Install gsutil

Important: gsutil is not the recommended CLI for Cloud Storage. Use gcloud storage commands in the Google Cloud CLI instead.

This page describes the installation and setup of gsutil, a tool that lets you access Cloud Storage from the command line using HTTPS.

Installing gsutil provides immediate access to public data, enabling you to read and write as permitted. To interact with the protected data shared with you, authentication with the Cloud Storage service is required. Enabling billing gives you the ability to create and manage your own buckets.

System requirements

• The gsutil tool runs on Linux/Unix, Mac OS, and Windows (XP or later).

• gsutil versions 5.35 or later require Python 3.9 to 3.13, which you can obtain by using your Python version manager or by installing an appropriate version.

Note: Support for Python 3.8 is dropped from gsutil v5.35. To ensure compatibility with future gsutil releases, upgrade your Python environment to a supported version (3.9+).

The following instructions show how to manage Python versions:

Linux

Prerequisites: Install a Python version manager (pyenv) and install a suitable Python version.

1. Set the Global Python Version:
   • To set Python 3.13 as the global version:

     pyenv global 3.13

   • Or set the Python version locally for a specific project folder:

     pyenv local 3.13

2. Confirm that the correct Python version is in use:

   python --version

   You should see:

   Python 3.13

macOS

Method 1: Using Homebrew (brew)

Prerequisites: Install Homebrew and install a suitable Python version through homebrew.

1. Set a specific Python version as the default:
   • Add the version you want to your $PATH. For example, to use Python 3.13:

     export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python@3.13/bin:$PATH"

   • To make this change permanent, add the path to your shell configuration file (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.bashrc).
2. Confirm that the correct Python version is in use:

   python --version

   You should see:

   Python 3.13

Method 2: Using pyenv

Prerequisites: Install Python version manager (pyenv) and install a suitable python version through pyenv.

1. Set the global Python version:
   • To set the Python version globally (for all terminals):

     pyenv global 3.13

   • Or set the Python version locally for a specific project folder:

     pyenv local 3.13

2. Confirm that the correct Python version is in use:

   python --version

   You should see:

   Python 3.13

Windows

Prerequisites: Install Python version manager (pyenv-win) and install a suitable Python version through pyenv.

1. Set the Global Python Version:
   • To set Python 3.13 as the global version:

     pyenv global 3.13

   • Or set the Python version locally for a specific project folder:

     pyenv local 3.13

2. Confirm that the correct Python version is in use:

   python --version

   You should see:

   Python 3.13

• If you plan to use composite objects, you need to install compiled crcmod. On Windows, this is only available for 32-bit Python. For more information on crcmod, install gsutil and see the help topic by using the command gsutil help crc32c.

Warning: On some Linux distributions, another tool named gsutil, by GrandStream BudgeTone, is pre-installed. If you run this command instead of the Cloud Storage gsutil, it will likely print an error message similar to "Choose one of -b, -d, -e, or -r to do something". If this happens, you can either move the Cloud Storage version of gsutil to the front of your PATH environment variable, or you can specify the full path when running Cloud Storage gsutil (for example, /home/users/joan/gsutil/gsutil ls).

Installing gsutil

Note: If you have previously installed the Google Cloud CLI, then gsutil is already included. Additionally, the Google Cloud CLI, including gsutil, is installed by default on a number of Google Compute Engine images; see OS details for a full list.

The officially supported installation and update method for gsutil is as part of the Google Cloud CLI.

Before you begin

Google Cloud CLI and gsutil have Python version dependencies that might cause compatibility issues. Google Cloud CLI requires Python 3.9 to 3.14, while gsutil requires Python 3.9 to 3.13.

To install gsutil, we recommend that you install it as part of the Google Cloud CLI. If you choose to install gsutil directly, use Python 3.9 to 3.13 to avoid compatibility issues.

Installing gsutil as part of the Google Cloud CLI

Follow the instructions for your operating system to install gsutil as a part of the Google Cloud CLI:

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:
   Note: To determine your Linux platform, run uname -a at the command line.

   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.
6. Run gcloud init to initialize, authorize, and configure the gcloud CLI.
7. Optional: Install additional components using the component manager.

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.

Note: For specific setups, alternative installation methods are available:

• If you're running a modern Ubuntu release with Snap Package Manager and want automatic updates, you can install Google Cloud CLI as a snap package.
• If you're using a Compute Engine instance, the gcloud CLI might already be installed. For a list of operating system images that include the CLI by default, see OS details.

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

   Note: Make sure you don't have duplicate entries for the cloud-sdk repo in /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

5. Run gcloud init to initialize, authorize, and configure the gcloud CLI.

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.

Note: If you're using an instance on Compute Engine, the Google Cloud CLI is installed by default on a number of OS images. See OS details for a full list.

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

   Note: If you haven't moved to dnf on your system, you can run these commands using yum instead.

   You can also use dnf/yum options, such as disabling prompts or dry runs, with the provided commands.

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

5. Run gcloud init to initialize, authorize, and configure the gcloud CLI.

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:
   Note: To determine your platform, run uname -m from a command line.

   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.
6. Run gcloud init to initialize, authorize, and configure the gcloud CLI.
7. Optional: Install additional components using the component manager.

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, start the Google Cloud CLI shell, and configure the gcloud CLI. Leave the options to start the shell and configure your installation selected. The installer starts a terminal window and runs the gcloud init command to initialize, authorize, and configure the gcloud CLI.
4. The default installation doesn't include the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands. These components can be installed using the gcloud CLI component manager.

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.

As part of installing gsutil, you must set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable to use the correct Python version. For more details, see the gcloud startup topic.

Perform updates with the components update command: gcloud components update.

Setting Up Credentials to Access Protected Data

In order to access protected data or write to a protected bucket, you need to set up credentials (authenticate). For example, if someone else has created a Cloud Storage account and uploaded data that is only accessible to you or other specific individuals, you must set up your credentials to the Cloud Storage service to be able to access this data.

When using gsutil as part of the Google Cloud CLI, OAuth2 is used to authenticate and authorize access to your Cloud Storage resources. To establish access, run the command gcloud init and follow the instructions provided in the command line, which include logging into your user account. Note that you likely already performed this setup if you followed the installation steps. If you ran gcloud init previously, when you run the command again you are asked if you want to re-initialize the configuration or create a new one. For more information, see Initialize the Google Cloud CLI.

That's it. You're ready to access protected data. To see a listing of gsutil commands, type gsutil at the command prompt.

Troubleshooting

If you try to authenticate gsutil using the gcloud init command, but are still not able to access the expected buckets or objects, your system might have both the legacy, stand-alone version of gsutil and the Google Cloud CLI-bundled version of gsutil installed on it. Run the command gsutil version -l and check the value for using cloud sdk. If False, your system is using the stand-alone version of gsutil when you run commands. It's recommended that you remove the stand-alone version of gsutil from your system; however, you can alternatively authenticate using gsutil config -a or gsutil config -e.

Authenticate with HMAC

While OAuth 2.0 is the recommended way to authenticate gsutil, you can also use HMAC keys for your credentials. To authenticate with HMAC, use the following command:

gsutil config -a

Using this command takes you through an authentication process in which you are prompted for the access ID and secret associated with your HMAC key.

When authenticating with HMAC keys, you should disable credential passing from the Google Cloud CLI by using the command: gcloud config set pass_credentials_to_gsutil false.

Enable mTLS

You might also want to enable mutual TLS (mTLS). When mTLS is enabled on your device, your device attempts to connect to the mTLS request endpoint for the JSON API. Before the connection is allowed, Cloud Storage verifies the certificate on your device.

Note: This feature only works when gsutil makes requests through the Cloud Storage JSON API.

The simplest way to to obtain a certificate is through Google Cloud CLI. You can set one manually in the .boto file by setting the following values under "Credentials":

1. use_client_certificate: A flag controlling whether or not to use mTLS.
2. cert_provider_command: A shell command that prints a certificate to stdout for gsutil to read.

Try it for yourself

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