Starting September 1, 2025, BigQuery will implement a default on-demand usage limit of 200TB per day for all projects. Existing projects currently set to "unlimited" will be adjusted to a custom limit based on their peak usage over the past 30 days, with added headroom for growth. Projects that already have a limit in place will remain unchanged.
Purpose of the Change
This update aims to prevent accidental runaway queries and reduce the risk of access exploitation, helping users manage costs and avoid unexpected overruns under the on-demand compute pricing model.
Key Details
- Quota changes: The quotas for
QueryUsagePerDayandQueryUsagePerUserPerDaywill now apply only to on-demand usage. - New projects: All projects created after the effective date will have a default daily query usage limit of 200 TiB.
- Existing projects: Those with unlimited quotas will be assigned custom limits based on recent peak usage.
- Monitoring: Customers can track these changes via Logs Explorer, requiring the
roles/logging.viewerIAM role.
Recommendations
Large users who expect to run queries exceeding 200TB per day (costing approximately $1,250) should proactively update their limits and consider appropriate BigQuery editions to fit their workload needs.
