This page explains how to create and delete service account keys using the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, the Identity and Access Management API, or one of the Google Cloud Client Libraries.
Before you begin
Enable the IAM API.
Set up authentication.
Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:
Console
When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.
gcloud
In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.
At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
C++
To use the C++ samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
- Install the Google Cloud CLI.
-
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
-
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
gcloud auth application-default login
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.
For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
C#
To use the .NET samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
- Install the Google Cloud CLI.
-
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
-
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
gcloud auth application-default login
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.
For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
Go
To use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
- Install the Google Cloud CLI.
-
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
-
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
gcloud auth application-default login
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.
For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
Java
To use the Java samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
- Install the Google Cloud CLI.
-
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
-
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
gcloud auth application-default login
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.
For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
Python
To use the Python samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
- Install the Google Cloud CLI.
-
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
-
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
gcloud auth application-default login
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.
For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
REST
To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.
Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:
gcloud init
For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
Understand service account credentials.
Required roles
To get the permissions that you need to create and delete service account keys,
ask your administrator to grant you the
Service Account Key Admin (roles/iam.serviceAccountKeyAdmin
) IAM role on the project, or the service account whose keys you want
to manage.
For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.
For more information, see Service Accounts roles.
Depending on your organization policy configuration, you might also need to allow service account keys to be created in your project before creating a key.
To get the permissions that you need to allow service account keys to be created in a project, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on your organization:
-
Organization Policy Administrator (
roles/orgpolicy.policyAdmin
) -
Organization Viewer (
roles/resourcemanager.organizationViewer
) -
Tag Administrator (
roles/resourcemanager.tagAdmin
)
For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
These predefined roles contain the permissions required to allow service account keys to be created in a project. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:
Required permissions
The following permissions are required to allow service account keys to be created in a project:
-
orgpolicy.constraints.list
-
orgpolicy.customConstraints.create
-
orgpolicy.customConstraints.delete
-
orgpolicy.customConstraints.get
-
orgpolicy.customConstraints.list
-
orgpolicy.customConstraints.update
-
orgpolicy.policies.create
-
orgpolicy.policies.delete
-
orgpolicy.policies.list
-
orgpolicy.policies.update
-
orgpolicy.policy.get
-
orgpolicy.policy.set
-
resourcemanager.organizations.get
-
resourcemanager.projects.listTagBindings
-
resourcemanager.projects.listEffectiveTags
-
resourcemanager.tagKeys.get
-
resourcemanager.tagKeys.list
-
resourcemanager.tagValues.list
-
resourcemanager.tagValues.get
You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.
Allow service account key creation
Before you create a service account key, make sure that the
iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
organization policy constraint isn't
enforced for your project. If this constraint is enforced for your project,
you can't create service account keys in that project.
We recommend enforcing this constraint for most projects and only exempting projects that truly require service account keys. For more information about alternative authentication methods, see Choose the right authentication method for your use case.
To exempt a project from the iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
organization
policy constraint, ask an organization policy administrator to do the following:
-
At the organization level, create a tag key and tag value that you will use to define whether a project or folder should be exempt from the organization policy. We recommend creating a tag with the key
disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
and the valuesenforced
andnot_enforced
.To learn how to create tag keys and tag values, see Creating and defining a new tag.
-
Attach the
disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
tag to the organization and set its value toenforced
. All projects or folders in the organization inherit this tag value, unless it's overwritten with a different tag value.To learn how to attach tags to resources, see Attaching tags to resources.
-
For each project or folder that you want to exempt from the organization policy, attach the
disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
tag and set its value tonot_enforced
. Setting a tag value for a project or folder in this way overrides the tag value inherited from the organization. -
Create or update the organization policy that prevents the creation of service account keys so that it doesn't enforce the constraint for exempt resources. This policy should have the following rules:
-
Configure the
iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
constraint to not be enforced on any resources with thedisableServiceAccountKeyCreation: not_enforced
tag. The condition in this rule should look like the following:resource.matchTag(\"ORGANIZATION_ID/disableServiceAccountKeyCreation\", \"not_enforced\")
-
Configure the
iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation
constraint to be enforced on all other resources.
To learn how to create organization policies with tag conditions, see Setting an organization policy with tags.
-
Create a service account key
To use a service account from outside of Google Cloud, such as on other platforms or on-premises, you must first establish the identity of the service account. Public/private key pairs provide a secure way of accomplishing this goal. When you create a service account key, the public portion is stored on Google Cloud, while the private portion is available only to you. For more information about public/private key pairs, see Service account keys.
You can create a service account key
using the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, the
serviceAccounts.keys.create()
method, or one of the client libraries.
A service account can have up to 10 keys.
By default, service account keys never expire. You can use an organization policy constraint to specify the length of time for which a service account key is valid. For details, see Expiry times for user-managed keys.
In the examples below, SA_NAME
is the name of your
service account, and PROJECT_ID
is the ID of your
Google Cloud project. You can retrieve the
SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
string from the Service Accounts
page in the Google Cloud console.
Console
- In the Google Cloud console, go to the Service accounts page.
The remaining steps appear in the Google Cloud console.
- Select a project.
- Click the email address of the service account that you want to create a key for.
- Click the
Keys tab. - Click the Add key drop-down menu, then select Create new key.
- Select JSON as the Key type and click Create.
Clicking Create downloads a service account key file. After you download the key file, you cannot download it again.
The downloaded key has the following format, where
PRIVATE_KEY
is the private portion of the public/private
key pair:
{
"type": "service_account",
"project_id": "PROJECT_ID",
"private_key_id": "KEY_ID",
"private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nPRIVATE_KEY\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
"client_email": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL",
"client_id": "CLIENT_ID",
"auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
"token_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token",
"auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
"client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL"
}
Make sure to store the key file securely, because it can be used to authenticate as your service account. You can move and rename this file however you would like.
You can use service account key files to authenticate an application as a service account.
gcloud
Execute the gcloud iam service-accounts keys create
command to create service account keys.
Replace the following values:
KEY_FILE
: The path to a new output file for the private key—for example,~/sa-private-key.json
.SA_NAME
: The name of the service account to create a key for.PROJECT_ID
: Your Google Cloud project ID.
gcloud iam service-accounts keys create KEY_FILE \ --iam-account=SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Output:
created key [e44da1202f82f8f4bdd9d92bc412d1d8a837fa83] of type [json] as [/usr/home/username/KEY_FILE] for [SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com]
The service account key file is now downloaded to your machine. After you download the key file, you cannot download it again.
The downloaded key has the following format, where
PRIVATE_KEY
is the private portion of the public/private
key pair:
{ "type": "service_account", "project_id": "PROJECT_ID", "private_key_id": "KEY_ID", "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nPRIVATE_KEY\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n", "client_email": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL", "client_id": "CLIENT_ID", "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth", "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token", "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs", "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL" }
Make sure to store the key file securely, because it can be used to authenticate as your service account. You can move and rename this file however you would like.
You can use service account key files to authenticate an application as a service account.
C++
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM C++ API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
C#
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM C# API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
Go
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Go API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
Java
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Java API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
Python
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Python API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
REST
The
projects.serviceAccounts.keys.create
method creates a key for a service account.
Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:
PROJECT_ID
: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, likemy-project
.SA_NAME
: The name of the service account that you want to create a key for.KEY_ALGORITHM
: Optional. The key algorithm to use for the key. The default, which is subject to change, is a 2,048-bit RSA key. For a list of all possible values, see theServiceAccountKeyAlgorithm
reference.
HTTP method and URL:
POST https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys
Request JSON body:
{ "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALGORITHM" }
To send your request, expand one of these options:
The response contains a key for your service account. The returned key has the following format,
where ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY
is the private portion of the public/private key
pair, encoded in base64.
{ "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL/keys/KEY_ID", "privateKeyType": "TYPE_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_FILE", "privateKeyData": "ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY", "validAfterTime": "DATE", "validBeforeTime": "DATE", "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALG_RSA_2048" }
To create a key file that you can use to authenticate as the service account, decode the private key data and save it in a file:
Linux
Run the following command:
echo 'ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY' | base64 --decode > PATH
Replace PATH
with the path of the file that you want
to save the key to. Use the .json
file extension.
macOS
Run the following command:
echo 'ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY' | base64 --decode > PATH
Replace PATH
with the path of the file that you want
to save the key to. Use the .json
file extension.
PowerShell
Save the encoded private key data (
ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY
) in a file.Use
certutil
to decode the file:certutil -decode ENCODED_FILE DECODED_FILE
Replace the following values:
ENCODED_FILE
: the path to the file containing the encoded private key data.DECODED_FILE
: the path of the file that you want to save the key to. Use the.json
file extension.
Make sure to store the key data securely, because it can be used to authenticate as your service account.
You can use service account key files to authenticate an application as a service account.
Delete a service account key
Deleting a service account key permanently prevents you from using the key to authenticate with Google APIs.
You cannot undelete a deleted key. Before you delete a key, we recommend that you disable the key, then wait until you are sure that the key is no longer needed. You can then delete the key.
As a best practice, rotate your service account keys regularly. To learn more about rotating service account keys, see Service account key rotation.
Console
- In the Google Cloud console, go to the Service accounts page.
The remaining steps appear in the Google Cloud console.
- Select a project.
- On the Service accounts page, click the email address of the service account whose key you want to delete.
- Click the Keys tab.
- From the list of keys, click Delete for each key you'd like to delete.
gcloud
Execute the gcloud iam service-accounts keys delete
command to delete service account keys.
Replace the following values:
KEY_ID
: The ID of the key to delete. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to delete, and then copy its ID.SA_NAME
: The name of the service account that the key belongs to.PROJECT_ID
: Your Google Cloud project ID.
gcloud iam service-accounts keys delete KEY_ID \ --iam-account=SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Output:
Deleted key [KEY_ID] for service account [SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com]
C++
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM C++ API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
C#
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM C# API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
Go
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Go API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
Java
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Java API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
Python
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Python API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
REST
The
projects.serviceAccounts.keys.delete
method deletes a service account key.
Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:
PROJECT_ID
: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, likemy-project
.SA_NAME
: The name of the service account whose key you want to delete.KEY_ID
: The ID of the key that you want to delete. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to delete, and then copy its ID from the end of thename
field. The key's ID is everything afterkeys/
.
HTTP method and URL:
DELETE https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys/KEY_ID
To send your request, expand one of these options:
You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:
{ }
What's next
- Learn how to list and get service account keys.
- Learn how to upload your own public service account keys.
- Understand the best practices for managing service account keys.
- Learn about alternatives to service account keys for authentication.
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