Data guides
BigQuery: see how much data you have, then export it.
Pick a system to see two things: how to check how much data is in it, and how to export a copy. No form, no sign-in.
BigQuery
Data, dev & IT
How to see how much data is in BigQuery
- Sign in to the Google Cloud console and open BigQuery
- Select a table and open the Details tab to see storage info
- For a total, query INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_STORAGE for your region and sum total_logical_bytes
- Note the total per dataset
Record total logical bytes (uncompressed); physical (billed) bytes are often smaller.
BigQuery’s official instructions
How to get a copy of your BigQuery data
- Open BigQuery in the Google Cloud console
- In the Explorer pane, expand your project → Datasets → your dataset → Overview → Tables, and select a table
- Click Export / sync → Cloud Storage
- Pick a GCS Location and Export format (CSV, JSON, Avro or Parquet), then click Save
- Download the exported files from that Cloud Storage bucket
Tables can be exported to Google Cloud Storage from the console or with bq extract.
Very large tables export as many files.
These instructions are written by DataFrenzy from each vendor’s public help pages. Menu names can vary by plan and change over time; the official link on each guide is the final word. Screenshots come from each vendor’s own help pages and videos or, where noted, from third-party tutorials credited under the image; dashed outlines are illustrations, not screenshots. Looking up a size or preparing an export never sends anything to DataFrenzy.