A company uses BigQuery for large-scale analytics. They have a fixed monthly budget and want to ensure predictable costs for query processing, even when many users run concurrent queries. Which BigQuery pricing model should they use?
Slot reservations provide a fixed cost for a certain number of slots, making expenses predictable. Queries run within the reserved slots.
Why this answer
BigQuery slot reservations (fixed capacity) provide predictable pricing by purchasing a set number of slots. On-demand pricing charges per byte scanned, which can vary with usage. Flat-rate pricing via reservations is best for predictable costs.
Committed use discounts apply to slot reservations, but the core model is reservations.