Question 1

What’s the difference between Cloud SQL and Cloud Spanner?

Accepted Answer

Cloud SQL is a managed database for traditional relational engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server) and is a good fit for standard OLTP applications. Cloud Spanner is a different product designed for horizontal scaling and global consistency across regions. If you need familiar MySQL/Postgres/SQL Server features and don’t need global-scale, Cloud SQL is usually simpler. If you need massive scale with strong consistency across regions, Spanner may be a better fit.

Question 2

When should I use Cloud SQL?

Accepted Answer

Use Cloud SQL when you want a fully managed relational database for an application (web apps, SaaS backends, internal tools) and you prefer not to manage database servers yourself. It’s a strong choice when you need standard SQL, transactions, backups, and high availability, and your workload fits within the scaling limits of a single primary instance (optionally with read replicas).

Question 3

How much does Cloud SQL cost?

Accepted Answer

Cloud SQL pricing depends on the database engine, instance size (vCPU and memory), storage type and amount, region, high availability configuration, and network egress. You may also pay for backups and read replicas depending on configuration. The most reliable way to estimate is to use the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator with your expected instance size, storage, HA, and backup retention settings.

Cloud SQL

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