Cloud Spanner
Future-proof your applications with a no-compromise database
No more relational vs. non-relational. Get high performance and availability at virtually unlimited scale. Remove stress from managing databases with zero-touch maintenance.
Get started with a 90-day Spanner free trial instance.
In addition, new Google Cloud customers get $300 in free credits.
Features
Write and read scalability with no limits
Automated maintenance
PostgreSQL interface
Automatic database sharding
High-performance, workload-isolated query processing
Strong transactional consistency
Single-region and multi-region configurations
Real-time change data capture and replication
Granular instance sizing
Relational interface
AI-powered code assistance
Rich application and tool support
Observability
Enterprise-grade security and controls
Database comparison
| Database attribute | Other Relational DB | Other Non-relational DB | Cloud Spanner |
|---|---|---|---|
Schema | Static | Dynamic | Dynamic |
SQL | Yes | No | Yes |
Transactions | ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) | Eventual | Strong-ACID with TrueTime ordering |
Scalability | Vertical (use a bigger machine) | Horizontal (add more machines) | Horizontal |
Availability | Failover (downtime) | High | High 99.999% SLA |
Replication | Configurable | Configurable | Automatic |
Schema
Static
Dynamic
Dynamic
SQL
Yes
No
Yes
Transactions
ACID
(atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability)
Eventual
Strong-ACID
with TrueTime ordering
Scalability
Vertical
(use a bigger machine)
Horizontal
(add more machines)
Horizontal
Availability
Failover (downtime)
High
High 99.999% SLA
Replication
Configurable
Configurable
Automatic
How It Works
Cloud Spanner instances provide compute and storage in one or more regions. A distributed clock called TrueTime guarantees transactions are strongly consistent even across regions. Data is automatically "split" for scalability and replicated using a synchronous, Paxos-based scheme for availability.
Common Uses
User profile and entitlements
Manage critical user data securely at any scale
Tutorials, quickstarts, & labs
Manage critical user data securely at any scale
Financial ledger
Gain up-to-date, consistent view of global transactions
Tutorials, quickstarts, & labs
Gain up-to-date, consistent view of global transactions
Online banking
Deliver always-on interactivity for digital experiences
Tutorials, quickstarts, & labs
Deliver always-on interactivity for digital experiences
Loyalty programs and promotions
Personalize experiences with real-time updates
Tutorials, quickstarts, & labs
Personalize experiences with real-time updates
Omni-channel inventory management
Provide a consistent view across multiple channels and apps
Tutorials, quickstarts, & labs
Provide a consistent view across multiple channels and apps
Pricing
| How Spanner pricing works | Spanner pricing is based on compute capacity, database storage, backup storage, and network usage. Committed use discounts reduce the price further. | |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Description | Price |
| Compute capacity | Regional configuration Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units). Regional instance pricing includes 3 read-write replicas in a single region. | Starting at $0.09 per 100 processing units per hour |
Multi-region configuration Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes. Pricing includes all default replicas (starting at 5) and cross-region replication network usage. | Starting at $0.30 per 100 processing units per hour | |
| Database storage | Regional configuration Pricing is based on the amount of data stored in the database and includes the cost of storage in replicas. | Starting at $0.30 per GB per month |
Multi-region configuration Pricing is based on the amount of data stored in the database and includes the cost of storage in replicas. | Starting at $0.50 per GB per month | |
| Backup storage | Regional configuration Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in replicas. | Starting at $0.10 per GB per month |
Multi-region configuration Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in replicas. | Starting at $0.30 per GB per month | |
| Network | Ingress | FREE |
Egress within the same region | FREE | |
Egress between regions within the same continent | Starting at $0.10 per GB per month | |
Learn more about Cloud Spanner pricing and committed use discounts.
How Spanner pricing works
Spanner pricing is based on compute capacity, database storage, backup storage, and network usage. Committed use discounts reduce the price further.
Regional configuration
Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes (1 node = 1000 processing units). Regional instance pricing includes 3 read-write replicas in a single region.
Starting at
$0.09
per 100 processing units per hour
Multi-region configuration
Compute capacity is provisioned as processing units or nodes. Pricing includes all default replicas (starting at 5) and cross-region replication network usage.
Starting at
$0.30
per 100 processing units per hour
Regional configuration
Pricing is based on the amount of data stored in the database and includes the cost of storage in replicas.
Starting at
$0.30
per GB per month
Multi-region configuration
Pricing is based on the amount of data stored in the database and includes the cost of storage in replicas.
Starting at
$0.50
per GB per month
Regional configuration
Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in replicas.
Starting at
$0.10
per GB per month
Multi-region configuration
Pricing is based on the amount of backup storage and includes the cost of storage in replicas.
Starting at
$0.30
per GB per month
Ingress
FREE
Egress within the same region
FREE
Egress between regions within the same continent
Starting at
$0.10
per GB per month
Learn more about Cloud Spanner pricing and committed use discounts.
PRICING CALCULATOR
CUSTOM QUOTE
Start your proof of concept
Create a 90-day Spanner instance for free
Learn how to use Cloud Spanner
Create and query a database in console
Get best practices for constructing SQL statements
Dive into coding with examples
Business Case
Explore how other businesses built innovative apps to deliver great customer experiences, cut costs, and increase ROI with Spanner
How does Uber scale to millions of concurrent requests?
Explore how Uber redesigned its fulfillment platform leveraging Spanner.
Watch the video
Featured benefits and customers
Grow your business with innovative applications that scale limitlessly to meet any demand.
Lower TCO and free your developers from cumbersome operations to dream big and build faster.
Get superior price-performance and pay for what you use, starting at as low as $40 per month.
Partners & Integration
Take advantage of partners with Spanner expertise to help you at every step of the journey, from assessments and business case to migrations and building new apps on Spanner.
System integrators
Want to get more details about which partner or third-party integration is best for your business? Go to the partner directory.
FAQ
Is Cloud Spanner a relational or non-relational database?
Cloud Spanner is a highly scalable database that combines unlimited scalability with relational semantics, such as secondary indexes, strong consistency, schemas, and SQL providing 99.999% availability in one easy solution. Hence, it’s suitable for both relational and non-relational workloads.
Does Cloud Spanner use SQL?
Cloud Spanner provides two ANSI-based SQL dialects over the same rich set of capabilities: GoogleSQL and PostgreSQL. GoogleSQL shares syntax with BigQuery for teams standardizing their data management workflows. The PostgreSQL interface provides familiarity for teams who already know PostgreSQL and portability of schemas and queries to other PostgreSQL environments. For more information about the Cloud Spanner PostgreSQL interface, see our documentation.
How do I migrate databases to Spanner?
Migration to Spanner can vary widely depending on a number of factors like source database, data size, downtime requirements, application code complexity, sharding schema, custom functions or transformations, failover and replication strategy. The recommended tooling comprises open source tools like HarbourBridge for Schema and Data migration, and third party tools for assessments like migVisor. Learn more about the migration process in our documentation.
What are the key considerations for operating Spanner?
Spanner is a fully managed database so it automatically provides comprehensive infrastructure management features, but there are some application-specific management actions that may be required depending on your workload. You will need to make sure that you have set up proper alerting and monitoring and that you are watching those closely to ensure production is always running smoothly. You need to understand what actions to take when traffic grows organically over time, or if there is peak traffic expected, or how to handle data corruption due to application bugs, and last but not least, how to troubleshoot performance issues and understand what components are responsible for increased latencies.
