Recently, developers in the crypto industry have begun sharing stories about unexpectedly high bills from Google Cloud's BigQuery service. This has raised concerns about the transparency of the company's pricing mechanisms.
Unexpected Bills from BigQuery Services
An anonymous developer reported receiving a $15,000 bill after running three queries. Previously, their bills had usually been a few hundred dollars each month.
> "I want to warn everyone that BigQuery is a big scam, and every day you're risking getting a ridiculous bill that can bankrupt you," they stated, adding that after reaching out to Google support, the charges were reduced to $4,000 per query.
Common Concerns Among Developers
Other members of the crypto industry pointed out that BigQuery has a pricing mechanism that does not allow for setting hard monthly limits. One developer remarked, "They intentionally don't let you set hard stops. If your Google Cloud function got stuck in a recursive loop costing you thousands? Too bad."
Second Developer's Case with a High Bill
A second developer also shared their story about being charged $5,000 for executing one query, which inadvertently scanned multiple terabytes of data. "Thankfully that time, our company was connected to Google locally, which helped us escalate the issue and get refunded," they recounted. Since then, they have never queried blockchain data in BigQuery without checking the partitions first.
The issue of billing for Google Cloud's BigQuery services raises significant concerns among developers in the crypto industry. Unpredictable expenses can lead to financial difficulties, making it crucial for clearer and more transparent pricing.
