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Looker vs Looker Studio (now Data Studio): what's different, and what the 2026 rename changed

Published · 11 min read · Prices checked on Google's pages that day

Looker and Looker Studio are two different Google products that shared a brand from October 2022 to April 2026. Looker is Google Cloud's enterprise business intelligence platform: a data team defines metrics once in a semantic model written in LookML, and Google sells it as an annual platform subscription plus per-user licences, priced through its sales team. Looker Studio is the free drag-and-drop report builder that began life as Google Data Studio, and on April 16, 2026 Google renamed it back to Data Studio. Its paid edition, Looker Studio Pro, is now Data Studio Pro, listed at $9 per user per project per month.

So the 2026 version of this comparison is Looker vs Data Studio. Looker is a governed modelling layer that somebody has to build and maintain; Data Studio is a report canvas that anyone with a Google account can open at no cost. The rename changed the product's name, its address (lookerstudio.google.com now redirects to datastudio.google.com) and its home page. Google says existing reports, data sources and users carried over with no action needed, and Looker itself kept its name.

What the Looker Studio rename changed, and what it didn't

The Data Studio release notes record the change on April 16, 2026 in one sentence: "We've rebranded Looker Studio as Data Studio." The Google Cloud blog post that announced it and Google's Welcome to Data Studio page fill in the details.

What changed

  • The names. Looker Studio is Data Studio, Looker Studio Pro is Data Studio Pro, and the AI assistant inside the report builder, Gemini in Looker, is now Gemini in Data Studio.
  • The address. The product lives at datastudio.google.com, and old lookerstudio.google.com links redirect automatically. The one catch Google flags: companies that filter web access through a proxy need IT to allow the new domain.
  • The home page. It now lists BigQuery conversational agents and data apps built in Colab notebooks next to your reports and data sources.

What did not change

  • Your reports. Google's Welcome page says you don't need to update your reports, and the blog says all existing reports, data sources, assets and users move to the new experience with no action on your part.
  • The price. The standard edition is still no-cost, and Pro is listed at the same $9 per user per project per month that Google listed for Looker Studio Pro in January 2026 (archived pricing page).
  • Connectors. Neither the release notes nor the Welcome page announce any connector change as part of the rename. Partner connectors kept arriving afterwards, in what the September 24, 2026 notes call the Data Studio Connector Gallery.
  • Looker. Looker was not renamed. The blog calls Looker Google's enterprise business intelligence platform and says Data Studio will "complement the Looker platform, independently".

The new name is a return, not an invention. Google renamed Data Studio to Looker Studio on October 11, 2022, when it brought its BI products "under the Looker umbrella" and moved the product to lookerstudio.google.com (2022 release notes). Most of the Looker-versus-Looker-Studio confusion dates from that decision, and the 2026 rename undoes it.

Looker vs Looker Studio (Data Studio) at a glance

Every cell below comes from Google's own product, pricing and documentation pages, read on September 26, 2026.

LookerData Studio (was Looker Studio)Data Studio Pro (was Looker Studio Pro)
What Google calls it"A business intelligence platform""A no-cost tool that turns your data into fully customizable reports""The paid version of Data Studio"
PriceNo list price: a platform edition plus per-user licences, on a one-, two- or three-year annual commitment quoted by salesNo charge for report creators or viewers$9 per user per project per month; the per-user rate varies with subscription length; 30-day free trial
Who builds with itDevelopers model the data in LookML; other licensed users explore and build dashboards on that modelAnyone with a Google account, in a drag-and-drop editorThe same editor; only people who create, edit or manage Pro content need a licence
Where metric definitions liveOne central semantic model, usually version-controlled in GitIn each data source's fields and calculated fields, and in blends inside a reportSame as Data Studio
Where the data sitsIn your database: Looker runs its SQL there and does not copy the dataRead through Google's own connectors and third-party partner connectorsSame, plus the option to keep file uploads and data extracts in your own Cloud Storage bucket and BigQuery dataset
Access controlLooker roles and content access, including custom rolesGoogle Cloud IAM roles on reports and data sources; no custom rolesAdds team workspaces with Manager, Content Manager and Contributor roles; still no custom roles
Delivery and alertsScheduling and alerting are part of the platformReport links sent in scheduled emailsUp to 200 delivery schedules per report, delivery to Google Chat, and chart alerts
AIConversational Analytics agents grounded in the LookML modelConversational Analytics over data agents built in BigQueryAdds Gemini in Data Studio
HostingLooker (Google Cloud core) runs in Google Cloud; the original Looker can also be hosted in another cloud or on your own serversGoogle-hosted at datastudio.google.comGoogle-hosted; each subscription is tied to one Google Cloud project
SupportDeveloper licences include access to SupportNot included; support comes with ProCloud Customer Care, which also requires a Google Cloud support plan
Google says it fitsGoverned metric definitions, robust data access permissions, operational analytics, embedded and custom applicationsSelf-service and ad-hoc reports, more than 1,000 data sources, one-off visualizations, single-source or pre-aggregated dataScaling teams that need AI features and enterprise-grade security, management and compliance

Sources: Google's Looker and Data Studio comparison, Looker pricing, Data Studio pricing, About Data Studio Pro and the shared terms glossary. Google changes pricing; check before you buy.

What Looker is

Google's own comparison page describes Looker as a business intelligence platform with three audiences: business users who explore data and build dashboards, data modellers who work in an IDE, and developers who embed Looker in other products or call its API. What makes it Looker is the model underneath.

LookML, short for Looker Modeling Language, describes the dimensions, measures, calculations and joins in your SQL database. Looker generates SQL from that model, runs it in your database and returns the results; Google's comparison page notes that the data stays in-database and is not copied to the Looker instance. LookML projects are usually kept in a Git repository, so a metric such as revenue is defined once, reviewed like code, and reused by every Explore and dashboard built on it. Google now pitches the same model as the grounding for Looker's Conversational Analytics agents.

How Looker is sold. Google's Looker pricing page has two parts: platform pricing to run an instance, and user pricing per licence. There are three platform editions: Standard, for organisations or teams with fewer than 50 users; Enterprise; and Embed, for analytics inside your own applications. Each edition includes one production instance, ten Standard users and two Developer users. Licences come in three types: Developer (modelling, administration and the API), Standard (exploring and building dashboards) and Viewer (viewing, filtering, scheduling and downloading). Every edition's price reads "Call sales", on an annual commitment of one, two or three years. There is no public list price.

Looker also comes in two forms. Looker (Google Cloud core) is provisioned and administered from the Google Cloud console; the original Looker can be managed by Google, hosted by you in another cloud, or run on your own servers.

What Looker Studio (now Data Studio) is

Google describes Data Studio as a no-cost tool that turns your data into fully customizable reports, available at datastudio.google.com to anyone with a Google account. You connect a data source, drag charts and controls onto a canvas, and share the report by link, by embedding it in a web page, or by scheduled email.

Its data arrives through connectors. Google builds the ones for its own products, such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, Search Console, BigQuery and Google Sheets, and third-party companies build partner connectors for most other platforms, some free and some sold by the connector's vendor (Supermetrics' September 2026 price list is one example). There is no central model. Each data source carries its own fields and calculated fields, and blends join sources inside a report. Google's blog calls Data Studio "the ideal choice for personal data exploration", and its comparison page lists single data sources and pre-aggregated datasets among the cases it suits.

On AI, Conversational Analytics, which lets you question data agents built in BigQuery in plain language, opened to all Data Studio users with the rename on April 16, 2026 and became generally available on July 30, 2026. Gemini in Data Studio (formerly Gemini in Looker), which writes calculated fields from a prompt, answers questions about your data and adds report content to Google Slides, is listed as a Data Studio Pro feature.

Looker Studio Pro, now Data Studio Pro: what $9 buys

Google's Data Studio pricing lists two lines: Data Studio at no charge, and Data Studio Pro at $9 per user per project per month, with a note that the per-user price varies with the length of the subscription. The Pro subscription overview adds the billing mechanics that matter:

  • Every Pro subscription is tied to exactly one Google Cloud project and paid through that project's Cloud Billing account.
  • You are billed monthly for every licence in the subscription, whether or not it is used.
  • Only people who create, edit or manage Pro content need a licence. People who only view Pro reports need sharing permission, not a licence.
  • There is a 30-day free trial with no cap on users, and billing starts automatically when it ends unless you cancel.
  • You can buy Pro from inside Data Studio, from the Google Cloud console, or from the Google Workspace Admin console.
  • Eligible Looker customers get at least 1,000 Pro licences at no cost, but not for Looker (original) contracts signed after August 1, 2026, customer-hosted Looker instances, or Looker (Google Cloud core) instances created after that date.

At the listed rate, ten report editors cost $90 a month, and the colleagues who only read their reports add nothing to the bill.

What the licence buys, according to About Data Studio Pro: reports and data sources owned by your organisation instead of by whoever created them; team workspaces with Manager, Content Manager and Contributor roles; up to 200 delivery schedules per report, delivery to Google Chat, and alerts when a chart meets a condition you set; personal report links that give each viewer their own editable copy; customer-managed encryption keys, customer-managed storage and data residency; the Looker mobile app; Gemini in Data Studio; and Cloud Customer Care, which Google notes also needs a separate Google Cloud support plan.

Which one do you need

  • Data Studio, free, when the data is mostly Google's own (GA4, Google Ads, Search Console), each report reads one source or a pre-aggregated table, and the audience needs a link rather than a licence. It is the fastest route from a Google property to a chart somebody can read.
  • Data Studio Pro when the same reports have to belong to the company rather than to whoever built them, or when you need team workspaces, scheduled delivery at scale, chart alerts or Google support. It is the same editor with administration on top.
  • Looker when many teams must see one definition of each metric, when data access has to be governed centrally, or when analytics is embedded in your own product, and you have a warehouse to point it at and people to write LookML.
  • Both when the model belongs in Looker but some audiences live in Data Studio. The Looker connector adds a Looker Explore as a Data Studio data source, so charts use the LookML definitions. The Looker instance must be Looker-hosted, an admin has to enable the connector, and Google documents a five-minute query timeout and a 5,000-row limit per chart (connector limits).

What both tools assume you already have

Neither product solves the step before the chart: getting several marketing platforms into one table where cost and revenue mean the same thing. Looker models tables that already sit in a database, and Data Studio reads whatever each connector returns and leaves the joining to blends. If that layer is the gap, a marketing-data backend such as TableBI is one option. It connects Search Console, GA4 and Google Ads (live), Meta Ads (beta, limited to people added to our Meta app as test users) and CSV upload, syncs the ad platforms at campaign level, and answers in read-only SQL or a pinned dashboard URL that refreshes itself. It is not a BI tool: there is no LookML-style semantic model, no connector into Looker or Data Studio, and no scheduled email reports or alerts.

Related reading: Looker Studio vs Power BI compares Google's free tool with Microsoft's; Looker Studio alternatives covers what teams move to when reports slow down or the connector bill grows; and connecting Search Console to Looker Studio walks through the setup, including the table-type choice that decides which questions a report can answer.

FAQ

Is Looker Studio the same as Looker?

No. Looker is Google Cloud's enterprise business intelligence platform, built around a semantic model written in LookML and sold by quote on an annual commitment. Looker Studio is Google's free report builder; it carried the Looker name from October 2022 until April 16, 2026, when Google renamed it back to Data Studio. The two can work together, since Data Studio can read a Looker Explore through the Looker connector, but they are separate products with separate pricing.

Is Looker Studio free?

Yes. Google lists Data Studio, the product formerly called Looker Studio, at no charge for report creators and viewers. Costs come from three places: Data Studio Pro, if you need company-owned content, team workspaces or support; partner connectors for non-Google platforms, which their vendors sell separately; and the data source itself, since BigQuery, for example, can bill the queries and storage a report uses.

How much is Looker Studio Pro (now Data Studio Pro)?

Google lists Data Studio Pro at $9 per user per project per month, and notes that the per-user price varies with the length of the subscription (checked September 26, 2026). You are billed for every licence in the subscription whether or not it is used, but people who only view reports need no licence. There is a 30-day free trial, and eligible Looker customers receive at least 1,000 Pro licences at no cost.

How much does Looker cost?

Google publishes no list price. Looker pricing combines a platform edition (Standard for teams under 50 users, Enterprise, or Embed) with Developer, Standard and Viewer user licences, on an annual commitment of one, two or three years, quoted by Google's sales team. Each edition includes ten Standard users and two Developer users.

Did the rename break my Looker Studio reports or links?

No. Google says you don't need to update your reports: lookerstudio.google.com redirects to datastudio.google.com, and existing reports, data sources and users moved over automatically. The exception is a network that filters web access through a proxy, where an administrator has to allow the new domain.

Is Looker Studio being discontinued?

No. It was renamed, not retired: on April 16, 2026 Looker Studio became Data Studio, and Google's announcement says Data Studio continues to offer no-cost analysis and visualization, with Data Studio Pro as the paid edition for teams.

Can Data Studio use a Looker model?

Yes. The Looker connector adds a Looker Explore as a Data Studio data source, so charts use the LookML definitions. It needs a Looker-hosted instance with the Data Studio BI connector enabled by a Looker admin, and Google documents a five-minute query timeout and a 5,000-row limit per chart.

Sources

All read on September 26, 2026: