These data are in association with a study conducted in the Santa Barbara Basin, California, USA that were used to calibrate and evaluate the boron to calcium ratio (B/Ca) of three species of planktonic foraminifera. Geochemistry data measured by HR-ICP-MS were generated for the G. bulloides, N. dutertrei and N. incompta species. Shell characteristics, specifically area-normalized shell weight (ANSW) measurements and individual shell geochemistry (LA-ICP-MS) were generated for G. bulloides as a part of a cryptic species analyses. Additional information on collection of ANSW data can be obtained in Osborne et al., (2016) publication in Paleoceanography (doi:10.1002/2016PA002933). Modeled marine carbonate system variables for our study site were used for comparison to foraminiferal B/Ca datasets.