How to pull a GCP Billing Export

To find savings, we need your detailed billing data. The cleanest way to share it is to enable Cloud Billing export to BigQuery, then grant us read access to that dataset. This walkthrough takes about ten minutes and requires the Billing Account Administrator and BigQuery Admin roles.

1. Create a dataset for the export

In the Google Cloud console, open BigQuery and create a new dataset (for example billing_export) in the project you want to hold the data. Pick a location close to your workloads and leave the default table expiration off so historical data is retained.

2. Enable detailed usage cost export

Go to Billing → Billing export → BigQuery export. Under Detailed usage cost, click Edit settings, then select the project and the dataset you created in step 1. Save. Detailed export includes per-resource and per-SKU breakdowns, which is what we use to spot waste.

Data starts flowing within a few hours. Note that export is not backfilled — it only captures usage from the moment it is enabled, so the sooner it is turned on, the more history we have to work with.

3. Grant BraneBridge read access

In BigQuery, open the dataset, click Sharing → Permissions, and add the service account or email we provide with the BigQuery Data Viewer role. Read-only access is all we need — we never modify your data or resources.

4. Send us the details

Reply to your onboarding thread with the project ID and dataset name. We will confirm access and begin the analysis. If you would rather not grant direct access, you can also export the billing tables to CSV and share them securely — but a live BigQuery connection keeps the data current.