Data Catalog can catalog metadata from BigQuery data sources. After your metadata is cataloged, you can add your own metadata to these data sources by using tags. For a given BigQuery project, Data Catalog automatically catalogs BigQuery metadata about datasets, tables, views, and models. Data Catalog handles two types of metadata: technical metadata and business metadata. To learn more about metadata, see Data Catalog metadata.
Search and discovery
Data Catalog offers a powerful predicate-based search
experience for technical and business metadata that's associated with a Data Catalog entry that represents a BigQuery data source. You
must have the permissions to read the metadata for a resource so that you can
apply search and discovery on the metadata. Data Catalog does not
index the data within a resource. Data Catalog only indexes the
metadata that describes a BigQuery data source.
Data Catalog controls some metadata such as user-generated tags.
For all metadata sourced from BigQuery,
Data Catalog is a read-only service that reflects the metadata
and permissions provided by BigQuery. You can make edits in
BigQuery to add, update, or delete the metadata of a data
entry.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eData Catalog, now deprecated in favor of Dataplex Catalog, is a metadata management service that integrates with BigQuery.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBigQuery utilizes Data Catalog for visualizing data lineage, searching accessible resources, and tagging them with metadata.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eData Catalog automatically catalogs BigQuery metadata like datasets, tables, views, and models, and allows users to add their own metadata via tags.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eData Catalog's search functionality is powerful, but only operates on the resource metadata and not the data within the resource.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eData Catalog can be accessed via the BigQuery and Dataplex pages in the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, Data Catalog APIs, and Cloud Client Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Overview of Data Catalog with BigQuery\n======================================\n\n| **Caution:** Data Catalog is [deprecated](/data-catalog/docs/deprecations) in favor of [Dataplex Universal Catalog](/dataplex/docs/catalog-overview). Dataplex Universal Catalog is also integrated with BigQuery, offering similar capabilities. See [Manage aspects and enrich metadata](/dataplex/docs/enrich-entries-metadata) for details on enriching your data with aspects, which are the equivalent of Data Catalog tags.\n\nThis document provides an overview of how Data Catalog relates to BigQuery.\n\nData Catalog is a fully managed, scalable metadata management service.\n\nData Catalog use cases\n----------------------\n\nBigQuery uses Data Catalog to perform the following use cases:\n\n- Visualizing data lineage.\n- Searching for resources for which you have access.\n- Tagging resources with metadata.\n\nFor a more complete description of Data Catalog, see\n[What is Data Catalog](/data-catalog/docs/concepts/overview).\n\nHow Data Catalog works\n----------------------\n\nData Catalog can catalog metadata from BigQuery data sources. After your metadata is cataloged, you can add your own metadata to these data sources by using tags. For a given BigQuery project, Data Catalog automatically catalogs BigQuery metadata about datasets, tables, views, and models. Data Catalog handles two types of metadata: *technical metadata* and *business metadata* . To learn more about metadata, see [Data Catalog metadata](/data-catalog/docs/concepts/metadata).\n\nSearch and discovery\n--------------------\n\nData Catalog offers a powerful predicate-based search\nexperience for technical and business metadata that's associated with a Data Catalog entry that represents a BigQuery data source. You\nmust have the permissions to read the metadata for a resource so that you can\napply search and discovery on the metadata. Data Catalog does not\nindex the data within a resource. Data Catalog only indexes the\nmetadata that describes a BigQuery data source.\n\nData Catalog controls some metadata such as user-generated tags.\nFor all metadata sourced from BigQuery,\nData Catalog is a read-only service that reflects the metadata\nand permissions provided by BigQuery. You can make edits in\nBigQuery to add, update, or delete the metadata of a data\nentry.\n\nTo learn more about Data Catalog search, see [Search for BigQuery resources](/bigquery/docs/data-catalog#search-for-bq-resources).\n\nAccess Data Catalog\n-------------------\n\nYou can access Data Catalog functionality by using the following interfaces:\n\n- The **BigQuery** page in the [Google Cloud console](https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery)\n\n- The **Dataplex** page in the [Google Cloud console](https://console.cloud.google.com/dataplex)\n\n- The [Google Cloud CLI](/sdk/gcloud/reference/data-catalog)\n\n- [Data Catalog APIs](/data-catalog/docs/reference)\n\n- [Cloud Client Libraries](/data-catalog/docs/reference/libraries)\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- To get started with Data Catalog and BigQuery, see [Work with Data Catalog](/bigquery/docs/data-catalog)."]]
