Google Cloud Pub/Sub vs Upstash QStash
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Google Cloud Pub/Sub and Upstash QStash built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Google Cloud Pub/Sub if…
Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Upstash QStash if…
HTTP-first workloads that want scheduling and delay measured in months rather than a day, without running a consumer process.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Throughput counts bytes both in and out, so a message read once is billed twice, and retention is a storage charge rather than an included window — the headline $40 per TiB is not the whole bill.
- Upstash QStash: The free plan is capped per day rather than per month, so a single burst can exhaust it while a monthly allowance elsewhere would absorb the same volume.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Google Cloud Pub/Sub alternatives · Upstash QStash alternatives
5 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Google Cloud Pub/Sub 0
Upstash QStash 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Google Cloud Pub/Sub | Upstash QStash |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free tier |
| What the free plan includes | The first 10 GiB of Message Delivery Basic throughput per billing account each calendar month. | 1,000 messages a day. |
| Pricing model | Three meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage. | Per message rather than per operation, metered against a daily ceiling on the free plan and priced at $1 per 100,000 on Pay as You Go, with monthly bandwidth caps alongside — 50 GB on the smaller plans, 1 TB and 5 TB above. |
| Queues | ||
| Included per month | 10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source. | 1,000 messages a day on the free plan. Pay as You Go is $1 per 100,000 messages with no daily cap; fixed plans run $180 a month for 1M a day and $420 for 10M. |
| Maximum message size | Pub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead. | 1 MB on the free plan, 10 MB on Pay as You Go and 50 MB on the fixed plans. |
| Message retention | Retention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days. | Dead letter queue retention of 3 days on the free plan, 7 days on Pay as You Go, 30 days and 3 months on the fixed plans. |
Where they differ.
What the free plan includes
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- The first 10 GiB of Message Delivery Basic throughput per billing account each calendar month.
- Upstash QStash
- 1,000 messages a day.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Every calendar month, the first 10 GiB of throughput identified as the Message Delivery Basic SKU for a billing account is free.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗
“Free $0 [...] Messages per Day 1,000”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Pricing model
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- Three meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage.
- Upstash QStash
- Per message rather than per operation, metered against a daily ceiling on the free plan and priced at $1 per 100,000 on Pay as You Go, with monthly bandwidth caps alongside — 50 GB on the smaller plans, 1 TB and 5 TB above.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Throughput costs for message publishing and delivery [...] Data transfer costs associated with throughput that crosses a Google Cloud zone or region boundary [...] Storage costs associated with retaining messages [...] Pub/Sub Lite throughput and storage charges, by contrast, are based on reserved capacity.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗
“$1 per 100K messages [...] Max Messages per Day 1,000 Unlimited 1 M 10 M 100M+ [...] Max Monthly Bandwidth 50 GB 50 GB 1 TB 5 TB Unlimited”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Included per month
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- 10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source.
- Upstash QStash
- 1,000 messages a day on the free plan. Pay as You Go is $1 per 100,000 messages with no daily cap; fixed plans run $180 a month for 1M a day and $420 for 10M.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“the first 10 GiB of throughput [...] is free. After that, the price is $40 per TiB in all Google Cloud regions. [...] BigQuery subscriptions cost $50 per TiB [...] Import topics (for Cloud Storage, Azure Event Hubs, AWS MSK, or Confluent Cloud) cost $80 per TiB”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗
“Free $0 [...] Messages per Day 1,000 [...] Pay as You Go $1 per 100K messages [...] Messages per Day Unlimited [...] $180 / month [...] 1M [...] $420 [...] 10M”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Maximum message size
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- Pub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead.
- Upstash QStash
- 1 MB on the free plan, 10 MB on Pay as You Go and 50 MB on the fixed plans.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Throughput is the total number of bytes written (publish throughput) to a Pub/Sub topic or read (subscribe throughput) from a subscription to a topic over an interval of time.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs · Report a correction
- QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗
“Max Message Size 1 MB 10 MB 50 MB 50 MB Custom”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Message retention
Retention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days.
Dead letter queue retention of 3 days on the free plan, 7 days on Pay as You Go, 30 days and 3 months on the fixed plans.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Storage costs of $0.27 per GiB-month are charged for the following: A topic is configured to retain messages [...] an attached subscription with message retention duration set to the default of 7 days”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗
“Max DLQ Retention 3 days 7 days 30 days 3 months Custom”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
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 — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Should I choose Google Cloud Pub/Sub or Upstash QStash?
Pick Google Cloud Pub/Sub if Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.
Pick Upstash QStash if HTTP-first workloads that want scheduling and delay measured in months rather than a day, without running a consumer process.
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