BI & dashboard platforms · Google LLC (Google Cloud)

Looker

Google Cloud's BI and embedded-analytics platform built on a governed LookML semantic layer with natural-language querying.

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Looker is Google Cloud's business intelligence and embedded-analytics platform, built around a governed semantic layer defined in LookML. Analysts model business logic once against a cloud data warehouse, and that model powers dashboards, ad hoc exploration, scheduled reports, and embedded analytics delivered through Looker's APIs and SDKs into other applications. Conversational Analytics adds Gemini-powered natural-language querying on top of the semantic model, letting business users ask questions and receive AI-generated summaries and visualizations grounded in governed metrics. Looker supports a wide range of SQL dialects, including BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, and Databricks. It is delivered as a cloud service on Google Cloud, with Standard, Enterprise, and Embed platform editions that differ mainly in API call limits and security features; all pricing is quoted directly by Google's sales team.

At a glance

Vendor Google LLC (Google Cloud)
Pricing model Quote only
Free tier No
Deployment Cloud
Open source No
Best for Enterprises wanting a governed, centrally modeled semantic layer for BI and embedded analytics.

Pricing

Looker pricing has platform and per-user components; every edition and user license requires contacting Google Cloud sales for a quote.

Checked on the vendor's own page on September 19, 2026: no prices are published. Expect to be quoted.

Features

  • Governed semantic layer defined in LookML
  • Conversational Analytics (natural-language querying via Gemini)
  • Embedded analytics via APIs and SDKs
  • Self-service dashboards and exploration
  • Scheduled reports and alerts
  • Broad SQL dialect support (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks)
  • Developer, Standard, and Viewer user role types

Integrations

Profile last reviewed September 19, 2026

Head to head

Alternatives

Microsoft Power BI Microsoft's cloud and on-premises business intelligence platform for interactive reports, dashboards, and self-service analytics. Tableau Salesforce-owned visual analytics platform for interactive dashboards, data exploration, and governed self-hosted or cloud BI. Metabase Open-source business intelligence tool for self-service dashboards, SQL and no-code queries, and embedded analytics.

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Terms to know

Semantic layer A layer that defines business metrics and dimensions once, centrally, so every tool and report uses the same numbers. Business intelligence (BI) The practice of turning company data into dashboards, reports and metrics that guide business decisions. Embedded analytics Charts, reports or dashboards built directly into another application instead of a separate BI tool. Data modeling The practice of organizing data into entities, relationships and schemas that make it accurate and efficient to query. Natural language query Asking a data question in plain language and getting an answer without writing code or a query language. Data warehouse A centralized, structured database optimized for fast historical reporting rather than day-to-day transactions.

Related guides

How to build a dashboard people use Design a dashboard around its audience and the decision it supports, keep it maintained, and retire it when nobody opens it anymore. How to build a metrics layer Define each metric once, in code, so every tool that queries revenue or churn gets the same number — and govern changes to it. How to build a modern data stack Ingestion, warehouse, transformation, BI and activation — what a data stack needs at each company stage, and what to defer. How to choose a BI tool Pick a BI tool by who builds, who reads, where metrics are defined and what viewers cost, not by the chart gallery in the demo. How to decide build vs buy for analytics A framework for the build-vs-buy decision in analytics infrastructure — total cost, maintenance burden and lock-in, layer by layer.