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Databases · head to head

BigQuery vs GNAT Pro

BigQuery logo

BigQuery

Databases

Google Cloud's serverless analytical warehouse, billed either by bytes scanned per query or by reserved compute slots.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit BigQueryFull review
GNAT Pro logo

GNAT Pro

Developer Tools

Software development environments and toolchains for Ada, C/C++ and Rust

From
On request
Free plan
No
Visit GNAT ProFull review

The short version

  • BigQuery starts at $6.25/mo; GNAT Pro prices on request.
  • Where GNAT Pro falls short: no pricing published on website; requires contacting AdaCore directly for quotes.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BigQuery and GNAT Pro actually diverge.

Attributes where BigQuery and GNAT Pro differ
AttributeBigQueryGNAT Pro
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelUsage-basedQuote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryDatabasesDeveloper Tools

Not yet recorded: founded for GNAT Pro.

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in BigQuery

  • Serverless compute
  • Separation of storage and compute
  • Two pricing models
  • Partitioning and clustering
  • Materialised views
  • BigQuery ML
  • Storage Write API
  • BI Engine

Only in GNAT Pro

Nothing recorded that BigQuery does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

BigQuery

  • A warehouse for an organisation already on Google Cloud, where identity, logging and billing are consolidated in the same placenot GNAT Pro
  • Bursty analytical workloads with long idle periods, where paying per query beats keeping a cluster runningnot GNAT Pro
  • Event and clickstream analytics ingested continuously through the Storage Write API and queried without a load windownot GNAT Pro
  • Analytics teams with no infrastructure staff, where the absence of anything to tune or patch is worth more than dialect portabilitynot GNAT Pro

GNAT Pro

  • Building certified avionics software meeting DO-178B/C standardsnot BigQuery
  • Developing automotive embedded systems with ISO-26262 compliancenot BigQuery
  • Integrating Ada, C/C++, and Rust components in single codebasenot BigQuery
  • Managing software supply chain vulnerabilities and SBOMsnot BigQuery
  • Supporting long-lived software systems spanning decadesnot BigQuery

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

BigQuery

  • On-demand billing charges for bytes read from every column a query references, so an unqualified select or a missing partition filter turns a routine query into a large bill, and the cost is discovered after the fact rather than at review time
  • There is no way to join tables that live in different regions, so a data estate split across regions for residency reasons has to be reconciled with copies and the storage and transfer that implies
  • It is not built for point lookups; retrieving a single row has latency measured in hundreds of milliseconds or more, so BigQuery cannot serve an application's read path and always needs a second store in front of it
  • Frequent small mutations run into DML concurrency limits and the cost of rewriting storage blocks, so a workload that updates individual rows continuously behaves badly compared with an append-only design
  • The compute exists only inside Google Cloud, so while tables can be exported, the accumulated GoogleSQL, scheduled queries, authorised views, ML models and IAM structure do not move, and switching warehouses is a rewrite of the analytical layer

GNAT Pro

  • No pricing published on website; requires contacting AdaCore directly for quotes
  • Vendor indicates per-user, per-year subscription model but does not disclose specific costs

Pricing, plan by plan

BigQuery

Free
  • Free TierFree
    • 1TB queries/month
    • 10GB storage/month
    • Standard support
  • On-demand$6.25/tb
    • Pay per query
    • Pay per storage
    • All features

GNAT Pro

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the GNAT Pro review.

Which should you pick?

Choose BigQuery if

  • You need serverless compute.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want separation of storage and compute.
BigQuery review

Choose GNAT Pro if

Nothing in the data separates GNAT Pro from BigQuery on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

GNAT Pro review

Questions people ask

Is BigQuery or GNAT Pro better?
Neither clearly leads. BigQuery starts at Free and GNAT Pro at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BigQuery or GNAT Pro?
BigQuery has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for BigQuery and On request for GNAT Pro.
Does BigQuery or GNAT Pro run on more platforms?
BigQuery runs on Web, API. GNAT Pro runs on Web.
Can I use BigQuery for free?
Yes. BigQuery has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. GNAT Pro starts at On request.
What is BigQuery best used for?
BigQuery is most often used for a warehouse for an organisation already on google cloud, where identity, logging and billing are consolidated in the same place, bursty analytical workloads with long idle periods, where paying per query beats keeping a cluster running, event and clickstream analytics ingested continuously through the storage write api and queried without a load window, analytics teams with no infrastructure staff, where the absence of anything to tune or patch is worth more than dialect portability. Of those, a warehouse for an organisation already on google cloud, where identity, logging and billing are consolidated in the same place and bursty analytical workloads with long idle periods, where paying per query beats keeping a cluster running are not what GNAT Pro is typically brought in for.
What can BigQuery do that GNAT Pro cannot?
BigQuery covers Serverless compute, Separation of storage and compute, Two pricing models, Partitioning and clustering.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

BigQuery: How is BigQuery actually billed?

Storage is billed separately from compute. Compute is either on-demand, priced by the bytes a query reads from the referenced columns, or capacity-based, where you reserve autoscaling slots. Most cost surprises come from on-demand queries that scan more than expected.

GNAT Pro: How much does GNAT Pro cost?

GNAT Pro pricing is not published on the website. Customers must request a pricing quote by contacting AdaCore directly or speaking with a GNAT Pro expert.

Source
BigQuery: How do I control query cost?

Partition and cluster tables so queries prune data, select only the columns needed, use materialised views for repeated aggregations, and set maximum bytes billed on queries so a runaway scan fails instead of billing.

GNAT Pro: What is GNAT Pro licensing model?

GNAT Pro is sold on a per-user, per-year basis with no license locks. Customers can request pricing for their specific needs.

Source
BigQuery: Can I use it without being on Google Cloud?

The service only runs on Google Cloud. BigQuery Omni can query data held in S3 or Azure storage, but the compute is still Google's and the account relationship is still with Google.

BigQuery: Is it suitable for serving application queries?

No. Latency for single-row reads is far too high. BigQuery is an analytical warehouse and application read paths need a transactional database or a cache in front of it.

BigQuery: When should I move from on-demand to capacity pricing?

When on-demand spend becomes both large and predictable, or when unpredictable spend is a bigger problem than query queueing. The switch trades a variable bill for a fixed one plus contention between workloads.

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