Google Cloud Pub/Sub pricing and limits

cloud.google.com/pubsub · Queues and background jobs

SEPT 2026 audit

Google Cloud's messaging service, billed per TiB of throughput with message storage charged separately by the GiB-month.

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Free tierYes

CategoryQueues and background jobs

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated September 202613 criteria comparedSources last checked 3 October 2026

Google Cloud Pub/Sub pricing at a glance

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… source ↗
What the free plan includes: The first 10 GiB of Message Delivery Basic throughput per billing account each calendar month source ↗

First line of each sourced value. The full text is in Google Cloud Pub/Sub pricing below. How this free offer stacks up: cloud free tiers compared.

01.Evaluation guide

Who it suits

Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.

Consider something else if…

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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Each value below links to the page it was read from, with the sentence it came from. Criteria Google Cloud Pub/Sub does not publish are not listed.

Google Cloud Pub/Sub pricing

4 criteria

Free tierYes

Sources (1) →

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 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Kind of free offerFree tier

Sources (1) →

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 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

What the free plan includesThe first 10 GiB of Message Delivery Basic throughput per billing account each calendar month.

Sources (1) →

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

Pricing modelThree 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.

Sources (1) →

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

Infrastructure

1 criteria

Uptime SLA99.95% or better for Pub/Sub. Pub/Sub Lite is 99.95% for regional topics and 99.5% for zonal topics. Published as an SLO.

Sources (1) →

Pub/Sub Service Level Agreement ↗
“Covered Service Monthly Uptime Percentage Pub/Sub >=99.95% Pub/Sub Lite >=99.95% for Regional topics >=99.5% for Zonal topics”
Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

Observability

1 criteria

Ingest price per GB$40 per TiB, which is $0.039 per GiB, for standard publish and subscribe throughput in every Google Cloud region.

Sources (1) →

Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“After that, the price is $40 per TiB in all Google Cloud regions.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Queues

3 criteria

Included per month10 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.

Sources (1) →

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

Maximum message sizePub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead.

Sources (1) →

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

Message retentionRetention 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.

Sources (1) →

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

Compliance

4 criteria

SOC 2Covered under Google Cloud's core SOC 2 Type II reports, issued quarterly for Google Cloud and Google Workspace products generally.

Sources (1) →

SOC 2: compliance — Google Cloud ↗
“Google Cloud regularly undergoes third-party audits for our products, systems, and infrastructure related to this standard. [...] The core Google Cloud and Google Workspace SOC 2 Type II reports are issued quarterly.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

ISO 27001The Google Cloud Services ISMS holds an accredited ISO/IEC 27001 certification, audited by an independent third party.

Sources (1) →

ISO/IEC 27001 - Compliance — Google Cloud ↗
“The Google Cloud Services ISMS has received an accredited ISO/IEC 27001 certification after undergoing an audit by an independent third party.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

HIPAAPub/Sub is listed as a Covered Product under Google Cloud's HIPAA Business Associate Agreement.

Sources (1) →

HIPAA Compliance on Google Cloud ↗
“Covered Products [...] The Google Cloud BAA covers Google Cloud's entire infrastructure [...] and the following products: [...] Pub/Sub [...]”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSSPub/Sub is listed among the individual Google Cloud products certified against PCI DSS via annual third-party audit.

Sources (1) →

PCI DSS - Compliance — Google Cloud ↗
“Google Cloud undergoes at least an annual third-party audit to certify individual products against the PCI DSS.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

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Google Cloud Pub/Sub pricing questions

How does Google Cloud Pub/Sub charge?

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.

Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub · read 6 Sept 2026