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Google BigQuery vs ClickHouse Cloud

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Google BigQuery and ClickHouse Cloud built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 8 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Google BigQuery if…

Queries that are occasional or selective. Nothing is provisioned, the first tebibyte scanned each month is free, and a workload that runs twice a week costs nothing between runs — the only member here where a small warehouse genuinely bills zero.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose ClickHouse Cloud if…

Knowing what a part-time warehouse costs. The published example is explicit — $66.52 a month for a Basic service awake six hours a day against $186.27 awake around the clock — with compute, storage and egress itemised separately.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Google BigQuery: Your queries scan more than they return. Billing is on bytes READ, not rows produced, so $6.25 per tebibyte is a tax on unselective SQL and a dashboard refreshing every minute against a wide table is the expensive shape.
  • ClickHouse Cloud: Data transfer matters. It is the only one here that puts public internet egress and cross-region transfer on the invoice as their own lines, so moving results out has a price the others absorb.

3 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Google BigQuery documentationVisit ClickHouse Cloud documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionGoogle BigQueryClickHouse Cloud
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
What the free plan includes1 tebibyte of query data processed a month and 10 gibibytes of storage, both renewing monthly rather than expiring. The only standing free allowance of the four — the others offer a trial or a credit.Trial credits over a 30-day window, drawn down until they are depleted or the window closes, whichever comes first. Adding a card during the trial does not end it — the credits keep being consumed first. A time-boxed credit rather than a standing allowance, which is the opposite of BigQuery's tebibyte renewing every month.
Entry paid planNothing until the second tebibyte. Queries are $6.25 per tebibyte scanned above the free tier, with no cluster, node or plan fee underneath — the only member here where a small workload genuinely costs zero.From $66.52 a month for a Basic service active 6 hours a day — one replica with 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 500 GB of compressed data and 500 GB of backup. The same service active 24 hours a day is $186.27, so the entry price is a statement about usage as much as about capacity.
Pricing modelTwo compute models. On-demand bills the bytes each query processes, at $6.25 per tebibyte. Capacity bills slot-hours — reserved virtual CPUs — regardless of what the queries read. The first model punishes unselective queries and the second punishes idle capacity, and the choice is made per account rather than per query.Compute, storage and data transfer itemised separately, with compute varying by how many hours a day the service is active — $39.91, $79.83 or $159.66 in the published example for 6, 12 or 24 hours, against a flat $25.30 of storage. Scale, the always-on auto-scaling tier, starts at $499.38 a month.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

Google BigQuery
1 tebibyte of query data processed a month and 10 gibibytes of storage, both renewing monthly rather than expiring. The only standing free allowance of the four — the others offer a trial or a credit.
ClickHouse Cloud
Trial credits over a 30-day window, drawn down until they are depleted or the window closes, whichever comes first. Adding a card during the trial does not end it — the credits keep being consumed first. A time-boxed credit rather than a standing allowance, which is the opposite of BigQuery's tebibyte renewing every month.
Sources (2) →
  • BigQuery pricing ↗

    “The first 1 TiB per month is free.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

  • ClickHouse Cloud billing ↗

    “we continue drawing down trial credits until they are depleted or expire, whichever comes first”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official docs

Entry paid plan

Google BigQuery
Nothing until the second tebibyte. Queries are $6.25 per tebibyte scanned above the free tier, with no cluster, node or plan fee underneath — the only member here where a small workload genuinely costs zero.
ClickHouse Cloud
From $66.52 a month for a Basic service active 6 hours a day — one replica with 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 500 GB of compressed data and 500 GB of backup. The same service active 24 hours a day is $186.27, so the entry price is a statement about usage as much as about capacity.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Google BigQuery
Two compute models. On-demand bills the bytes each query processes, at $6.25 per tebibyte. Capacity bills slot-hours — reserved virtual CPUs — regardless of what the queries read. The first model punishes unselective queries and the second punishes idle capacity, and the choice is made per account rather than per query.
ClickHouse Cloud
Compute, storage and data transfer itemised separately, with compute varying by how many hours a day the service is active — $39.91, $79.83 or $159.66 in the published example for 6, 12 or 24 hours, against a flat $25.30 of storage. Scale, the always-on auto-scaling tier, starts at $499.38 a month.
Sources (2) →
  • BigQuery pricing ↗

    “On-demand pricing (per TiB). With this pricing model, you are charged for the number of bytes processed by each query.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

  • ClickHouse Cloud billing ↗

    “Compute $39.91 $79.83 $159.66 Storage $25.30 $25.30 $25.30”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official docs

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

Kind of free offerClickHouse Cloud: Free trial
Egress over allowanceClickHouse Cloud: Itemised rather than absorbed: the published example carries $1.15 of public internet egress on 10 GB and $0.16 of cross-region transfer on 5 GB. The only member of this category that puts data transfer on the invoice as its own line.
Storage priceGoogle BigQuery: $0.000031507 per gibibyte-hour for active logical storage and $0.000021918 for long-term, with the first 10 GiB free each month. Quoted hourly to nine decimal places; the page does not convert it to a monthly figure and neither does this record.
Query priceGoogle BigQuery: $6.25 per tebibyte of data processed, after the first tebibyte each month. Charged on bytes READ, not rows returned, so the cost of a query is a property of the table scan rather than the result.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Google BigQuery or ClickHouse Cloud?

Google BigQuery: Nothing until the second tebibyte. Queries are $6.25 per tebibyte scanned above the free tier, with no cluster, node or plan fee underneath — the only member here where a small workload genuinely costs zero.

ClickHouse Cloud: From $66.52 a month for a Basic service active 6 hours a day — one replica with 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 500 GB of compressed data and 500 GB of backup. The same service active 24 hours a day is $186.27, so the entry price is a statement about usage as much as about capacity.

Should I choose Google BigQuery or ClickHouse Cloud?

Pick Google BigQuery if Queries that are occasional or selective. Nothing is provisioned, the first tebibyte scanned each month is free, and a workload that runs twice a week costs nothing between runs — the only member here where a small warehouse genuinely bills zero.

Pick ClickHouse Cloud if Knowing what a part-time warehouse costs. The published example is explicit — $66.52 a month for a Basic service awake six hours a day against $186.27 awake around the clock — with compute, storage and egress itemised separately.

Provider pages

Google BigQueryA serverless analytical warehouse billed on bytes scanned, with storage priced separately by the gibibyte-hour.ClickHouse CloudManaged ClickHouse billed on how many hours a service is active, with compute, storage and egress itemised separately.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.