Google rebranded Data Studio to Data Studio in October 2022. If you've been using Data Studio for your analytics reporting, here's everything you need to know about what changed — and what didn't.
What's Looker?
Looker is a data exploration and business intelligence platform that Google acquired in 2019. After integrating it into Google Cloud Platform, Google consolidated their BI products under the Looker brand. Data Studio — their free, accessible reporting tool — became Data Studio as part of that unification.
What Changed?
The first question most users had was whether the product itself would change. The short answer: not much, at least for now.
Data Studio continues to operate as a free service with the same features Data Studio users know. The core experience — connecting data sources, building reports, sharing dashboards — remains intact.
The notable changes are mostly cosmetic and infrastructural:
- URL migration — Reports now live at
lookerstudio.google.cominstead ofdatastudio.google.com - New logo — The interface now carries the Looker emblem
- Support documentation — Help articles moved to
support.google.com/looker-studio
The substantive addition is Data Studio Pro — a paid tier offering enterprise capabilities including team workspaces, Google Cloud Project integration, and planned Dataplex connectivity, plus formal technical support. The free tier remains fully functional.
What to Expect Next
Before the rebrand, development activity on the platform had slowed noticeably. The expectation is that the consolidation under the Looker brand will bring renewed investment and faster feature development.
Google's broader strategy appears to be keeping the free tier healthy while gradually pushing enterprise features toward the Pro tier — a familiar model in the Google suite.
As for the name on this site: we're keeping it Data Studio Guru. The domain, the brand, and the expertise all carry that name, and a rebrand of our own would cause more confusion than clarity. The templates and tutorials here work equally well in Data Studio — by any name.