diff --git a/.changelog/3057.txt b/.changelog/3057.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cff8b2345d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/3057.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:bug
+bigtable: fixed diff for DEVELOPMENT instances that are returned from the API with one node
+```
diff --git a/google/resource_bigtable_instance.go b/google/resource_bigtable_instance.go
index e6212ffbbf0..63536e73470 100644
--- a/google/resource_bigtable_instance.go
+++ b/google/resource_bigtable_instance.go
@@ -50,8 +50,11 @@ func resourceBigtableInstance() *schema.Resource {
 							Required: true,
 						},
 						"num_nodes": {
-							Type:         schema.TypeInt,
-							Optional:     true,
+							Type:     schema.TypeInt,
+							Optional: true,
+							// DEVELOPMENT instances could get returned with either zero or one node,
+							// so mark as computed.
+							Computed:     true,
 							ValidateFunc: validation.IntAtLeast(3),
 						},
 						"storage_type": {
@@ -311,7 +314,7 @@ func resourceBigtableInstanceValidateDevelopment(diff *schema.ResourceDiff, meta
 	if diff.Get("cluster.#").(int) != 1 {
 		return fmt.Errorf("config is invalid: instance with instance_type=\"DEVELOPMENT\" should have exactly one \"cluster\" block")
 	}
-	if diff.Get("cluster.0.num_nodes").(int) != 0 {
+	if diff.Get("cluster.0.num_nodes").(int) > 1 {
 		return fmt.Errorf("config is invalid: num_nodes cannot be set for instance_type=\"DEVELOPMENT\"")
 	}
 	return nil
diff --git a/google/resource_sql_database_instance_test.go b/google/resource_sql_database_instance_test.go
index 6a21cec41f7..1a14fca3674 100644
--- a/google/resource_sql_database_instance_test.go
+++ b/google/resource_sql_database_instance_test.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-sdk/helper/acctest"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-sdk/helper/resource"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-sdk/terraform"
+
 	sqladmin "google.golang.org/api/sqladmin/v1beta4"
 )