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

Beginning February 21, 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