Join our product leaders to architect your agentic future The generative AI functions in BigQuery ( AI. SCORE , and more) bring large language models (LLMs) directly into your SQL, so a single query can classify millions of support tickets or score each product review for sentiment. However, because these functions are billed by the token, scaling them across massive datasets highlights the importance of managing your budget proactively.
We recently announced the general availability (GA) of token-based cost management for BigQuery generative AI functions : daily quotas that let administrators set self-serve guardrails on AI token consumption, so teams can innovate while staying within your budget. In this blog, we provide an overview of cost management for BigQuery generative AI functions, walk through a few practical examples, and share resources to help you get started. Four daily quotas, managed through the Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) quota system, provide controls at the project level and the per-user level.
Per-user limits apply to each user within a project, not across your organization. Usage is summed across all regions, so costs can't pile up unnoticed in a region you weren't watching. Output quotas include "thinking" tokens. Reasoning tokens count toward your output quota, just as they count toward your Gemini platform bill. The quotas apply to these BigQuery functions that perform LLM-backed generation: What's not covered: Embedding functions such as AI. GENERATE_EMBEDDING (also available as ML. GENERATE_EMBEDDING ) and AI.
EMBED are not subject to these quotas, because they run on different, substantially cheaper models. Administrators can view and adjust the quotas directly in the Google Cloud console as workloads change, with no support case required. Sort by the Name column to bring the four AI quotas to the top. Locating the gen AI token quotas in IAM & Admin → Quotas & System Limits. Find the quota, for example AI input tokens per day . To tighten cost control, lower a quota. This takes effect immediately with no approval needed. To support higher usage, request an increase from the same page.