Cloud Storage client libraries

This page shows how to get started with the Cloud Client Libraries for the Google Cloud Storage API. Client libraries make it easier to access Google Cloud APIs from a supported language. Although you can use Google Cloud APIs directly by making raw requests to the server, client libraries provide simplifications that significantly reduce the amount of code you need to write.

Read more about the Cloud Client Libraries and the older Google API Client Libraries in Client libraries explained.

Install the client library

C++

For more information about installing the C++ library, see Setting up a C++ development environment.

C#

If you are using Visual Studio 2017 or higher, open nuget package manager window and type the following:

Install-Package Google.Cloud.Storage.V1

If you are using .NET Core command-line interface tools to install your dependencies, run the following command:

dotnet add package Google.Cloud.Storage.V1

For more information, see Setting Up a C# Development Environment.

Go

go get cloud.google.com/go/storage

For more information, see Setting Up a Go Development Environment.

Java

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM.

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
      <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
      <version>26.50.0</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-storage</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-storage-control</artifactId>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

implementation platform('com.google.cloud:libraries-bom:26.50.0')

implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-storage'

If you are using sbt, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-storage" % "2.45.0"

If you're using Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

• Cloud Code for VS Code
• Cloud Code for IntelliJ
• Cloud Tools for Eclipse

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Note: Cloud Java client libraries do not currently support Android.

For more information, see Setting Up a Java Development Environment.

Node.js

npm install --save @google-cloud/storage

For more information, see Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment.

PHP

composer require google/cloud-storage

For more information, see Using PHP on Google Cloud.

Python

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-storage

For more information, see Setting Up a Python Development Environment.

Ruby

gem install google-cloud-storage

For more information, see Setting Up a Ruby Development Environment.

Set up authentication

To authenticate calls to Google Cloud APIs, client libraries support Application Default Credentials (ADC); the libraries look for credentials in a set of defined locations and use those credentials to authenticate requests to the API. With ADC, you can make credentials available to your application in a variety of environments, such as local development or production, without needing to modify your application code.

For production environments, the way you set up ADC depends on the service and context. For more information, see Set up Application Default Credentials.

For a local development environment, you can set up ADC with the credentials that are associated with your Google Account:

1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:

   gcloud init

2. 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.

   A sign-in screen appears. After you sign in, your credentials are stored in the local credential file used by ADC.

Use the client library

The following example shows how to use the client library.

C++

#include "google/cloud/storage/client.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <random>
#include <string>
#include <utility>
#include <vector>
void StorageQuickstart(std::string const& bucket_name) {
  // Create an aliases to make the code easier to read.
  namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;

  // Create a client to communicate with Google Cloud Storage. This client
  // uses the default configuration for authentication and project id.
  auto client = gcs::Client();

  // Create a bucket
  google::cloud::StatusOr<gcs::BucketMetadata> metadata = client.CreateBucket(
      bucket_name, gcs::BucketMetadata().set_location("US").set_storage_class(
                       gcs::storage_class::Standard()));
  if (!metadata) throw std::move(metadata).status();

  std::cout << "Created bucket " << metadata->name() << "\n";
}

C#

using Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data;
using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;

public class CreateBucketSample
{
    public Bucket CreateBucket(
        string projectId = "your-project-id",
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        var bucket = storage.CreateBucket(projectId, bucketName);
        Console.WriteLine($"Created {bucketName}.");
        return bucket;
    }
}

Go

// Sample storage-quickstart creates a Google Cloud Storage bucket.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"time"

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

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Sets your Google Cloud Platform project ID.
	projectID := "YOUR_PROJECT_ID"

	// Creates a client.
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create client: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Sets the name for the new bucket.
	bucketName := "my-new-bucket"

	// Creates a Bucket instance.
	bucket := client.Bucket(bucketName)

	// Creates the new bucket.
	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()
	if err := bucket.Create(ctx, projectID, nil); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create bucket: %v", err)
	}

	fmt.Printf("Bucket %v created.\n", bucketName)
}

Java

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
import com.google.cloud.storage.Bucket;
import com.google.cloud.storage.BucketInfo;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;

public class QuickstartSample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    // Instantiates a client
    Storage storage = StorageOptions.getDefaultInstance().getService();

    // The name for the new bucket
    String bucketName = args[0]; // "my-new-bucket";

    // Creates the new bucket
    Bucket bucket = storage.create(BucketInfo.of(bucketName));

    System.out.printf("Bucket %s created.%n", bucket.getName());
  }
}

Node.js

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

// For more information on ways to initialize Storage, please see
// https://googleapis.dev/nodejs/storage/latest/Storage.html

// Creates a client using Application Default Credentials
const storage = new Storage();

// Creates a client from a Google service account key
// const storage = new Storage({keyFilename: 'key.json'});

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

async function createBucket() {
  // Creates the new bucket
  await storage.createBucket(bucketName);
  console.log(`Bucket ${bucketName} created.`);
}

createBucket().catch(console.error);

PHP

# Includes the autoloader for libraries installed with composer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

# Imports the Google Cloud client library
use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

# Your Google Cloud Platform project ID
$projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';

# Instantiates a client
$storage = new StorageClient([
    'projectId' => $projectId
]);

# The name for the new bucket
$bucketName = 'my-new-bucket';

# Creates the new bucket
$bucket = $storage->createBucket($bucketName);

echo 'Bucket ' . $bucket->name() . ' created.';

Python

# Imports the Google Cloud client library
from google.cloud import storage

# Instantiates a client
storage_client = storage.Client()

# The name for the new bucket
bucket_name = "my-new-bucket"

# Creates the new bucket
bucket = storage_client.create_bucket(bucket_name)

print(f"Bucket {bucket.name} created.")

Ruby

def quickstart bucket_name:
  # Imports the Google Cloud client library
  require "google/cloud/storage"

  # Instantiates a client
  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new

  # The ID to give your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  # Creates the new bucket
  bucket = storage.create_bucket bucket_name

  puts "Bucket #{bucket.name} was created."
end

Note: These samples create a bucket in the default US multi-region with a default storage class of Standard Storage. To create a bucket outside these defaults, see Create buckets.

Using the client library with Cloud Shell Editor

Go

---

For step-by-step guidance on running a client library in Cloud Shell Editor:

1. Click Guide me.

2. You see a panel Learn. Click Start to follow the tutorial.

Guide me

Java

---

For step-by-step guidance on running a client library in Cloud Shell Editor:

1. Click Guide me.

2. You see a panel Learn. Click Start to follow the tutorial.

Guide me

Node.js

---

For step-by-step guidance on running a client library in Cloud Shell Editor:

1. Click Guide me.

2. You see a panel Learn. Click Start to follow the tutorial.

Guide me

Python

---

For step-by-step guidance on running a client library in Cloud Shell Editor:

1. Click Guide me.

2. You see a panel Learn. Click Start to follow the tutorial.

Guide me

More Examples

For more examples of using client libraries with Cloud Storage, see the following guides:

• Create buckets
• Upload objects from a filesystem
• Download objects

Additional resources

C++

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for C++:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

C#

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for C#:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

Go

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Go:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

Java

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Java:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

Node.js

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Node.js:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

PHP

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for PHP:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

Python

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Python:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

Ruby

The following list contains links to more resources related to the client library for Ruby:

• API reference
• Client libraries best practices
• Issue tracker
• google-cloud-storage on Stack Overflow
• Source code

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