Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a cloud messaging service for passing messages between services that produce and process them.
What Google Cloud Pub/Sub is
Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a cloud messaging service for passing messages between services that produce and process them. It is intended for service-to-service communication, with uses including streaming analytics, data integration, service middleware and parallel task queues—not direct communication with end-user or IoT clients. Communication typically has latency on the order of 100 milliseconds. Synchronous cross-zone replication and per-message receipt tracking provide at-least-once delivery. The service has no shards or partitions and provisions automatically after quota is set. Message controls include seek and replay, dead letter topics and attribute-based filtering. Pub/Sub integrates with Google Cloud services such as Dataflow, BigQuery and Cloud Storage, as well as third-party tools including Splunk, Datadog and Apache Kafka. It supports REST and gRPC APIs, with client libraries for several languages, and does not accept API keys for authentication. The listed maximum message size is 10 MB. The first 10 GB per month is free; beyond that, pay-as-you-go throughput is listed at $40 a month, with storage at $0.27 per GiB-month.
Good
- At-least-once delivery uses replication and receipt tracking.
- No shards or partitions; provisions automatically after quota setup.
- Supports replay, dead letter topics and message filtering.
- Offers REST and gRPC APIs.
- Includes a free monthly tier of 10 GB.
Watch out
- API keys are not supported for authentication.
- Maximum message size is 10 MB.
- Not intended for direct end-user or IoT communication.
Who it suits
Pub/Sub suits teams building service-to-service messaging for analytics, data pipelines, middleware or task queues. It is not intended for direct messaging with end-user or IoT clients.
Verdict
Pub/Sub offers managed messaging, delivery controls and integrations for services that need to exchange data. The first 10 GB per month is free; usage beyond that is listed at $40 a month, with storage charged separately.
Plans and prices
From Google Cloud Pub/Sub's own pricing page, checked 20 Sep 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free usage allowance | Free | 10 GiB throughput |
| Pay-as-you-go throughput | $40 a month | Standard message delivery throughput · After the first 10 GiB per calendar month |
| Free monthly tier | Free | First 10 GB of data per month · monthly |
| Pay-as-you-go | $40 a month | Beyond 10 GB: $40 per TB · storage $0.27 per GiB-month · usage-based monthly |
The facts
Each one read from Google Cloud Pub/Sub's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- APIs and libraries
- Pub/Sub uses standard gRPC and REST APIs and provides client libraries for several languages, with the product page stating seven languages.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Authentication
- Pub/Sub supports client libraries, the Google Cloud CLI, and REST, and does not support API keys as an authentication method.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Automatic scaling
- Pub/Sub has no shards or partitions and uses automatic provisioning after you set your quota.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Delivery reliability
- Synchronous cross-zone message replication and per-message receipt tracking provide at-least-once delivery at any scale.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Exactly-once processing
- Dataflow supports reliable exactly-once processing of Pub/Sub streams.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Google Cloud integrations include Dataflow, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, App Engine, Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, Workflows, and Eventarc.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- Pub/Sub is intended for service-to-service communication rather than direct communication with end-user or IoT clients.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Latency
- Pub/Sub communication typically has latencies on the order of 100 milliseconds.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Message controls
- Pub/Sub supports seek and replay, dead letter topics, and attribute-based message filtering.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Messaging service
- Pub/Sub is an asynchronous and scalable messaging service that decouples services producing messages from services processing them.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Security
- Pub/Sub offers fine-grained access controls, end-to-end encryption, and HIPAA compliance.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Support resources
- Google Cloud provides Pub/Sub documentation, community forums, support, release notes, and system status resources.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Third-party integrations
- Listed third-party integrations include Splunk, Datadog, Informatica, Confluent Cloud, Apache Kafka, Elastic, Databricks, and ServiceNow.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Use cases
- Pub/Sub is used for streaming analytics, data integration pipelines, service integration middleware, and parallel task queues.checked 1 Oct 2026
The company
- Founded
- 1998checked 28 Sep 2026
- Headquarters
- Mountain View, California, United Stateschecked 28 Sep 2026
Alternatives to Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- 1
Redpanda
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS7.4Free plan - 2
AWS Glue DataBrew
WebAPI7.2 - 3
Confluent Cloud
Free planWebAPILinux7.1From $385 a month - 4
Lenses
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS7.1From $4 a year - 5
AxonOps Schema Registry
Free planOpen sourceAPILinuxSelf-hosted7.0Free plan - 6
Buf Schema Registry
Free planWebAPISelf-hosted6.7From $0.50 a month