Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
The Cloud Spanner connector lets you access data from Google Cloud Spanner within Looker Studio. Cloud Spanner is an enterprise-grade, globally-distributed, and strongly consistent database service built for the cloud specifically to combine the benefits of relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale.
On the Looker Studio home page, in the top left, click Create, and then select Data Source.
Select the Cloud Spanner connector.
If asked, authorize Looker Studio to access your data.
On the left, set up the connection to your database. You'll need to provide:
Project ID
Instance ID (see the Notes section to find out how to list your instance configurations).
Database ID
In the text field, enter your SQL query.
In the upper right, click CONNECT.
In a moment, the data source fields list page appears. Click CREATE REPORT to start visualizing your data.
Notes
List instance configurations
The Cloud SDK command-line tool lets you interact with Cloud Spanner. For example, the following command lists the regional and multi-region instance configurations that are available for your project:
gcloud spanner instance-configs list
Regional configurations distribute data in a single region, while multi-region configurations distribute data geographically across multiple regions. Learn more about Instances.
Data types
Looker Studio maps your database's built-in data types to a unified set of data types. If Looker Studio encounters a column in your table or query of an unsupported type, it won't create a field for that column.
Limits of the Spanner connector
The response size from Spanner is limited to 10 MB. See the Spanner Limits article for other limits.
Column headers (field names) must use ASCII characters only. Non-ASCII characters aren't supported.
[[["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."],[],[],null,["# Connect to Google Cloud Spanner\n\nThe Cloud Spanner connector lets you access data from Google Cloud Spanner within Looker Studio. Cloud Spanner is an enterprise-grade, globally-distributed, and strongly consistent database service built for the cloud specifically to combine the benefits of relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale.\n\nCloud Spanner is a paid service. [Learn more about pricing](https://cloud.google.com/spanner/pricing).\n\nHow to connect to Google Cloud Spanner\n--------------------------------------\n\nA Looker Studio data source can connect to Cloud Spanner databases using [Google Standard SQL query syntax](/spanner/docs/query-syntax).\n\n### To connect\n\n1. [Sign in to Looker Studio.](https://lookerstudio.google.com)\n2. On the Looker Studio home page, in the top left, click **Create** , and then select **Data Source**.\n3. Select the **Cloud Spanner** connector.\n4. If asked, authorize Looker Studio to access your data.\n5. On the left, set up the connection to your database. You'll need to provide:\n 1. Project ID\n 2. Instance ID (see the *Notes* section to find out how to list your instance configurations).\n 3. Database ID\n6. In the text field, enter your SQL query.\n7. In the upper right, click **CONNECT**.\n\nIn a moment, the data source fields list page appears. Click **CREATE REPORT** to start visualizing your data.\n\nNotes\n-----\n\n### List instance configurations\n\nThe [Cloud SDK](https://cloud.google.com/sdk) command-line tool lets you interact with Cloud Spanner. For example, the following command lists the regional and multi-region instance configurations that are available for your project: \n\n\n gcloud spanner instance-configs list\n\nRegional configurations distribute data in a single region, while multi-region configurations distribute data geographically across multiple regions. Learn more about [Instances](/spanner/docs/instances).\n\n### Data types\n\nLooker Studio maps your database's built-in data types to a unified set of [data types](/looker/docs/studio/data-types). If Looker Studio encounters a column in your table or query of an unsupported type, it won't create a field for that column.\n\nLimits of the Spanner connector\n-------------------------------\n\n- The response size from Spanner is limited to 10 MB. See the [Spanner Limits article](https://cloud.google.com/spanner/quotas) for other limits.\n- Column headers (field names) must use ASCII characters only. Non-ASCII characters aren't supported.\n\nTroubleshooting\n---------------\n\nSee the [Looker Studio troubleshooting guide](/looker/docs/studio/troubleshooting-guide) for a list of common error messages and steps to resolve them.\n\nRelated resources\n-----------------\n\n- [Create a data source](/looker/docs/studio/add-data-to-a-report)\n- [Google Cloud Platform overview](https://cloud.google.com/docs/overview/)"]]
Create, and then select Data Source.