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1. Check If You're Already Connected

Before setting anything up, check if someone on your team already configured this:

1. Open Google Analytics
2. Go to Admin (gear icon, bottom left)
3. In the Property column, click Product Links → BigQuery Links
4. If you see a linked project, you're already connected — skip to verifying data flow

2. Requirements

You'll need:

• GA4 Editor role — You must be an Editor (not just Viewer) on the GA4 property
• Google Cloud Project — Either create a new one or use an existing one
• BigQuery Owner role — You need Owner permissions on the Google Cloud project

3. Create a Google Cloud Project (If Needed)

Skip this if your organization already has a Google Cloud project you can use.

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com
2. Click the project dropdown (top left) → New Project
3. Name it something like analytics-data or company-analytics
4. Click Create

Optional but recommended: Enable billing

BigQuery gives you 1TB of free queries per month, which is enough for most small-to-medium sites. But enabling billing:

• Unlocks higher quotas
• Prevents interruption if you exceed free tier
• Is required for some advanced features (like streaming export)

You can proceed without billing and add it later. Use our BigQuery Cost Calculator for GA4 to estimate your costs.

4. Enable the BigQuery API

1. In Google Cloud Console, select your project
2. Go to APIs & Services → Library
3. Search for "BigQuery API"
4. Click Enable (if not already enabled)

5. Link GA4 to BigQuery

1. Open Google Analytics
2. Go to Admin → Product Links → BigQuery Links
3. Click Link
4. Click Choose a BigQuery project and select your project
5. Configure export options:
   • Data location: Choose a region (e.g., US or EU)
   • Frequency: Select Daily (recommended) or Streaming (real-time, but there is a little cost and must have billing enabled)
   • Events: Keep all events selected unless you have specific exclusions
6. Click Submit

6. Verify Data Flow

Data won't appear immediately. Here's the timeline:

• Daily export: First data appears within 24-48 hours
• Streaming export: Data appears within minutes

To verify:

1. Go to BigQuery Console
2. In the left sidebar, expand your project
3. Look for a dataset named analytics_XXXXXXXXX (your GA4 property ID)
4. You should see tables like events_YYYYMMDD

If you don't see data after 48 hours, check:

• The BigQuery link is still active in GA4 Admin
• Your GA4 property is receiving data (check Realtime report)
• Billing is enabled if you're on streaming export