Query the control plane
INFORMATION_SCHEMA beats sampling rows for “did it update?”
Learn · BigQuery
BigQuery table freshness
Using last-modified metadata as an SLA signal.
The problem
BigQuery will happily serve yesterday’s table. Last-modified in INFORMATION_SCHEMA is the signal most teams ignore until close week.
The outcome
Treat last-modified (and related metadata) as the control plane for freshness SLAs — without reading result rows.
Signal
last-modified
Scope
Tables you name
Access
Read-only SA
What you get
Thresholds in hours
Match the meeting cadence that consumes the table.
Pair with dbt
A fresh table with a failed upstream model is still a lie — Watchdog joins both.
Cost stays separate
Freshness incidents and cost spikes share one queue, different playbooks.
- ✓Live: /vectordata/freshness
- ✓Setup docs under /docs
- ✓Compare DIY: /compare/bigquery-console
- ✓Demo: /app
Try VectorData, then decide
Open workspace, or book a Data Stack Health Audit credited toward Managed.