In short. Configure a billed Cloud project, grant the export service account BigQuery roles, and activate Bulk data export in Search Console.
Definition: As of 17 October 2026, Search Console bulk data export schedules a daily transfer of a property's performance data to BigQuery, Google's service for querying data. Setup connects a billed Google Cloud project to the property's Bulk data export setting.
Key facts
- Google's bulk export overview describes a daily export of the performance data available for a property, with anonymized queries excluded.
- Google's management documentation requires Search Console property owner permissions to start or stop the export.
- Google's table reference lists two performance tables and an
ExportLogtable recording successful exports.
Which Cloud permissions are required?
Google's setup instructions require a Google Cloud project with billing. In APIs & Services > Enabled APIs & Services, enable BigQuery API and BigQuery Storage API.
In IAM and Admin > Grant access, add this service account as a principal:
search-console-data-export@system.gserviceaccount.com
Grant it BigQuery Job User and BigQuery Data Editor, then save. Google lists their command-line identifiers as:
bigquery.jobUser
bigquery.dataEditor
How is the export activated?
Google's setup guide specifies Settings > Bulk data export in the Search Console property. Enter the Cloud project ID, choose a dataset name and location, and click Continue.
The default dataset name is searchconsole; customized names retain that prefix. Each property exporting to the same project needs a different dataset name. Search Console creates the dataset in the selected location during the first export.
The same guide gives up to 48 hours for the first export after successful configuration. It includes data for the day of the export; earlier history is available through the Search Console API or reports.
Which tables appear in BigQuery?
Google's table reference documents these names:
searchdata_site_impression
searchdata_url_impression
ExportLog
The site table aggregates performance by property. Its fields include data_date, site_url, query, country, device, search_type, impressions and clicks. The URL table aggregates by URL and adds a url field and search appearance flags. The is_anonymized_query field identifies rare queries whose text is withheld for privacy.
The tables use Pacific Time for data_date. Google warns that exported rows can have repeated keys because performance data accumulates incrementally, and recommends aggregating metrics.
ExportLog records successful writes separately for each performance table. Its namespace identifies the table, data_date identifies the performance date, and publish_time records completion time.
How is a working export checked?
Google's monitoring guide places the latest attempt's status in Settings > Bulk data export. The performance tables can export at different times, so the success history is recorded per table in ExportLog.
Export errors appear in Search Console; Cloud Logs Explorer provides further details under the searchable text search-console-data-export. After a correction, Test report checks settings such as the project name and Cloud access. Exports continue at their scheduled intervals after a successful test.
Google retries a failed date for about a week and stops the entire bulk export after about a month of failed attempts.
Related terms
- How do I export a filtered Search Console Performance report?
- How do I compare search queries by country in Search Console?
- Why can Search Console reports differ between domain and URL-prefix properties?
FAQ
Does storing the export cost money?
Google's setup documentation describes a free usage level and charges for storage and queries above the free quota. You must configure billing for the destination project.
How long is exported data kept?
Google's table reference says tables and partitions are retained indefinitely by default, subject to project or organization defaults. A partition is a date-based subdivision of these performance tables; you can set its expiration to limit retention. Google's setup instructions specify an expiration of at least 14 days and warn that changing the table schema causes export failures.
Sources
- Google Search Console Help, "About bulk data export of Search Console data to BigQuery", undated
- Google Search Console Help, "Start a new bulk data export", undated
- Google Search Console Help, "Manage and monitor bulk data exports in Search Console", undated
- Google Search Console Help, "Table guidelines and reference", undated
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