Your PM Wants One More BigQuery Pull. Ask Gemini in Sheets Instead.

At a glance

• Connect the table once through Data, then Data connectors, then Connect to BigQuery, and open the Gemini side panel in that spreadsheet.
• Ask in plain language. Google says Gemini queries run against the full BigQuery dataset, not just what is visible in the sheet.
• Ask for a dashboard, review the plan Gemini shows you, then put the new tab on a scheduled refresh.

A product manager wants weekly failure rates by service, then the same numbers split by region, then a chart for Thursday's review. Each ask is a small SQL job, and together they eat your afternoon.

Why it matters

On Monday 19 October 2026, the Google Workspace Updates blog said that once a sheet is connected to BigQuery through Connected Sheets, you can analyze that data with Gemini conversationally. Gemini queries run against the full dataset in BigQuery, so the answer is not limited to what is visible in your spreadsheet. Follow-up questions work too. If you describe a dashboard, Gemini shares its plan for review, then builds a new tab with native, connected, refreshable objects such as database formulas, pivot tables, and charts.

Google pitches this as a shorter backlog of one-off report requests for data teams. The person asking can run their own follow-ups, and the numbers still come from the BigQuery table.

How to answer a BigQuery question from Sheets

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. In the menu at the top, click Data, then Data connectors, then Connect to BigQuery.
3. Choose a project, then a table or view, and confirm the connection to start analyzing.
4. At the top right, click Ask Gemini to open the side panel.
5. Start with one narrow question, then follow up, as in the block below.
6. For the dashboard prompt, read the plan Gemini shows before you let it build the new tab.
7. To keep the tab current, at the bottom next to Refresh, click More Refresh options. Under Scheduled refresh, click Setup now, choose a frequency, and click Save.

What was the failure rate for each service last week, using the full table?
How does that compare to the previous four weeks? Which services moved the most?
Build a weekly reliability review on a new tab: failure rate by service, a daily trend for the last 30 days, and the 10 slowest pipelines by median duration. Show me your plan first.

The service and pipeline wording is our example. Swap in the real column names from your table.

Gotchas

• Rollout: Workspace Updates lists a gradual rollout, up to 15 days for feature visibility, starting 19 October 2026 for Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains.
• Who gets it: Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, Google AI Pro and Ultra, Google AI Pro for Education, and the AI Expanded Access add-on. It is on by default, with no admin control, for users with permission to query the connected data.
• BigQuery prerequisites: Help requires Google Cloud access, BigQuery access, and a project with billing set up. Connected Sheets runs queries in BigQuery on your behalf, so our advice is to check how your team tracks query costs before you share the sheet widely.
• Read only, and access matters: you cannot change BigQuery data from Sheets. Google Cloud docs say people with the spreadsheet but no BigQuery access cannot refresh the data, manually or on a schedule.
• Refresh owner: a schedule runs as whoever set it up, and pauses if another user adds or updates a data source.
• Checking the SQL: Connected Sheets documents a Query details on BigQuery option for its charts, pivot tables and formulas. Our inference, not a documented claim, is that it also works on the objects Gemini builds, since Google calls them connected.
• Docs lag: as of 20 October 2026, the Gemini in Sheets Help page does not cover BigQuery yet, so these steps pair the Workspace Updates post with Connected Sheets Help.

Recommended AI prompt

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