Google launches an Update for BigQuery that can reduce Costs big Time

How you can now use cached Results from the same Query issued by other Users in the same Project

Using cached results for users in BigQuery has been available for ever now, Google has now updated this in a way so that you can save a lot of money.

You can now use cached results from the same query issued by other users in the same project[1].

So if you and your colleague query the exact same data within BigQuery, you would save one query. Of course, now many would argue that happens not often, but when working with BI tools like Google Looker Studio it will look different. Here, often users use the same report or dashboard and will generate the same queries in the background.

The cached result is copied into the personal anonymous dataset and is kept there for 24 hours from when the query has been run. The same limits and exceptions for single-user caching apply to cross-user caching[2].

So this could save you as a company a lot of money when having many users using the same dashboard, so that BigQuery only queries the data only once. You will save even more data if the query produces a big result. So not only good news for Data Engineers and Data Chiefs Officers but also for the CIO.

But now the Big BUT: Only when you use the Enterprise or Enterprise Plus edition, you are able to make use of this feature….. So you maybe need to calculate what would be cheaper for you — using this feature or buy the Enterprise edition.

Some other tips and tricks you can use to save money can be found in the article below:

Sources and Further Readings

[1] Google, BigQuery release notes (2023)

[2] Google, Using cached query results (2023)