural-language chat interface to ask questions, quickly resolve fleet issues, and get optimization recommendations.

Backup and restore, point-in-time recovery (PITR)

Backup your database to store a consistent copy of data and restore on demand. PITR provides continuous data protection with the ability to recover your past data to a microsecond granularity.

Enterprise-grade security and controls

Customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK), data-layer encryption, IAM integration for access and controls, and comprehensive audit logging. Support for VPC-SC, Access Transparency, and Access Approval. Fine-grained access control lets you authorize access to Spanner data at the table and column level. 

Database comparison

Database attributeOther Relational DBOther Non-relational DBSpanner

Schema

Static

Dynamic

Dynamic


SQL

Yes

No

Yes

Transactions

ACID

(atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability)

Eventual

Strong-ACID

with TrueTime ordering

Scalability

Vertical 

(use a bigger machine)

Horizontal

(add more machines)

Horizontal

Availability

Failover (downtime)

High

High 99.999% SLA

Replication

Configurable

Configurable

Automatic

Schema

Other Relational DB

Static

Other Non-relational DB

Dynamic

Spanner

Dynamic


SQL

Other Relational DB

Yes

Other Non-relational DB

No

Spanner

Yes

Transactions

Other Relational DB

ACID

(atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability)

Other Non-relational DB

Eventual

Spanner

Strong-ACID

with TrueTime ordering

Scalability

Other Relational DB

Vertical 

(use a bigger machine)

Other Non-relational DB

Horizontal

(add more machines)

Spanner

Horizontal

Availability

Other Relational DB

Failover (downtime)

Other Non-relational DB

High

Spanner

High 99.999% SLA

Replication

Other Relational DB

Configurable

Other Non-relational DB

Configurable

Spanner

Automatic

How It Works

Spanner instances provide compute and storage in one or more regions. A distributed clock called TrueTime guarantees transactions are strongly consistent even across regions. Data is automatically "split" for scalability and replicated using a synchronous, Paxos-based scheme for availability.

Spanner diagram

Common Uses

User profile and entitlements

Manage critical user data securely at any scale

User profile management is a critical function that requires Spanner's scalability, availability, and global consistency. It is the entry point for players across games, platforms, and regions. Similarly financial services companies manage customer information and product offerings using Spanner.

User Profile and Entitlements architecture diagram

Manage critical user data securely at any scale

User profile management is a critical function that requires Spanner's scalability, availability, and global consistency. It is the entry point for players across games, platforms, and regions. Similarly financial services companies manage customer information and product offerings using Spanner.

User Profile and Entitlements architecture diagram

Financial ledger

Gain up-to-date, consistent view of global transactions

Unify financial transactions, trades, settlements, and positions across the globe into a consolidated trade ledger built on Spanner that guarantees external consistency and scalability. Consolidation of data helps in quickly adapting to changing market conditions and regulatory requirements. Similarly retail/ecommerce businesses use Spanner for inventory ledger.

Financial Ledger architecture diagram

Gain up-to-date, consistent view of global transactions

Unify financial transactions, trades, settlements, and positions across the globe into a consolidated trade ledger built on Spanner that guarantees external consistency and scalability. Consolidation of data helps in quickly adapting to changing market conditions and regulatory requirements. Similarly retail/ecommerce businesses use Spanner for inventory ledger.

Financial Ledger architecture diagram

Online banking

Deliver always-on interactivity for digital experiences

Consumers expect access to their critical financial data on their devices outside of regular banking hours. Allow your developers to focus on new experiences rather than operational overhead, such as manual sharding or eventual consistency. Reduce risk and downtime with 99.999% availability and zero maintenance.

Online Banking architecture diagram

Deliver always-on interactivity for digital experiences

Consumers expect access to their critical financial data on their devices outside of regular banking hours. Allow your developers to focus on new experiences rather than operational overhead, such as manual sharding or eventual consistency. Reduce risk and downtime with 99.999% availability and zero maintenance.

Online Banking architecture diagram

Loyalty programs and promotions

Personalize experiences with real-time updates

Track customer participation and preferences in a loyalty program to analyze trends and improve customer satisfaction. Similarly, game companies use Spanner for building personalized leaderboards in games.

Loyalty programs and promotions architecture diagram

Personalize experiences with real-time updates

Track customer participation and preferences in a loyalty program to analyze trends and improve customer satisfaction. Similarly, game companies use Spanner for building personalized leaderboards in games.

Loyalty programs and promotions architecture diagram

Omni-channel inventory management

Provide a consistent view across multiple channels and apps

Spanner provides a high-performance, single source of truth for retail inventory and orders across online, in-store, distribution centers, and shipping to match inventory with demand, improving customer experience and profitability. Game companies similarly use Spanner to store in-game inventory data.

Omni-channel inventory management architecture diagram

Provide a consistent view across multiple channels and apps

Spanner provides a high-performance, single source of truth for retail inventory and orders across online, in-store, distribution centers, and shipping to match inventory with demand, improving customer experience and profitability. Game companies similarly use Spanner to store in-game inventory data.

Omni-channel inventory management architecture diagram

Knowledge graph

Reveal hidden relationships and connections in your data

With Spanner Graph, you can develop knowledge graphs that capture the complex connections between entities, represented as nodes, and their relationships, represented as edges. These connections provide rich context, making knowledge graphs invaluable for developing knowledge base systems and recommendation engines. With integrated search capabilities, you can seamlessly blend semantic understanding, keyword-based retrieval, and graph for comprehensive results.

    Reveal hidden relationships and connections in your data

    With Spanner Graph, you can develop knowledge graphs that capture the complex connections between entities, represented as nodes, and their relationships, represented as edges. These connections provide rich context, making knowledge graphs invaluable for developing knowledge base systems and recommendation engines. With integrated search capabilities, you can seamlessly blend semantic understanding, keyword-based retrieval, and graph for comprehensive results.

      Pricing

      How Spanner pricing worksSpanner pricing is based on compute capacity, Spanner Data Boost, database storage, backup storage, replication, and network usage. Compute pricing varies depending on the edition and configuration selected. Committed use discounts can further reduce the compute price.
      ServiceDescriptionPrice (USD)

      Compute

      Standard edition

      Packed with a comprehensive suite of established capabilities for regional (single-region) configurations

      Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units). 

      Starting at

      $0.030

      per 100 processing units per hour per replica

      Enterprise edition

      Provide additional multi-model and advanced search capabilities with enhanced operational simplicity and efficiency

      Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units).

      Starting at

      $0.041

      per 100 processing units per hour per replica

      Enterprise Plus edition

      Support the most demanding workloads with the highest levels of availability, performance, compliance, and governance

      Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units).

      Starting at

      $0.057

      per 100 processing units per hour per replica

      Data Boost

      On-demand, isolated compute resources, including CPU, memory, and local data transfer

      Starting at

      $0.00117

      per serverless processing unit per hour

      Database storage

      Price is based on the amount of data stored in the database and includes the cost of storage in read-write replicas and read-only replicas; witness replica is free of charge.

      Starting at

      $0.10

      per GB per month per replica

      Backup storage

      Regional configuration

      Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in all replicas.

      Starting at

      $0.10

      per GB per month (incl. all replicas)

      Dual-region and multi-regional configuration

      Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in all replicas.

      Starting at

      $0.30

      per GB per month (incl. all replicas)

      Replication

      Intra-region replication

      Free

      Inter-region replication

      Starting at

      $0.04

      per GB

      Network

      Ingress

      Free

      Intra-region egress

      Free

      Inter-region egress

      Starting at

      $0.01

      per GB

      Learn more about Spanner pricing and committed use discounts.

      How Spanner pricing works

      Spanner pricing is based on compute capacity, Spanner Data Boost, database storage, backup storage, replication, and network usage. Compute pricing varies depending on the edition and configuration selected. Committed use discounts can further reduce the compute price.

      Compute

      Description

      Standard edition

      Packed with a comprehensive suite of established capabilities for regional (single-region) configurations

      Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units). 

      Price (USD)

      Starting at

      $0.030

      per 100 processing units per hour per replica

      Enterprise edition

      Provide additional multi-model and advanced search capabilities with enhanced operational simplicity and efficiency

      Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units).

      Description

      Starting at

      $0.041

      per 100 processing units per hour per replica

      Enterprise Plus edition

      Support the most demanding workloads with the highest levels of availability, performance, compliance, and governance

      Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units).

      Description

      Starting at

      $0.057

      per 100 processing units per hour per replica

      Data Boost

      Description

      On-demand, isolated compute resources, including CPU, memory, and local data transfer

      Price (USD)

      Starting at

      $0.00117

      per serverless processing unit per hour

      Database storage

      Description

      Price is based on the amount of data stored in the database and includes the cost of storage in read-write replicas and read-only replicas; witness replica is free of charge.

      Price (USD)

      Starting at

      $0.10

      per GB per month per replica

      Backup storage

      Description

      Regional configuration

      Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in all replicas.

      Price (USD)

      Starting at

      $0.10

      per GB per month (incl. all replicas)

      Dual-region and multi-regional configuration

      Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in all replicas.

      Description

      Starting at

      $0.30

      per GB per month (incl. all replicas)

      Replication

      Description

      Intra-region replication

      Price (USD)

      Free

      Inter-region replication

      Description

      Starting at

      $0.04

      per GB

      Network

      Description

      Ingress

      Price (USD)

      Free

      Intra-region egress

      Description

      Free

      Inter-region egress

      Description

      Starting at

      $0.01

      per GB

      Learn more about Spanner pricing and committed use discounts.

      PRICING CALCULATOR

      Estimate your monthly Spanner costs, tailored to your workload.

      CUSTOM QUOTE

      Connect with our sales team to get a custom quote for your organization.

      Start your proof of concept

      Create a 90-day Spanner instance for free

      Learn how to use Spanner

      Create and query a database in console

      Get best practices for constructing SQL statements

      Dive into coding with examples

      Business Case

      Explore how other businesses built innovative apps to deliver great customer experiences, cut costs, and increase ROI with Spanner


      How does Uber scale to millions of concurrent requests?

      How does Uber scale to millions of concurrent requests?

      Explore how Uber redesigned its fulfillment platform leveraging Spanner.

      Watch the video

      Featured benefits and customers

      Grow your business with innovative applications that scale limitlessly to meet any demand.

      Lower TCO and free your developers from cumbersome operations to dream big and build faster.

      Get superior price-performance and pay for what you use, starting at as low as $40 per month.

      • The Home Depot logo
      • Equifax logo
      • Logo for CERC
      • Vimeo logo
      • Niantic logo
      • Colopl logo
      • ShareChat logo

      Partners & Integration

      Take advantage of partners with Spanner expertise to help you at every step of the journey, from assessments and business case to migrations and building new apps on Spanner.
      • Searce logo
      • Softserve
      • Sada
      • Pythian
      • Cloud Cover
      • Zencore
      • 66 degrees logo
      • Wipro
      • Accenture
      • Tensure
      • Amarello
      • Ollion
      • Searce logo
      • Softserve
      • Sada
      • Pythian
      • Cloud Cover
      • Zencore
      • 66 degrees logo
      • Wipro
      • Accenture
      • Tensure
      • Amarello
      • Ollion

      Want to get more details about which partner or third-party integration is best for your business? Go to the partner directory.

      FAQ

      Is Spanner a relational or non-relational database?

      Spanner simplifies your data architecture by bringing together relational, key-value, graph, and vector search workloads—all on the same database. It is a highly scalable database that combines unlimited scalability with relational semantics, such as secondary indexes, strong consistency, schemas, and SQL providing 99.999% availability in one easy solution. Hence, it’s suitable for both relational and non-relational workloads.

      Spanner provides two ANSI-based SQL dialects over the same rich set of capabilities: GoogleSQL and PostgreSQL. GoogleSQL shares syntax with BigQuery for teams standardizing their data management workflows. The PostgreSQL interface provides familiarity for teams who already know PostgreSQL and portability of schemas and queries to other PostgreSQL environments. For more information about the Spanner PostgreSQL interface, see our documentation.

      Migration to Spanner can vary widely depending on a number of factors like source database, data size, downtime requirements, application code complexity, sharding schema, custom functions or transformations, failover and replication strategy. The recommended tooling comprises open source tools like Spanner migration tool for schema and data migration, and third party tools for assessments like migVisor. Learn more about the migration process in our documentation.

      Spanner is a fully managed database so it automatically provides comprehensive infrastructure management features, but there are some application-specific management actions that may be required depending on your workload. You will need to make sure that you have set up proper alerting and monitoring and that you are watching those closely to ensure production is always running smoothly. You need to understand what actions to take when traffic grows organically over time, or if there is peak traffic expected, or how to handle data corruption due to application bugs, and last but not least, how to troubleshoot performance issues and understand what components are responsible for increased latencies.


      Other resources and support
      Google Cloud
      • ‪English‬
      • ‪Deutsch‬
      • ‪Español‬
      • ‪Español (Latinoamérica)‬
      • ‪Français‬
      • ‪Indonesia‬
      • ‪Italiano‬
      • ‪Português (Brasil)‬
      • ‪简体中文‬
      • ‪繁體中文‬
      • ‪日本語‬
      • ‪한국어‬
      Console
      Google Cloud