Download objects

This page shows you how to download objects from your buckets in Cloud Storage. For a conceptual overview, see Uploads and downloads.

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud Console, go to the Cloud Storage Browser page.

    Go to Browser

  2. In the list of buckets, click on the name of the bucket that contains the object you want to download.

    The Bucket details page opens, with the Objects tab selected.

  3. Navigate to the object, which may be located in a folder.

  4. Click the Download icon associated with the object.

    Your browser settings control the download location for the object.

To learn how to get detailed error information about failed operations in the Cloud Storage browser, see Troubleshooting.

gsutil

Use the gsutil cp command:

gsutil cp gs://BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME SAVE_TO_LOCATION

Where:

  • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object you are downloading. For example, my-bucket.

  • OBJECT_NAME is the name of object you are downloading. For example, pets/dog.png.

  • SAVE_TO_LOCATION is the local path where you are saving your object. For example, Desktop/Images.

If successful, the response looks like the following example:

Operation completed over 1 objects/58.8 KiB.

If your download is interrupted prior to completion, run the same cp command to resume the download from where it left off.

Code samples

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

The following sample downloads an entire object:

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::string const& object_name) {
  gcs::ObjectReadStream stream = client.ReadObject(bucket_name, object_name);

  int count = 0;
  std::string line;
  while (std::getline(stream, line, '\n')) {
    ++count;
  }

  std::cout << "The object has " << count << " lines\n";
}

The following sample downloads the specified portion of an object:

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::string const& object_name, std::int64_t start, std::int64_t end) {
  gcs::ObjectReadStream stream =
      client.ReadObject(bucket_name, object_name, gcs::ReadRange(start, end));

  int count = 0;
  std::string line;
  while (std::getline(stream, line, '\n')) {
    std::cout << line << "\n";
    ++count;
  }

  std::cout << "The requested range has " << count << " lines\n";
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

The following sample downloads an entire object:


using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;
using System.IO;

public class DownloadFileSample
{
    public void DownloadFile(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name",
        string objectName = "my-file-name",
        string localPath = "my-local-path/my-file-name")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        using var outputFile = File.OpenWrite(localPath);
        storage.DownloadObject(bucketName, objectName, outputFile);
        Console.WriteLine($"Downloaded {objectName} to {localPath}.");
    }
}

The following sample downloads the specified portion of an object:


using Google.Apis.Storage.v1;
using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class DownloadByteRangeAsyncSample
{
    public async Task DownloadByteRangeAsync(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name",
        string objectName = "my-file-name",
        long firstByte = 0,
        long lastByte = 20,
        string localPath = "my-local-path/my-file-name")
    {
        var storageClient = StorageClient.Create();

        // Create an HTTP request for the media, for a limited byte range.
        StorageService storage = storageClient.Service;
        var uri = new Uri($"{storage.BaseUri}b/{bucketName}/o/{objectName}?alt=media");

        var request = new HttpRequestMessage { RequestUri = uri };
        request.Headers.Range = new RangeHeaderValue(firstByte, lastByte);

        using var outputFile = File.OpenWrite(localPath);
        // Use the HttpClient in the storage object because it supplies
        // all the authentication headers we need.
        var response = await storage.HttpClient.SendAsync(request);
        await response.Content.CopyToAsync(outputFile, null);
        Console.WriteLine($"Downloaded {objectName} to {localPath}.");
    }
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation. 

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"os"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
)

// downloadFile downloads an object to a file.
func downloadFile(w io.Writer, bucket, object string, destFileName string) error {
	// bucket := "bucket-name"
	// object := "object-name"
	// destFileName := "file.txt"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*50)
	defer cancel()

	f, err := os.Create(destFileName)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("os.Create: %v", err)
	}

	rc, err := client.Bucket(bucket).Object(object).NewReader(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Object(%q).NewReader: %v", object, err)
	}
	defer rc.Close()

	if _, err := io.Copy(f, rc); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("io.Copy: %v", err)
	}

	if err = f.Close(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("f.Close: %v", err)
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Blob %v downloaded to local file %v\n", object, destFileName)

	return nil

}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation. 

import com.google.cloud.storage.Blob;
import com.google.cloud.storage.BlobId;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class DownloadObject {
  public static void downloadObject(
      String projectId, String bucketName, String objectName, String destFilePath) {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    // The ID of your GCS object
    // String objectName = "your-object-name";

    // The path to which the file should be downloaded
    // String destFilePath = "/local/path/to/file.txt";

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();

    Blob blob = storage.get(BlobId.of(bucketName, objectName));
    blob.downloadTo(Paths.get(destFilePath));

    System.out.println(
        "Downloaded object "
            + objectName
            + " from bucket name "
            + bucketName
            + " to "
            + destFilePath);
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

You can use the File.download() or File.createReadStream() method to download an object. 
/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The ID of your GCS file
// const fileName = 'your-file-name';

// The path to which the file should be downloaded
// const destFileName = '/local/path/to/file.txt';

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function downloadFile() {
  const options = {
    destination: destFileName,
  };

  // Downloads the file
  await storage.bucket(bucketName).file(fileName).download(options);

  console.log(
    `gs://${bucketName}/${fileName} downloaded to ${destFileName}.`
  );
}

downloadFile().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation. 

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * Download an object from Cloud Storage and save it as a local file.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 * @param string $objectName The name of your Cloud Storage object.
 * @param string $destination The local destination to save the object.
 */
function download_object($bucketName, $objectName, $destination)
{
    // $bucketName = 'my-bucket';
    // $objectName = 'my-object';
    // $destination = '/path/to/your/file';

    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $object = $bucket->object($objectName);
    $object->downloadToFile($destination);
    printf('Downloaded gs://%s/%s to %s' . PHP_EOL,
        $bucketName, $objectName, basename($destination));
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation. 

from google.cloud import storage


def download_blob(bucket_name, source_blob_name, destination_file_name):
    """Downloads a blob from the bucket."""
    # The ID of your GCS bucket
    # bucket_name = "your-bucket-name"

    # The ID of your GCS object
    # source_blob_name = "storage-object-name"

    # The path to which the file should be downloaded
    # destination_file_name = "local/path/to/file"

    storage_client = storage.Client()

    bucket = storage_client.bucket(bucket_name)

    # Construct a client side representation of a blob.
    # Note `Bucket.blob` differs from `Bucket.get_blob` as it doesn't retrieve
    # any content from Google Cloud Storage. As we don't need additional data,
    # using `Bucket.blob` is preferred here.
    blob = bucket.blob(source_blob_name)
    blob.download_to_filename(destination_file_name)

    print(
        "Downloaded storage object {} from bucket {} to local file {}.".format(
            source_blob_name, bucket_name, destination_file_name
        )
    )

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation. 

def download_file bucket_name:, file_name:, local_file_path:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  # The ID of your GCS object
  # file_name = "your-file-name"

  # The path to which the file should be downloaded
  # local_file_path = "/local/path/to/file.txt"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name, skip_lookup: true
  file    = bucket.file file_name

  file.download local_file_path

  puts "Downloaded #{file.name} to #{local_file_path}"
end

REST APIs

JSON API

  1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials. For instructions, see API authentication.

  2. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a GET Object request:

    curl -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
  -o "SAVE_TO_LOCATION" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME/o/OBJECT_NAME?alt=media"

    Where:

    • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
    • SAVE_TO_LOCATION is the path to the location where you want to save your object. For example, Desktop/dog.png.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object you are downloading. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the name of object you are downloading. For example, pets/dog.png. For information about how to URL encode object names to be path safe, see Encoding URI Path Parts.

XML API

  1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials. For instructions, see API authentication.

  2. Use cURL to call the XML API with a GET Object request:

    curl -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
  -o "SAVE_TO_LOCATION" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME"

    Where:

    • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
    • SAVE_TO_LOCATION is the path to the location where you want to save your object. For example, Desktop/dog.png.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object you are downloading. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the name of object you are downloading. For example, pets/dog.png.

To easily download all objects in a bucket or subdirectory, use the gsutil cp command.

What's next

Try it for yourself

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