Install the Google Cloud CLI

This quickstart describes the recommended method to install and initialize the Google Cloud CLI. After initialization, run a few core gcloud CLI commands to view information about your installation and verify it was successful.

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

  2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    Go to project selector

  3. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  4. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    Go to project selector

  5. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

When you finish the tasks that are described in this document, you can avoid continued billing by deleting the resources that you created. For more information, see Clean up.

Install gcloud CLI version 548.0.0

Linux
  1. Confirm that you have a supported version of Python. The Google Cloud CLI requires Python 3.9 to 3.14. The x86_64 Linux package includes a bundled Python interpreter that will be preferred by default. For information on how to choose and configure your Python interpreter, see the gcloud topic startup documentation.
  2. Download one of the following:
    Platform Package name Size SHA256 Checksum
    Linux 64-bit

    (x86_64)

    		 google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz 202.9 MB 71a81b5391dbc0418ac767a8522d8eab92780d708cb1c2740160d137fbeb760a
    Linux 64-bit

    (Arm)

    		 google-cloud-cli-linux-arm.tar.gz 57.7 MB 001c4adc88fe796a0c0a0db9771949947528c5066bc5c9f6b7240b5ef59ee0f3
    Linux 32-bit

    (x86)

    		 google-cloud-cli-linux-x86.tar.gz 57.8 MB 921b840acfbbb9cace1d696175aded8a891149ccfbab48e5aea11613bc4a31fc

    To download the Linux archive file, run the following command: 

    curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

    Refer to the table above and replace google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz with the *.tar.gz package name that applies to your configuration.

  3. To extract the contents of the file to your file system, run the following command: 
    tar -xf google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
     To replace an existing installation, delete the existing google-cloud-sdk directory and then extract the archive to the same location.
  4. Run the installation script from the root of the folder you extracted: 
    ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh
     The script prompts you to perform the following setup actions. To accept, answer Y when prompted.
    • Add the gcloud CLI to your PATH.
    • Enable command completion.
    • Opt in to send anonymous usage statistics to help improve the gcloud CLI.
    You can also perform the installation non-interactively by providing flags. To view available flags, run: 
    ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --help
  5. Optional: If you updated your PATH in the previous step, open a new terminal so that the changes take effect.
Debian/Ubuntu

Package contents

The gcloud CLI is available in package format for installation on Debian and Ubuntu systems. This package contains the gcloud, gcloud alpha, gcloud beta, gsutil, and bq command-line tools only. It doesn't include kubectl or the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands. If you want these components, you must install them separately.

Before you begin

Before you install the gcloud CLI, make sure that your operating system meets the following requirements:

  • It is an Ubuntu release that hasn't reached end-of-life or a Debian stable release that hasn't reached end-of-life.
  • It has recently updated its packages. To do this now, run the following command: 
    sudo apt-get update
  • It has apt-transport-https, ca-certificates, gnupg, and curl installed. To install these packages, run the following command: 
    sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg curl

Installation

  1. Import the Google Cloud public key.

    • For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+) run the following command:

      curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg
    • For older distributions, run the following command: 
      curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg add -

    • If your distribution's apt-key command doesn't support the --keyring argument, run the following command:

      curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

    • If you can't get latest updates due to an expired key, obtain the latest apt-get.gpg key file.

  2. Add the gcloud CLI distribution URI as a package source.
    • For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+), run the following command: 
      echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list

    • For older distributions that don't support the signed-by option, run the following command:

      echo "deb https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
  3. Update and install the gcloud CLI: 
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli
     For additional apt-get options, such as disabling prompts or dry runs, refer to the apt-get man pages.

    Docker Tip: If installing the gcloud CLI inside a Docker image, use a single RUN step instead:

    RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list && curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-cli -y
    For older base images that do not support the gpg --dearmor command: 
    RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list && curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg  add - && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-cli -y
  4. Optional: Install any of the following additional components:
    • google-cloud-cli-anthos-auth
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-grpc
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python-extras
    • google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-cbt
    • google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local
    • google-cloud-cli-cloud-run-proxy
    • google-cloud-cli-config-connector
    • google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-firestore-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin
    • google-cloud-cli-kpt
    • google-cloud-cli-kubectl-oidc
    • google-cloud-cli-local-extract
    • google-cloud-cli-minikube
    • google-cloud-cli-nomos
    • google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-skaffold
    • google-cloud-cli-spanner-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-terraform-validator
    • google-cloud-cli-tests
    • kubectl

    For example, the google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java component can be installed as follows: 

    sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java

Downgrade gcloud CLI versions

To revert to a specific version of the gcloud CLI, where VERSION is of the form 123.0.0, run the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli=123.0.0-0

The ten most recent releases are always available in the repo. For releases prior to 371.0.0, the package name is google-cloud-sdk

Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS

Package contents

The gcloud CLI is available in package format for installation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, and 10; Fedora 41 and 42; and CentOS 7 and 8 systems. This package contains the gcloud, gcloud alpha, gcloud beta, gsutil, and bq commands only. It doesn't include kubectl or the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands, which can be installed separately as described later in this section.

Installation

  1. Update DNF with gcloud CLI repository information.

    • The following sample command is for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, or 9-compatible installations, but make sure that you update the settings as needed for your configuration:

      sudo tee -a /etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud-sdk.repo << EOM
[google-cloud-cli]
name=Google Cloud CLI
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/cloud-sdk-el9-x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg
EOM

    • For RHEL 10-compatible installations, use the following command with the updated gpgkey:

      sudo tee -a /etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud-sdk.repo << EOM
[google-cloud-cli]
name=Google Cloud CLI
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/cloud-sdk-el10-x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key-v10.gpg
EOM
  2. Install libxcrypt-compat.x86_64. 
    sudo dnf install libxcrypt-compat.x86_64
  3. Install the gcloud CLI: 
    sudo dnf install google-cloud-cli
  4. Optional: Install any of the following additional components:
    • google-cloud-cli-anthos-auth
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-grpc
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python-extras
    • google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-cbt
    • google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local
    • google-cloud-cli-cloud-run-proxy
    • google-cloud-cli-config-connector
    • google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-firestore-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin
    • google-cloud-cli-kpt
    • google-cloud-cli-kubectl-oidc
    • google-cloud-cli-local-extract
    • google-cloud-cli-minikube
    • google-cloud-cli-nomos
    • google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-skaffold
    • google-cloud-cli-spanner-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-terraform-validator
    • google-cloud-cli-tests
    • kubectl

    For example, to install the google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java component, run the following command: 

    sudo dnf install google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java

Downgrade gcloud CLI versions

To revert to a specific version of gcloud CLI, run the following command. Replace 123.0.0 with the version that you want to install: 

sudo dnf downgrade google-cloud-cli-123.0.0

The ten most recent releases are available in the repository. For releases prior to 371.0.0, use google-cloud-sdk as the package name.

macOS
  1. Confirm that you have a supported version of Python. The Google Cloud CLI requires Python 3.9 to 3.14.

    To check your Python version, run python3 -V or python -V.

    The installation script can install Python for you if needed. This requires Xcode Command Line Tools. To install them, run sudo xcode-select --install. Alternatively, you can install a supported Python version from python.org.

    For more information about configuring your Python interpreter, especially if you have multiple versions installed, see the gcloud topic startup documentation.

  2. Download one of the following:
    Platform Package Size SHA256 Checksum
    macOS 64-bit

    (x86_64)

    		 google-cloud-cli-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz 57.9 MB 6a838eacf37a2505c4d90fb74bd97abdb488b0a85321c3d886e4bd9851a78fd8
    macOS 64-bit

    (ARM64, Apple silicon)

    		 google-cloud-cli-darwin-arm.tar.gz 57.8 MB 36e2838b7b3ec0659df7a142bb870f8612576ca6883240d657363e3391964339
    macOS 32-bit

    (x86)

    		 google-cloud-cli-darwin-x86.tar.gz 56.3 MB eaeef651be72fb86379e1fd6c208d625c5ebaf3f87d9deb540594e456fc4ed56

    Alternatively, you can download the archive from the command line. Replace FILE_NAME with the package name for your platform from the table above. 

    curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/FILE_NAME
  3. Extract the contents of the file to your preferred location on your file system. A common practice is to extract it to your home directory.

    On macOS, you can do this by opening the downloaded .tar.gz file in your preferred location. Alternatively, from the command line, run: 

    tar -xf FILE_NAME

    To replace an existing installation, delete the existing google-cloud-sdk directory and then extract the archive to the same location.

  4. Run the installation script from the root of the folder you extracted: 
    ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh
     The script prompts you to perform the following setup actions. To accept, answer Y when prompted.
    • Install Python 3.13 and recommended modules if needed.
    • Add the gcloud CLI to your PATH and enable command completion.
    • Opt in to send anonymous usage statistics to help improve the gcloud CLI.
    You can also perform the installation non-interactively by providing flags. To view available flags, run: 
    ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --help
     To run the install script with screen reader mode enabled: 
    ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --screen-reader=true
  5. Optional: If you updated your PATH in the previous step, open a new terminal so that the changes take effect.
Windows

The Google Cloud CLI on Windows requires Windows 8.1 and later, or Windows Server 2012 and later.

  1. Download the Google Cloud CLI installer.

    Alternatively, open a PowerShell terminal and run the following PowerShell commands: 

    (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe", "$env:Temp\GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe")

& $env:Temp\GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe

  2. Launch the installer and follow the prompts. The installer is signed by Google LLC.

    • If you're using a screen reader, check the Turn on screen reader mode checkbox. This option configures gcloud to use status trackers instead of unicode spinners, display progress as a percentage, and flatten tables. For more information, see the Accessibility features guide.
    • Google Cloud CLI requires Python; supported versions are Python 3.9 to 3.14. By default, the Windows version of Google Cloud CLI comes bundled with Python 3. To use Google Cloud CLI your operating system must be able to run a supported version of Python.
    • The installer installs all necessary dependencies, including the needed Python version. While Google Cloud CLI installs and manages Python 3 by default, you can use an existing Python installation if necessary by unchecking the option to Install Bundled Python. See gcloud topic startup to learn how to use an existing Python installation.

  3. After installation is complete, the installer gives you the option to create Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts, and start the Google Cloud CLI shell. Uncheck the option to start the shell. You will run and configure the gcloud CLI in the next steps.

Troubleshooting tips

  • If your installation is unsuccessful due to the find command not being recognized, ensure your PATH environment variable is set to include the folder containing find. Usually, this is C:\WINDOWS\system32;.
  • If you uninstalled the gcloud CLI, you must reboot your system before installing the gcloud CLI again.
  • If unzipping fails, run the installer as an administrator.
Chromebook
  1. Set up the Linux development environment on your Chromebook.
  2. Add the gcloud CLI distribution URI as a package source. Run the following command: 
    echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
  3. Import the Google Cloud public key: 
    curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg add -
  4. Update and install the gcloud CLI: 
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli
  5. Optional: Install any of the following additional components:
    • google-cloud-cli-anthos-auth
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-grpc
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python
    • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python-extras
    • google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-cbt
    • google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local
    • google-cloud-cli-cloud-run-proxy
    • google-cloud-cli-config-connector
    • google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-firestore-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin
    • google-cloud-cli-kpt
    • google-cloud-cli-kubectl-oidc
    • google-cloud-cli-local-extract
    • google-cloud-cli-minikube
    • google-cloud-cli-nomos
    • google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-skaffold
    • google-cloud-cli-spanner-emulator
    • google-cloud-cli-terraform-validator
    • google-cloud-cli-tests
    • kubectl

    For example, to install the google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java component, run the following command: 

    sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java

Downgrade the gcloud CLI versions

To revert to a specific version of gcloud CLI, run the following command. Replace 123.0.0 with the version that you want to install:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli=123.0.0-0

The ten most recent releases are available in the repository. For releases prior to 371.0.0, use google-cloud-sdk as the package name.

Initialize and authorize the gcloud CLI

If you are behind a proxy or firewall, see Proxy configuration to enable network access for the gcloud CLI.

After you install the gcloud CLI, initialize it to authorize access to Google Cloud and set up a default configuration. For more information, see gcloud init.

  1. Run gcloud init to initialize the gcloud CLI:

    gcloud init

    By default, this command opens a web browser to authorize access. To authorize from the command line instead, add the --console-only flag. For non-interactive authorization, create a service account with the appropriate scopes in the Google Cloud console, and then use gcloud auth activate-service-account with its JSON key file.

  2. Follow the prompts to authorize and configure:

    • When prompted to sign in, accept and then sign in to your Google Account in your browser. Click Allow to grant permission to access resources.

    • From the list of projects for which you have Owner, Editor, or Viewer permissions, select a project. If you have only one project, gcloud init selects it for you.

      If you have more than 200 projects, you are prompted to enter a project ID, create a project, or list projects. If you choose to create a project, you must also enable billing on it.

    • If you have the Compute Engine API enabled, select a default Compute Engine zone.

  3. Optional: For an improved screen reader experience, enable the accessibility/screen_reader property with the following command:

    gcloud config set accessibility/screen_reader true

    For more information, see the Enabling accessibility features guide.

Run core commands

Run core commands to view information about your gcloud CLI installation:

  1. List accounts whose credentials are stored on the local system:

    gcloud auth list

    The gcloud CLI displays a list of credentialed accounts:

    Credentialed Accounts
ACTIVE             ACCOUNT
*                  example-user-1@example.com
                   example-user-2@example.com

  2. List the properties in your active gcloud CLI configuration:

    gcloud config list

    The gcloud CLI displays the list of properties:

    [core]
account = example-user-1@example.com
disable_usage_reporting = False
project = example-project

  3. View information about gcloud commands and other topics:

    gcloud help

    For example, to view the help for gcloud compute instances create:

    gcloud help compute instances create

    The gcloud CLI displays a help topic that contains a description of the command, a list of command flags and arguments, and examples of how to use the command.

Optional: Install additional components

To install additional components, such as the App Engine emulators, kubectl, or gcloud CLI commands at the alpha or beta release level, see Managing gcloud CLI components.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.

What's next

  • Read the gcloud CLI guide for an overview of the gcloud CLI, including a quick introduction to key concepts, command conventions, and helpful tips.
  • Read the gcloud CLI reference guide for detailed pages on each gcloud CLI command, including descriptions, flags, and examples, that you can use to perform a variety of tasks on Google Cloud.
  • See the gcloud CLI cheat sheet for a list of commonly used commands and key concepts.