Uploading objects

This page shows you how to upload objects to your Cloud Storage bucket. An uploaded object consists of the data you want to store along with any associated metadata. For a conceptual overview, see Uploads and downloads.

Prerequisites

In order to upload an object to a bucket in a project, you must have the storage.objects.create IAM permission for the project. If you are working within a project that you did not create, you might need the project owner to give you a role that contains this permission, such as Storage Object Creator.

For a complete list of roles, see Cloud Storage roles. If you need a role with more limited permissions, see Creating and managing custom roles.

Uploading an object to a bucket

Complete the following steps to upload an object to a bucket:

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 you want to upload an object to.

  3. In the Objects tab for the bucket, either:

    • Drag and drop the desired files from your desktop or file manager to the main pane in the Cloud Console.

    • Click the Upload Files button, select the files you want to upload in the dialog that appears, and click Open.

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 OBJECT_LOCATION gs://DESTINATION_BUCKET_NAME/

Where:

  • OBJECT_LOCATION is the local path to your object. For example, Desktop/dog.png.

  • DESTINATION_BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to which you are uploading your object. For example, my-bucket.

If successful, the response looks like the following example:

Operation completed over 1 objects/58.8 KiB.

You can set fixed-key and custom object metadata as part of your object upload in the headers of the request using the -h top-level option.

Code samples

C++

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

namespace gcs = google::cloud::storage;
using ::google::cloud::StatusOr;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& file_name,
   std::string const& bucket_name, std::string const& object_name) {
  // Note that the client library automatically computes a hash on the
  // client-side to verify data integrity during transmission.
  StatusOr<gcs::ObjectMetadata> metadata = client.UploadFile(
      file_name, bucket_name, object_name, gcs::IfGenerationMatch(0));
  if (!metadata) throw std::runtime_error(metadata.status().message());

  std::cout << "Uploaded " << file_name << " to object " << metadata->name()
            << " in bucket " << metadata->bucket()
            << "\nFull metadata: " << *metadata << "\n";
}

C#

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


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

public class UploadFileSample
{
    public void UploadFile(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name",
        string localPath = "my-local-path/my-file-name",
        string objectName = "my-file-name")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        using var fileStream = File.OpenRead(localPath);
        storage.UploadObject(bucketName, objectName, null, fileStream);
        Console.WriteLine($"Uploaded {objectName}.");
    }
}

Go

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

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

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

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

	// Open local file.
	f, err := os.Open("notes.txt")
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("os.Open: %v", err)
	}
	defer f.Close()

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

	// Upload an object with storage.Writer.
	wc := client.Bucket(bucket).Object(object).NewWriter(ctx)
	if _, err = io.Copy(wc, f); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("io.Copy: %v", err)
	}
	if err := wc.Close(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Writer.Close: %v", err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Blob %v uploaded.\n", object)
	return nil
}

Java

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

import com.google.cloud.storage.BlobId;
import com.google.cloud.storage.BlobInfo;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class UploadObject {
  public static void uploadObject(
      String projectId, String bucketName, String objectName, String filePath) throws IOException {
    // 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 your file to upload
    // String filePath = "path/to/your/file"

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();
    BlobId blobId = BlobId.of(bucketName, objectName);
    BlobInfo blobInfo = BlobInfo.newBuilder(blobId).build();
    storage.create(blobInfo, Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(filePath)));

    System.out.println(
        "File " + filePath + " uploaded to bucket " + bucketName + " as " + objectName);
  }
}

Node.js

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

For more information on uploading a stream, string, or buffer, see File.save(). 
/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The path to your file to upload
// const filePath = 'path/to/your/file';

// The new ID for your GCS file
// const destFileName = 'your-new-file-name';

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

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

async function uploadFile() {
  await storage.bucket(bucketName).upload(filePath, {
    destination: destFileName,
  });

  console.log(`${filePath} uploaded to ${bucketName}`);
}

uploadFile().catch(console.error);

PHP

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

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * Upload a file.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName the name of your Google Cloud bucket.
 * @param string $objectName the name of the object.
 * @param string $source the path to the file to upload.
 *
 * @return Psr\Http\Message\StreamInterface
 */
function upload_object($bucketName, $objectName, $source)
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $file = fopen($source, 'r');
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $object = $bucket->upload($file, [
        'name' => $objectName
    ]);
    printf('Uploaded %s to gs://%s/%s' . PHP_EOL, basename($source), $bucketName, $objectName);
}

Python

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

Use the Blob.upload_from_file(), Blob.upload_from_filename(), or Blob.upload_from_string() method to upload an object. 
from google.cloud import storage


def upload_blob(bucket_name, source_file_name, destination_blob_name):
    """Uploads a file to the bucket."""
    # The ID of your GCS bucket
    # bucket_name = "your-bucket-name"
    # The path to your file to upload
    # source_file_name = "local/path/to/file"
    # The ID of your GCS object
    # destination_blob_name = "storage-object-name"

    storage_client = storage.Client()
    bucket = storage_client.bucket(bucket_name)
    blob = bucket.blob(destination_blob_name)

    blob.upload_from_filename(source_file_name)

    print(
        "File {} uploaded to {}.".format(
            source_file_name, destination_blob_name
        )
    )

Ruby

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

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

  # The path to your file to upload
  # local_file_path = "/local/path/to/file.txt"

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

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name

  file = bucket.create_file local_file_path, file_name

  puts "Uploaded #{local_file_path} as #{file.name} in bucket #{bucket_name}"
end

REST APIs

JSON API

Single-request upload without object metadata

  1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials.

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

    curl -X POST --data-binary @OBJECT_LOCATION \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: OBJECT_CONTENT_TYPE" \
    "https://storage.googleapis.com/upload/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME/o?uploadType=media&name=OBJECT_NAME"

    Where:

    • OBJECT_LOCATION is the local path to your object. For example, Desktop/dog.png.
    • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
    • OBJECT_CONTENT_TYPE is the content type of the object. For example, image/png.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to which you are uploading your object. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the name you want to give your object. For example, pets/dog.png.

Single-request upload that includes object metadata

  1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials.

  2. Create a multipart/related file that contains the following information:

    --BOUNDARY_STRING
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8

OBJECT_METADATA

--BOUNDARY_STRING
Content-Type: OBJECT_CONTENT_TYPE

OBJECT_DATA
--BOUNDARY_STRING--

    Where:

    • BOUNDARY_STRING is a string you define that identifies the different parts of the multipart file. For example, my-boundary.
    • OBJECT_METADATA is metadata you want to include for the file, in JSON format. At a minimum, this section should include a name attribute for the object, for example {"name": "myObject"}
    • OBJECT_CONTENT_TYPE is the content type of the object. For example, image/png.
    • OBJECT_DATA is the data for the object.

  3. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a POST Object request:

    curl -X POST --data-binary @MULTIPART_FILE_LOCATION \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary=BOUNDARY_STRING" \
    -H "Content-Length: MULTIPART_FILE_SIZE" \
    "https://storage.googleapis.com/upload/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME/o?uploadType=multipart"

    Where:

    • MULTIPART_FILE_LOCATION is the local path to the multipart file you created in step 2. For example, Desktop/my-upload.multipart.
    • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
    • BOUNDARY_STRING is the boundary string you defined in Step 2. For example, my-boundary.
    • MULTIPART_FILE_SIZE is the total size, in bytes, of the multipart file you created in Step 2. For example, 2000000.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to which you are uploading your object. For example, my-bucket.

If the request succeeds, the server returns the HTTP 200 OK status code along with the file's metadata.

XML API

  1. Get an authorization access token from the OAuth 2.0 Playground. Configure the playground to use your own OAuth credentials.

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

    curl -X PUT --data-binary @OBJECT_LOCATION \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer OAUTH2_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: OBJECT_CONTENT_TYPE" \
    "https://storage.googleapis.com/BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME"

    Where:

    • OBJECT_LOCATION is the local path to your object. For example, Desktop/dog.png.
    • OAUTH2_TOKEN is the access token you generated in Step 1.
    • OBJECT_CONTENT_TYPE is the content type of the object. For example, image/png.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket to which you are uploading your object. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the name you want to give your object. For example, pets/dog.png.

You can set additional object metadata as part of your object upload in the headers of the request in the same way the above example sets Content-Type. When working with the XML API, metadata can only be set at the time the object is written, such as when uploading, moving, or replacing the object. For more information about fixed-key and custom metadata, see Object metadata and Editing object metadata.

What's next

Try it for yourself

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