Subscription in DLP

[JonathanM]

I would like to enable the Cloud DLP API on one of my projects. I'm a bit worried though about the associated costs, specifically, the Discovery/Data Profile subscription.

If my understanding is correct, the subscription is all about the automated profiling of my project data which I actually don't need since I've already been able to define which data points I need to be masked.

If I enable the API, would I be charged automatically? Or is there a configuration before I proceed whether to enable this or not?

Hope to get someone's advise on this.

Thanks!

[ste_google · Accepted solution]

Hi Jonathan,

The subscription is only an option not a requirement.  If you enable the API you will be in "on-demand" pricing mode which is based on your usage.  If you have no usage, there are no charges.  This would be the case with services like content methods, storage inspection, and the discovery/automated profiling. 
  
If you do choose to turn on Discovery you will be on "on-demand per GB" pricing by default. If you want to change this at any point, you can opt to switch to the subscription mode.  Switching to this mode only to the Discovery service and would give you reserved capacity and predictable pricing which could have more favorable economics depending on the size of your storage footprint. 
 
Hope this helps.  Please let us know if you have any other questions. 
Scott

[JonathanM]

Thank you! This helps a lot!