Before you begin

Before you can use the Cloud Vision API, you must enable it for your project:

1. Sign in to your Google Account.

   If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.

2. In the Google Cloud Console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to the project selector page

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to confirm that billing is enabled for your project.

4. Enable the Cloud Vision API.

   Enable the API

5. Set up authentication:

   1. In the Cloud Console, go to the Create service account key page.

      Go to the Create Service Account Key page
   2. From the Service account list, select New service account.
   3. In the Service account name field, enter a name.

   4. From the Role list, select Project > Owner.

      Note: The Role field affects which resources your service account can access in your project. You can revoke these roles or grant additional roles later. In production environments, do not grant the Owner, Editor, or Viewer roles. For more information, see Granting, changing, and revoking access to resources.
   5. Click Create. A JSON file that contains your key downloads to your computer.

6. Set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key. This variable only applies to your current shell session, so if you open a new session, set the variable again.

   Example: Linux or macOS

   Replace [PATH] with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

   export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH]"

   For example:

   export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"

   Example: Windows

   Replace [PATH] with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

   With PowerShell:

   $env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH]"

   For example:

   $env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="C:\Users\username\Downloads\my-key.json"

   With command prompt:

   set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=[PATH]