This page explains the concept of bucket location and the different locations where you can create buckets. A bucket's location defines the physical place where object data in the bucket resides.
To learn how to set the location for your bucket, see Create buckets.
Key concepts
You permanently set a geographic location for storing your object data when you create a bucket.
- You cannot change a bucket's location after it's created, but you can move your data to a bucket in a different location.
You can select from the following location types:
A region is a specific geographic place, such as São Paulo.
A dual-region is a specific pair of regions, such as Tokyo and Osaka.
- Dual-region pairings can be predefined or configurable.
A multi-region is a large geographic area, such as the United States, that contains two or more geographic places.
The location type determines how your data is replicated and priced.
Cloud Storage stores object data in the selected location in accordance with the Service Specific Terms.
The location information for a bucket is part of the bucket's metadata, which you can view if you have permission to do so.
Location considerations
When you choose the location for a Cloud Storage bucket, consider the differences in availability, price, and performance, as shown in the following table.
Region | Dual-region | Multi-region | |
---|---|---|---|
Availability |
|
|
|
Performance |
|
|
|
Pricing |
|
|
|
Location recommendations
Requirements | Recommended bucket location | Workload examples |
---|---|---|
|
Region |
|
|
Dual-region1 |
|
|
Multi-region |
|
- If you need a short and predictable recovery point objective (RPO), enable the premium turbo replication feature.
- To maximize performance and lower your total cost of ownership, co-locate your data and compute in the same region(s). Regions and dual-regions are both suitable for this purpose.
- To avoid data replication charges, store short-lived datasets in regions.
For moderate performance and ad hoc analytics workloads, multi-region storage can be a cost-effective choice.
See the data storage pricing table for storage costs in each location.
Compute Engine VM notes
- Storing data in the same region as your Compute Engine VM instances can provide better performance. This advantage applies to both regions and dual-regions.
- While you can't specify a Compute Engine zone as a bucket location, all Compute Engine VM instances in zones within a given region have similar performance when accessing buckets in that region.
Available locations
The following sections list the Cloud Storage locations available for storing your data.
Regions
Geographic Area | Region Name | Region Description | |
---|---|---|---|
North America | |||
NORTHAMERICA-NORTHEAST1 |
Montréal | Low CO2 | |
NORTHAMERICA-NORTHEAST2 |
Toronto | Low CO2 | |
US-CENTRAL1 |
Iowa | Low CO2 | |
US-EAST1 |
South Carolina | ||
US-EAST4 |
Northern Virginia | ||
US-EAST5 |
Columbus | ||
US-SOUTH1 |
Dallas | Low CO2 | |
US-WEST1 |
Oregon | Low CO2 | |
US-WEST2 |
Los Angeles | ||
US-WEST3 |
Salt Lake City | ||
US-WEST4 |
Las Vegas | ||
South America | |||
SOUTHAMERICA-EAST1 |
São Paulo | Low CO2 | |
SOUTHAMERICA-WEST1 |
Santiago | Low CO2 | |
Europe | |||
EUROPE-CENTRAL2 |
Warsaw | ||
EUROPE-NORTH1 |
Finland | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-SOUTHWEST1 |
Madrid | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST1 |
Belgium | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST2 |
London | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST3 |
Frankfurt | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST4 |
Netherlands | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST6 |
Zürich | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST8 |
Milan | ||
EUROPE-WEST9 |
Paris | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST10 |
Berlin | Low CO2 | |
EUROPE-WEST12 |
Turin | ||
Asia | |||
ASIA-EAST1 |
Taiwan | ||
ASIA-EAST2 |
Hong Kong | ||
ASIA-NORTHEAST1 |
Tokyo | ||
ASIA-NORTHEAST2 |
Osaka | ||
ASIA-NORTHEAST3 |
Seoul | ||
ASIA-SOUTHEAST1 |
Singapore | ||
India | |||
ASIA-SOUTH1 |
Mumbai | ||
ASIA-SOUTH2 |
Delhi | ||
Indonesia | |||
ASIA-SOUTHEAST2 |
Jakarta | ||
Middle East | |||
ME-CENTRAL1 |
Doha | ||
ME-CENTRAL2 |
Dammam, Saudi Arabia | ||
ME-WEST1 |
Tel Aviv | ||
Australia | |||
AUSTRALIA-SOUTHEAST1 |
Sydney | ||
AUSTRALIA-SOUTHEAST2 |
Melbourne | ||
Africa | |||
AFRICA-SOUTH1 |
Johannesburg |
Dual-regions
Objects stored in dual-region buckets are replicated so that they are stored in each region that make up the dual-region. The time it takes an object to be replicated between the two regions is determined by the bucket's replication setting.
There are two types of dual-regions supported in Cloud Storage.
A predefined dual-region is identified by a unique location code and represents two specific regions. For example,
NAM4
is the location code for the predefined dual-region consisting ofUS-CENTRAL1
andUS-EAST1
.A configurable dual-region is identified by the location code of the geographical area in which the dual-region resides and a placement configuration in which you specify a pair of regions. For example, you could create a configurable dual-region that has a location code of
EU
and a placement configuration consisting ofEU-CENTRAL2
andEU-WEST1
.
If the regions you want to pair are not available as a dual-region, consider creating a separate bucket in each region and using Storage Transfer Service Event-driven transfers to keep the buckets in sync.
Configurable dual-regions
When creating a bucket in a configurable dual-region, the pair of regions
that you use to make the dual-region must use the same location code. This code
is set for the LOCATION
of the bucket and is also the location you specify
when using customer-managed encryption keys or the
resource locations constraint with such dual-region buckets.
The following regions are available when creating a configurable dual-region bucket:
Location code | Region Name | Region Description |
---|---|---|
ASIA |
||
ASIA-EAST1 |
Taiwan | |
ASIA-SOUTHEAST1 |
Singapore | |
AU |
||
AUSTRALIA-SOUTHEAST1 |
Sydney | |
AUSTRALIA-SOUTHEAST2 |
Melbourne | |
CA |
||
NORTHAMERICA-NORTHEAST1 |
Montréal | |
NORTHAMERICA-NORTHEAST2 |
Toronto | |
EU |
||
EUROPE-CENTRAL2 |
Warsaw | |
EUROPE-NORTH1 1 |
Finland | |
EUROPE-SOUTHWEST1 |
Madrid | |
EUROPE-WEST1 |
Belgium | |
EUROPE-WEST3 |
Frankfurt | |
EUROPE-WEST4 1 |
Netherlands | |
EUROPE-WEST8 |
Milan | |
EUROPE-WEST9 |
Paris | |
IN |
||
ASIA-SOUTH1 |
Mumbai | |
ASIA-SOUTH2 |
Delhi | |
US |
||
US-CENTRAL1 2 |
Iowa | |
US-EAST1 2 |
South Carolina | |
US-EAST4 |
Northern Virginia | |
US-EAST5 3 |
Columbus | |
US-SOUTH1 |
Dallas | |
US-WEST1 |
Oregon | |
US-WEST2 |
Los Angeles | |
US-WEST3 |
Salt Lake City | |
US-WEST4 |
Las Vegas |
1The EUROPE-NORTH1
and EUROPE-WEST4
dual-region pairing is only
available as a predefined dual-region.
2The US-CENTRAL1
and US-EAST1
dual-region pairing is only
available as a predefined dual-region.
3US-EAST5
must be paired with either US-CENTRAL1
or US-EAST1
.
Attempting to create a bucket using an invalid pairing, such as regions with different location codes, returns an error.
Predefined dual-regions
When creating a bucket in a predefined dual-region, you use a location code that uniquely identifies the pair of regions, in the same way you create buckets in regions and multi-regions. This location code is what you specify when using customer-managed encryption keys or the resource locations constraint with such dual-region buckets.
The following options are available when creating a bucket in a predefined dual-region:
Predefined dual-region name | Region Name | Region Description |
---|---|---|
ASIA1 |
ASIA-NORTHEAST1 + ASIA-NORTHEAST2 |
Tokyo + Osaka |
EUR4 |
EUROPE-NORTH1 + EUROPE-WEST4 |
Finland + Netherlands |
EUR5 |
EUROPE-WEST1 + EUROPE-WEST2 |
Belgium + London |
EUR7 |
EUROPE-WEST2 + EUROPE-WEST3 |
London + Frankfurt |
EUR8 |
EUROPE-WEST3 + EUROPE-WEST6 |
Frankfurt + Zürich |
NAM4 |
US-CENTRAL1 + US-EAST1 |
Iowa + South Carolina |
Multi-regions
Multi-Region Name | Multi-Region Description |
---|---|
ASIA |
Data centers in Asia, excluding Hong Kong and Indonesia |
EU |
Data centers within member states of the European Union* |
US |
Data centers in the United States |
* Object data added to a bucket in the EU
multi-region is not
stored in the EUROPE-WEST2
(London) or EUROPE-WEST6
(Zürich) regions.
What's next
- Create a bucket.
- Get the location for an existing bucket by viewing the bucket's metadata.
- Learn more about availability and durability in Cloud Storage.
- View all the Google Cloud services available in locations worldwide.
- Explore additional location-based concepts, such as zones, that apply to other Google Cloud services.
Try it for yourself
If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how Cloud Storage performs in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
Try Cloud Storage free