{ "id": "google-bigquery-vs-amazon-redshift", "ids": [ "google-bigquery", "amazon-redshift" ], "title": "BigQuery vs Redshift: query billing and warehouse scope", "heading": "Google BigQuery vs Amazon Redshift", "kicker": "Data platform comparison", "deck": "Compare BigQuery and Redshift by query or capacity billing, serverless and provisioned scope, data location and recurring free access versus trial credit.", "description": "Compare BigQuery and Redshift by query or capacity billing, serverless and provisioned scope, data location and recurring free access versus trial credit.", "answerHeading": "Which buying model fits the workload?", "answer": "Compare BigQuery and Redshift using the same datasets, query mix, freshness and concurrency requirement. BigQuery offers on-demand query processing and capacity-based editions. Redshift offers serverless and provisioned warehouse models. Existing cloud data location can change the integration work, but it does not establish a measured cost or speed winner. Include ingestion, storage, transfer and operational controls in the evaluation.", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15", "researchTag": "Platform buying comparison", "researchLimit": "Published capabilities and commercial access are compared. Evaluation briefs are hypothetical; no hands-on benchmark, vendor rating or measured performance result is implied.", "datasetDescription": "Seven platform differences, four hypothetical buying briefs and a four-row evaluation checklist.", "type": "workflow-buying", "rows": [ [ "Deployment scope", "Managed analytical platform", "Serverless or provisioned analytical warehouse" ], [ "Primary compute choices", "On-demand bytes processed or capacity-based editions", "Serverless RPU usage or provisioned capacity" ], [ "Storage budget", "Stored data with applicable storage model", "Warehouse storage and applicable supporting services" ], [ "Free access", "Recurring usage limits and a restricted no-card sandbox", "Eligible first-time Serverless credit trial" ], [ "Sandbox distinction", "Lifetime sandbox storage limit and automatic object expiration", "Trial credit is independent of general AWS Free Tier" ], [ "Data dependencies", "Assess Google Cloud and external source paths", "Assess AWS and external source paths" ], [ "Acceptance unit", "Same query mix, freshness and concurrency target", "Same query mix, freshness and concurrency target" ] ], "scenarios": [ { "name": "Intermittent analyst queries", "question": "What does a quiet month and a burst month cost?", "left": "Estimate bytes processed under on-demand billing and compare capacity if relevant.", "right": "Estimate the selected serverless or provisioned workload configuration.", "note": "Include repeated scans, loading and retained storage rather than comparing one successful query." }, { "name": "Daily executive reports", "question": "Can ingestion finish and reports refresh within the required window?", "left": "Map load jobs, transformations and analytical consumption.", "right": "Map the corresponding warehouse load and query workflow.", "note": "Use reconciled business totals and an explicit freshness deadline." }, { "name": "Data already in one cloud", "question": "Does moving data change the economics or permissions?", "left": "Trace source access, transfer and BigQuery dataset location.", "right": "Trace source access, transfer and Redshift deployment location.", "note": "Estimate initial migration, daily change volume and recovery reload separately." }, { "name": "No-card learning project", "question": "Will a free environment keep the data needed for the exercise?", "left": "Account for sandbox lifetime storage and 60-day object expiration.", "right": "Check eligibility and the finite Serverless trial credit.", "note": "A learning route should not become an undocumented production retention policy." } ], "exampleTable": { "caption": "Hypothetical evaluation checklist; acceptance criteria are proposed, not measured vendor results.", "headers": [ "Requirement", "Proof to collect", "Acceptance condition" ], "rows": [ [ "Query workload", "Versioned query set and dataset shape", "Both evaluations answer the same business questions" ], [ "Freshness", "A load schedule and completion evidence to collect", "Required data is available before the reporting deadline" ], [ "Cost controls", "A plan for query limits, capacity and usage ownership", "Unexpected consumption has an investigation path" ], [ "Retention", "Documented data expiration and recovery requirements", "Evaluation data is not mistaken for protected production storage" ] ] }, "sections": [ { "id": "same-questions", "title": "Compare the same business questions and data shape", "navLabel": "Workload brief", "paragraphs": [ "Row count alone is an inadequate warehouse brief. Record column widths, partitions, update patterns, query frequency and simultaneous users. Include a representative refresh and an unexpected backfill so the team can see which assumptions affect capacity or query consumption.", "Keep any proposed performance exercise reproducible: version inputs and queries, state whether caches are involved, and retain the configuration. This page provides buying criteria rather than claiming that a hypothetical workload has already been measured." ] }, { "id": "free-access-boundary", "title": "Read sandbox limits separately from recurring allowances", "navLabel": "Free access", "paragraphs": [ "BigQuery’s billed-account free usage and its no-card sandbox are different boundaries. The current sandbox documentation specifies a lifetime storage quota and expiring objects, alongside a monthly query allowance. It is useful for exploration, but the owner must explicitly plan retention and any move to a billed project.", "Redshift’s eligible Serverless trial uses a finite credit balance and is independent of the AWS-wide Free Tier. Prepare the post-trial estimate before adoption. On either platform, a free initial run says little about monthly ingestion, repeated query use or retained data." ] } ], "faqs": [ { "question": "Is BigQuery always billed per query scan?", "answer": "No. On-demand processing is one model; capacity-based editions are also available. Compare the model chosen for the actual workload." }, { "question": "Does Redshift Serverless mean no capacity cost?", "answer": "No. Redshift Serverless uses billable compute resources measured through RPUs, with other applicable costs such as storage." }, { "question": "Is BigQuery sandbox storage a fresh 10 GiB every month?", "answer": "No. The current sandbox documentation states a lifetime 10 GiB storage limit that is not refunded on deletion. The billed-account free tier has separate recurring storage terms." }, { "question": "Is Redshift trial credit the same as the AWS Free Tier?", "answer": "No. AWS states that Redshift Serverless trial eligibility is assessed independently of the general AWS Free Tier programme." } ], "sources": [ { "url": "https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/pricing", "facts": "On-demand versus capacity editions, recurring billed-account free usage and separate storage costs." }, { "url": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/sandbox", "facts": "2026-10-13 sandbox lifetime storage limit, monthly query allowance, automatic expiration and feature restrictions." }, { "url": "https://cloud.google.com/bigquery", "facts": "Managed analytical product scope and data workflow capabilities." }, { "url": "https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/", "facts": "Managed analytical warehouse product and AWS data integrations." }, { "url": "https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/pricing/", "facts": "Serverless RPU and provisioned model distinction; warehouse compute and storage cost boundaries." }, { "url": "https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/free-trial/", "facts": "First-time Serverless $300/90-day trial; eligibility independent of general AWS Free Tier." } ], "relatedLinks": [ { "path": "/guides/cloud-cost-checklist/", "title": "Build a cloud workload cost checklist" }, { "path": "/guides/software-total-cost/", "title": "Include migration and operating costs" }, { "path": "/categories/data-platforms/", "title": "Browse data platforms" } ] }