Looker studio public link data cost

[rossfairbairn]

I'm hoping to share a looker studio dashboard with a customer via a public URL. The dash is filtered via a parameter in the URL.

I'm concerned that if somehow this link was to be shared publicly, we might rack up a large a BQ bill for querying the data. We've taken measures to avoid this and can revoke links very quickly.

I've set the data freshness to 12 hours and I understand that looker caches data but does anyone know whether heavy usage would generate costs beyond the data pull every 12 hours?

For example, if a user views the dash 1000 times, will we be billed for 1000 queries? Similarly, if 100 users viewed the dash, do we get billed for each new session/user?

[lsolatorio]

Hi @rossfairbairn, 

Thank you for joining our community.

I understand you might be concerned about costs associated with sharing your Looker dashboard or report publicly. There are two Looker products to consider:

• Looker Studio (free): This is the free version you're likely using for creating and sharing reports. Sharing reports publicly with Looker Studio itself won't incur any additional costs.

  • Ways to share your reports

  • Publish a connector, visualization or report

  • Looker Studio Community Connectors

  • Build a Community Connector

• Looker (Google Cloud core): This is a paid service with advanced features and controlled access. It typically isn't used for public reports.

  • Sharing data

  • Public sharing, importing, and embedding of Looks

  • Sharing data from URLs

I completely understand your concern about potential costs when sharing a Looker Studio dashboard with a public URL, especially since it uses BigQuery data. BigQuery charges can add up quickly, so it's smart to be cautious. You can review Looker and BigQuery pricing to have an estimate but it's recommended to contact Google Cloud Support for an accurate quotation.

I hope I was able to provide you with useful insights.