Delete and undelete service accounts

This page explains how to delete and undelete service accounts using the Identity and Access Management (IAM) API, the Google Cloud console, and the gcloud command- line tool.

Before you begin

• Enable the IAM API.

  Enable the 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

  You can use the gcloud CLI samples on this page from either of the following development environments:

  • Cloud Shell: To use an online terminal with the gcloud CLI already set up, activate Cloud Shell.

    At the bottom of this page, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.

  • Local shell: To use the gcloud CLI in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI.

  C++

  To use the C++ samples on this page from a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

  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 from a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

  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 from a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

  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 from a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

  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 from a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

  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

• Understand IAM service accounts

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to delete and undelete service accounts, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project:

• To delete service accounts: Delete Service Accounts (roles/iam.serviceAccountDeleter)
• To delete and undelete service accounts: Service Account Admin (roles/iam.serviceAccountAdmin)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

To learn more about these roles, see Service Accounts roles.

IAM basic roles also contain permissions to manage service accounts. You should not grant basic roles in a production environment, but you can grant them in a development or test environment.

Delete a service account

When you delete a service account, applications will no longer have access to Google Cloud resources through that service account. If you delete the default App Engine and Compute Engine service accounts, then the App Engine apps and Compute Engine VM instances that use those service accounts will no longer have access to resources in the project.

Delete service accounts with caution. Make sure your critical applications are no longer using a service account before deleting it. If you're not sure whether a service account is being used, Google recommends disabling the service account instead of deleting it. Disabled service accounts can be re-enabled if they are still needed.

If you want to restore a deleted service account, you can undelete it, if it's been 30 days or less since you deleted the service account. After 30 days, IAM permanently removes the service account. Google Cloud cannot recover the service account after it is permanently removed, even if you file a support request.

To further reduce the risk of deleting a necessary service account, you can also enable change risk recommendations. Change risk recommendations generate warnings when you try to delete service accounts that Google Cloud has identified as important.

If you delete a service account, then create a new service account with the same name, the new service account is treated as a separate identity; it does not inherit the roles granted to the deleted service account. In contrast, when you delete a service account, then undelete it, the service account's identity does not change, and the service account retains its roles.

When a service account is deleted, its role bindings are not immediately removed; they are automatically purged from the system after a maximum of 60 days. Until that time, the service account appears in role bindings with a deleted: prefix and a ?uid=NUMERIC_ID suffix, where NUMERIC_ID is a unique numeric ID for the service account.

Deleted service accounts do not count towards your service account quota.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Service accounts page.

   Go to Service accounts

2. Select a project.

3. Select the service account you want to delete, and then click Delete .

gcloud

1. In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.

   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.

2. Execute the gcloud iam service-accounts delete command to delete a service account.

   Command:

   gcloud iam service-accounts delete \
       SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

   Output:

   Deleted 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.

namespace iam = ::google::cloud::iam_admin_v1;
[](std::string const& name) {
  iam::IAMClient client(iam::MakeIAMConnection());
  auto response = client.DeleteServiceAccount(name);
  if (!response.ok()) throw std::runtime_error(response.message());
  std::cout << "ServiceAccount successfully deleted.\n";
}

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.

using System;
using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;
using Google.Apis.Iam.v1;

public partial class ServiceAccounts
{
    public static void DeleteServiceAccount(string email)
    {
        var credential = GoogleCredential.GetApplicationDefault()
            .CreateScoped(IamService.Scope.CloudPlatform);
        var service = new IamService(new IamService.Initializer
        {
            HttpClientInitializer = credential
        });

        string resource = "projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + email;
        service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Delete(resource).Execute();
        Console.WriteLine("Deleted service account: " + email);
    }
}

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.

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	iam "google.golang.org/api/iam/v1"
)

// deleteServiceAccount deletes a service account.
func deleteServiceAccount(w io.Writer, email string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()
	service, err := iam.NewService(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("iam.NewService: %w", err)
	}

	_, err = service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Delete("projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + email).Do()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Projects.ServiceAccounts.Delete: %w", err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Deleted service account: %v", email)
	return nil
}

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.

import com.google.api.client.googleapis.javanet.GoogleNetHttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.gson.GsonFactory;
import com.google.api.services.iam.v1.Iam;
import com.google.api.services.iam.v1.IamScopes;
import com.google.auth.http.HttpCredentialsAdapter;
import com.google.auth.oauth2.GoogleCredentials;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.security.GeneralSecurityException;
import java.util.Collections;

public class DeleteServiceAccount {

  // Deletes a service account.
  public static void deleteServiceAccount(String projectId, String serviceAccountName) {
    // String projectId = "my-project-id";
    // String serviceAccountName = "my-service-account-name";

    Iam service = null;
    try {
      service = initService();
    } catch (IOException | GeneralSecurityException e) {
      System.out.println("Unable to initialize service: \n" + e.toString());
      return;
    }

    String serviceAccountEmail = serviceAccountName + "@" + projectId + ".iam.gserviceaccount.com";
    try {
      service
          .projects()
          .serviceAccounts()
          .delete("projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + serviceAccountEmail)
          .execute();

      System.out.println("Deleted service account: " + serviceAccountEmail);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      System.out.println("Unable to delete service account: \n" + e.toString());
    }
  }

  private static Iam initService() throws GeneralSecurityException, IOException {
    // Use the Application Default Credentials strategy for authentication. For more info, see:
    // https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production#finding_credentials_automatically
    GoogleCredentials credential =
        GoogleCredentials.getApplicationDefault()
            .createScoped(Collections.singleton(IamScopes.CLOUD_PLATFORM));
    // Initialize the IAM service, which can be used to send requests to the IAM API.
    Iam service =
        new Iam.Builder(
                GoogleNetHttpTransport.newTrustedTransport(),
                GsonFactory.getDefaultInstance(),
                new HttpCredentialsAdapter(credential))
            .setApplicationName("service-accounts")
            .build();
    return service;
  }
}

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.

import os

from google.oauth2 import service_account  # type: ignore
import googleapiclient.discovery  # type: ignore

def delete_service_account(email: str) -> None:
    """Deletes a service account."""

    credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
        filename=os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"],
        scopes=["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform"],
    )

    service = googleapiclient.discovery.build("iam", "v1", credentials=credentials)

    service.projects().serviceAccounts().delete(
        name="projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + email
    ).execute()

    print("Deleted service account: " + email)

REST

The serviceAccounts.delete method deletes 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, like my-project.
• SA_ID: The ID of your service account. This can either be the service account's email address in the form SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com, or the service account's unique numeric ID.

HTTP method and URL:

DELETE https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_ID

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

curl -X DELETE \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_ID"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method DELETE `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_ID" | Select-Object -Expand Content

APIs Explorer (browser)

Open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Complete any required fields and click Execute.

If successful, the response body will be empty.

Undelete a service account

In some cases, you can use the undelete command to undelete a deleted service account. You can usually undelete a deleted service account if it meets these criteria:

• The service account was deleted less than 30 days ago.

  After 30 days, IAM permanently removes the service account. Google Cloud cannot recover the service account after it is permanently removed, even if you file a support request.

• There is no existing service account with the same name as the deleted service account.

  For example, suppose that you accidentally delete the service account [e-mail]. You still need a service account with that name, so you create a new service account with the same name, [e-mail].

  The new service account does not inherit the permissions of the deleted service account. In effect, it is completely separate from the deleted service account. However, you cannot undelete the original service account, because the new service account has the same name.

  To address this issue, delete the new service account, then try to undelete the original service account.

If you are not able to undelete the service account, you can create a new service account with the same name; revoke all of the roles from the deleted service account; and grant the same roles to the new service account. For details, see Policies with deleted principals.

Find a deleted service account's numeric ID

When you undelete a service account, you must provide its numeric ID. The numeric ID is a 21-digit number, such as 123456789012345678901, that uniquely identifies the service account. For example, if you delete a service account, then create a new service account with the same name, the original service account and the new service account will have different numeric IDs.

If you know that a binding in an allow policy includes the deleted service account, you can get the allow policy, then find the numeric ID in the allow policy. The numeric ID is appended to the name of the deleted service account. For example, in this allow policy, the numeric ID for the deleted service account is 123456789012345678901:

{
  "version": 1,
  "etag": "BwUjMhCsNvY=",
  "bindings": [
    {
      "members": [
        "deleted:serviceAccount:[e-mail]?uid=123456789012345678901"
      ],
      "role": "roles/iam.serviceAccountUser"
    },
  ]
}

Numeric IDs are only appended to the names of deleted principals.

Alternatively, you can search your audit logs for the DeleteServiceAccount operation that deleted the service account:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logs explorer page.

   Go to Logs explorer

2. In the query editor, enter the following query, replacing SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL with the email address of your service account (for example, [e-mail]):

   resource.type="service_account"
   resource.labels.email_id="SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL"
   "DeleteServiceAccount"
   

3. If the service account was deleted more than an hour ago, click Last 1 hour, select a longer period of time from the drop-down list, then click Apply.

4. Click Run query. The Logs Explorer displays the DeleteServiceAccount operations that affected service accounts with the name you specified.

5. Find and note the numeric ID of the deleted service account by doing one of the following:

   • If the search results include only one DeleteServiceAccount operation, find the numeric ID in the Unique ID field of the Log fields pane.

     

     

   • If the search results show more than one log, do the following:

     1. Find the correct log entry. To find the correct log entry, click the expander arrow next to a log entry. Review the details of the log entry and determine whether the log entry shows the operation that you want to undo. Repeat this process until you find the correct log entry.

     2. In the correct log entry, locate the service account's numeric ID. To locate the numeric ID, expand the log entry's protoPayload field, then find the resourceName field.

        

        

        The numeric ID is everything after serviceAccounts in the resourceName field.

Undelete the service account by numeric ID

After you find the numeric ID for the deleted service account, you can try to undelete the service account.

gcloud

1. In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.

   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.

2. Execute the gcloud beta iam service-accounts undelete command to undelete a service account.

   Command:

   gcloud beta iam service-accounts undelete ACCOUNT_ID

   Output:

   restoredAccount:
       email: SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
       etag: BwWWE7zpApg=
       name: projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
       oauth2ClientId: '123456789012345678901'
       projectId: PROJECT_ID
       uniqueId: 'ACCOUNT_ID'

REST

The serviceAccounts.undelete method restores a deleted 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, like my-project.
• SA_NUMERIC_ID: The unique numeric ID of the service account.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NUMERIC_ID:undelete

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d "" \
     "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NUMERIC_ID:undelete"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NUMERIC_ID:undelete" | Select-Object -Expand Content

APIs Explorer (browser)

Open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Complete any required fields and click Execute.

If the account can be undeleted, you receive a 200 OK response code with details about the restored service account, like the following:

{
  "restoredAccount": {
    "name": "projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/[e-mail]",
    "projectId": "my-project",
    "uniqueId": "123456789012345678901",
    "email": "[e-mail]",
    "displayName": "My service account",
    "etag": "BwUp3rVlzes=",
    "description": "A service account for running jobs in my project",
    "oauth2ClientId": "987654321098765432109"
  }
}

What's next

• Learn how to list and edit service accounts.
• Review the process for granting IAM roles to all types of principals, including service accounts.
• Understand how to attach service accounts to resources.

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