# Syntax error: Expected keyword MODULE or keyword PROTO

> This is what BigQuery says when the first word of your query is import. It means you pasted code from another language into a SQL editor, and IMPORT happens to be a real GoogleSQL keyword.

Source: https://docs.querylab.io/bigquery-errors/expected-keyword-module-or-keyword-proto/

Updated: 2026-10-25

```text
Syntax error: Expected keyword MODULE or keyword PROTO but got identifier "sqlite3" at [1:8]
```

## What BigQuery means

The column in the message, 8, is where `sqlite3` starts. It points at the word that was not `MODULE`, not at the problem.

You pasted something that is not SQL, and it started with the word `import`.

GoogleSQL's grammar has an `IMPORT MODULE` and an `IMPORT PROTO` statement, so `import` at the start of a statement is read as one of those. The next word has to be `MODULE` or `PROTO`. It was `sqlite3`, and that is what the message reports.

BigQuery does not actually run either form. `IMPORT MODULE foo` gets past the parser and then fails with `Statement not supported: ImportStatement at [1:1]`. The grammar knows the statement, the service does not implement it. That is enough for `import` to be treated as a statement keyword and to produce this message.

Nobody hits this writing SQL.

## The fix

The query box wants SQL. If you were running Python, you want the BigQuery client library or [BigQuery DataFrames](https://docs.querylab.io/bigquery/bigquery-dataframes/), not the query editor:

```python
from google.cloud import bigquery
client = bigquery.Client()
rows = client.query("SELECT 1").result()
```

If you meant to run the SQL that was further down in what you copied, copy only that part.

## Why other languages get another error

`import` lands on this message because the grammar has a statement that starts with it. First words that match no statement form are just identifiers, so you get [Unexpected identifier](https://docs.querylab.io/bigquery-errors/syntax-error-unexpected-identifier/) instead:

```sql
def main():
    pass
```

```text
Syntax error: Unexpected identifier "def" at [1:1]
```

```sql
const x = 1;
```

```text
Syntax error: Unexpected identifier "const" at [1:1]
```

## In Querylab.io

Querylab.io marks this in the editor as you type, with the message "Unsupported statement: import" on the word `import` itself. No request goes to BigQuery.

## Sources

Based on the BigQuery documentation by Google, CC BY 4.0, rewritten with examples checked against BigQuery:

- [Lexical structure and syntax, reserved keywords](https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/lexical#reserved_keywords)

- [Query syntax](https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/query-syntax)