Google revives Data Studio

Google has renamed Looker Studio back to Data Studio, restoring a brand it retired in October 2022. The change was announced April 10 by Google Cloud. (cloud.google.com) Google said Data Studio will now act as one place to browse reports, BigQuery conversational agents, and data apps built in Colab notebooks. The company described it as a hub for people who need to organize and analyze business data from multiple Google sources. (cloud.google.com) The split is also product-level, not just cosmetic. Google said Looker will remain its enterprise business intelligence platform, while Data Studio will handle personal exploration, ad hoc reporting, and lightweight dashboards across products such as BigQuery, Google Sheets, and Google Ads. (cloud.google.com) Google is also keeping a two-tier model. Data Studio stays free for individual analysis and visualization, while Data Studio Pro is aimed at larger teams that need security, compliance, management controls, and artificial intelligence features, with licenses sold through Google Cloud and Google Workspace admin tools. (cloud.google.com; searchengineland.com) The reversal unwinds a branding move Google made in October 2022, when it moved Data Studio into the Google Cloud family and renamed it Looker Studio. Google’s support documentation still points users to that 2022 decision as the reason the product’s help center moved onto Google Cloud infrastructure. (support.google.com) Google says the newer setup reflects a cleaner division of labor. Looker is being positioned around governed data and semantic modeling, while Data Studio is being framed as the faster front door for nontechnical users who want dashboards and quick analysis without a heavier business intelligence stack. (cloud.google.com; searchengineland.com) For existing users, Google said the upgrade should be “largely transparent,” with current reports, data sources, and assets carrying over automatically. Google’s developer forum said on April 13 that “as of April 13, 2026, Looker Studio is called Data Studio.” (cloud.google.com; discuss.google.dev) Google has already started changing the surrounding plumbing. The old Looker Studio Help Center is no longer maintained, and Google says documentation is moving to Google Cloud pages instead. (support.google.com) The timing points to a broader Google Cloud push around analytics and artificial intelligence before Google Cloud Next 2026, which runs April 22 to April 24 in Las Vegas. Google said it plans to share more about the relaunch and its analytics strategy at that event. (cloud.withgoogle.com; searchengineland.com) After three and a half years as Looker Studio, Data Studio is back as Google’s simpler reporting brand. The company is betting the old name will make a crowded analytics lineup easier to understand. (cloud.google.com; searchengineland.com)