Configure Private Google Access

This page describes how to enable and configure Private Google Access. By default, when a Compute Engine VM lacks an external IP address assigned to its network interface, it can only send packets to other internal IP address destinations. You can allow these VMs to connect to the set of external IP addresses used by Google APIs and services by enabling Private Google Access on the subnet used by the VM's network interface.

Private Google Access also allows access to the external IP addresses used by App Engine, including third-party App Engine-based services.

To view the eligible APIs and services that you can use with Private Google Access, see supported services in the Private Google Access overview.

See Private Access Options for Services for background information about Private Google Access and other private connectivity options offered by Google Cloud.

Specifications

A VM interface can send packets to the external IP addresses of Google APIs and services using Private Google Access if all these conditions are met:

• The VM interface is connected to a subnet where Private Google Access is enabled.

• The VPC network that contains the subnet meets the network requirements for Google APIs and services.

• The VM interface does not have an external IP address assigned.

• The source IP address of packets sent from the VM matches one of the following IP addresses.

  • The VM interface's primary internal IPv4 address
  • The VM interface's internal IPv6 address
  • An internal IPv4 address from an alias IP range

A VM with an external IPv4 or IPv6 address assigned to its network interface doesn't need Private Google Access to connect to Google APIs and services. However, the VPC network must meet the requirements for accessing Google APIs and services.

You can unassign an external IP address from an existing VM instance, even while it is running.

• To unassign an IPv4 address, see Unassigning a static external IP address.

• To unassign an IPv6 address range, see Change the stack type of a VM.

Network requirements

Private Google Access has the following requirements:

• Because Private Google Access is enabled on a per-subnet basis, you must use a VPC network. Legacy networks are not supported because they don't support subnets.

• You must enable the Google APIs you need to use on the APIs & services page in the Google Cloud console.

• If you want to connect to Google APIs and services using IPv6, you must meet both of these requirements:

  • Your VM must be configured with a /96 IPv6 address range.

  • The software running on the VM must send packets whose sources match one of those IPv6 addresses from that range.

• If you use the private.googleapis.com or the restricted.googleapis.com domain names, you'll need to create DNS records to direct traffic to the IP addresses associated with those domains. For more information, see Network configuration.

• Your network must have appropriate routes for the destination IP ranges used by Google APIs and services. These routes must use the default internet gateway next hop. If you use the private.googleapis.com or the restricted.googleapis.com domain names, you only need one route (per domain). Otherwise, you'll need to create multiple routes. See Routing options for details.

• Egress firewalls must permit traffic to the IP address ranges used by Google APIs and services. The implied allow egress firewall rule satisfies this requirement. For other ways to meet the firewall requirement, see Firewall configuration.

Permissions

Project owners, editors, and IAM principals with the Network Admin role can create or update subnets and assign IP addresses.

For more information on roles, read the IAM roles documentation.

Logging

Cloud Logging captures all API requests made from VM instances in subnets that have Private Google Access enabled. Log entries identify the source of the API request as an internal IP address of the calling instance.

You can configure daily usage and monthly rollup reports to be delivered to a Cloud Storage bucket. See the Viewing Usage Reports page for details.

Network configuration

This section describes the basic network requirements you must meet in order for a VM in your VPC network to access Google APIs and services.

Domain options

Choose the domain that you want to use to access Google APIs and services.

The private.googleapis.com and restricted.googleapis.com virtual IP addresses (VIPs) support only HTTP-based protocols over TCP (HTTP, HTTPS, and HTTP/2). All other protocols, including MQTT and ICMP, are not supported.

Domain and IP address ranges	Supported services	Example usage
Default domains. All domain names for Google APIs and services except for private.googleapis.com and restricted.googleapis.com. Various IP address ranges—you can determine a set of IP ranges that contains the possible addresses used by the default domains by referencing IP addresses for default domains.	Enables API access to most Google APIs and services regardless of whether they are supported by VPC Service Controls. Includes API access to Google Google Maps, Google Ads, and Google Cloud. Includes Google Workspace and other web applications.	The default domains are used when you don't configure DNS records for private.googleapis.com and restricted.googleapis.com.
private.googleapis.com 199.36.153.8/30 2600:2d00:0002:2000::/64	Enables API access to most Google APIs and services regardless of whether they are supported by VPC Service Controls. Includes API access to Google Maps, Google Ads, Google Cloud, and most other Google APIs, including the following list. Does not support Google Workspace web applications. Does not support any interactive websites. Domain names that match: accounts.google.com (only the paths needed for OAuth authentication) appengine.google.com *.appspot.com *.backupdr.cloud.google.com backupdr.cloud.google.com *.backupdr.googleusercontent.com backupdr.googleusercontent.com *.cloudfunctions.net *.cloudproxy.app *.composer.cloud.google.com *.composer.googleusercontent.com *.datafusion.cloud.google.com *.datafusion.googleusercontent.com *.dataproc.cloud.google.com dataproc.cloud.google.com *.dataproc.googleusercontent.com dataproc.googleusercontent.com dl.google.com gcr.io or *.gcr.io *.googleadapis.com *.googleapis.com *.gstatic.com *.ltsapis.goog *.notebooks.cloud.google.com *.notebooks.googleusercontent.com packages.cloud.google.com pkg.dev or *.pkg.dev pki.goog or *.pki.goog *.run.app source.developers.google.com	Use private.googleapis.com to access Google APIs and services by using a set of IP addresses only routable from within Google Cloud. Choose private.googleapis.com under these circumstances: You don't use VPC Service Controls. You do use VPC Service Controls, but you also need to access Google APIs and services that are not supported by VPC Service Controls.^1
restricted.googleapis.com 199.36.153.4/30 2600:2d00:0002:1000::/64	Enables API access to Google APIs and services that are supported by VPC Service Controls. Blocks access to Google APIs and services that do not support VPC Service Controls. Does not support Google Workspace web applications or Google Workspace APIs.	Use restricted.googleapis.com to access Google APIs and services by using a set of IP addresses only routable from within Google Cloud. Choose restricted.googleapis.com when you only need access to Google APIs and services that are supported by VPC Service Controls. The restricted.googleapis.com domain does not permit access to Google APIs and services that do not support VPC Service Controls.^1

¹ If you need to restrict users to just the Google APIs and services that support VPC Service Controls, use restricted.googleapis.com. Although VPC Service Controls are enforced for compatible and configured services, regardless of the domain you use, restricted.googleapis.com provides additional risk mitigation for data exfiltration. Using restricted.googleapis.com denies access to Google APIs and services that are not supported by VPC Service Controls. See Setting up private connectivity in the VPC Service Controls documentation for more details.

IPv6 support for private.googleapis.com and restricted.googleapis.com

The following IPv6 address ranges can be used to direct traffic from IPv6 clients to Google APIs and services:

• private.googleapis.com: 2600:2d00:0002:2000::/64
• restricted.googleapis.com: 2600:2d00:0002:1000::/64

Consider configuring the IPv6 addresses if you want to use the private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com domain, and you have clients that use IPv6 addresses. IPv6 clients that also have IPv4 addresses configured can reach Google APIs and services by using the IPv4 addresses. Not all services accept traffic from IPv6 clients.

DNS configuration

For connectivity to Google APIs and services, you can choose to send packets to the IP addresses associated with the private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com VIP. To use a VIP, you need to configure DNS such that VMs in your VPC network resolve requests to *.googleapis.com and any other domains that you need to access. For example, if you use Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), you also need to configure *.gcr.io and *.pkg.dev.

The following section describes how to use DNS zones to send packets to the IP addresses that are associated with your chosen VIP. If you want to configure DNS entries for only some APIs, you can use response policies. For example configurations, see use cases.

Note: If you are using Cloud Storage buckets, and you send requests to a Cloud Storage custom domain name, configuring DNS records for the custom Cloud Storage domain name to point to the IP addresses for private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com is not sufficient to allow access to the Cloud Storage buckets.

If you want to send requests to a Cloud Storage custom domain name, you must also explicitly set the HTTP request's Host header and TLS SNI to storage.googleapis.com. The IP addresses for private.googleapis.com and restricted.googleapis.com do not support custom Cloud Storage hostnames in HTTP request Host headers and TLS SNIs.

Create a DNS zone and records for *.googleapis.com:

1. Create a private DNS zone for googleapis.com. Consider creating a Cloud DNS private zone for this purpose.

2. In the googleapis.com zone, create the following DNS records for either private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com, depending on which domain you've chosen to use. Do not include any additional IP addresses in the A record or mix addresses from the private.googleapis.com and restricted.googleapis.com domains. This can cause intermittent failures because the services that are offered differ based on a packet's destination.

   • For private.googleapis.com:

     1. Create an A record for private.googleapis.com pointing to the following IP addresses: 199.36.153.8, 199.36.153.9, 199.36.153.10, 199.36.153.11.

     2. To connect to APIs using IPv6 addresses, also configure an AAAA record for private.googleapis.com pointing to 2600:2d00:0002:2000::.

   • For restricted.googleapis.com:

     1. Create an A record for restricted.googleapis.com pointing to the following IP addresses: 199.36.153.4, 199.36.153.5, 199.36.153.6, 199.36.153.7.

     2. To connect to APIs using IPv6 addresses, also create an AAAA record for restricted.googleapis.com pointing to 2600:2d00:0002:1000::.

   If you're using Cloud DNS, add the records to the googleapis.com private zone.

3. In the googleapis.com zone, create a CNAME record for *.googleapis.com that points to the domain that you've configured: private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com.

Some Google APIs and services are provided using additional domain names, including *.gcr.io, *.gstatic.com, *.pkg.dev, and pki.goog. Refer to the domain and IP address ranges table in Domain options to determine if the additional domain's services can be accessed using private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com. Then, for each of the additional domains:

1. Create a DNS zone for DOMAIN (for example, gcr.io). If you're using Cloud DNS, make sure this zone is located in the same project as your googleapis.com private zone.

2. In this DNS zone, create the following DNS records for either private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com, depending on which domain you've chosen to use:

   • For private.googleapis.com:

     1. Create an A record for DOMAIN pointing to the following IP addresses: 199.36.153.8, 199.36.153.9, 199.36.153.10, 199.36.153.11.

     2. To connect to APIs using IPv6 addresses, also create an AAAA record for DOMAIN pointing to 2600:2d00:0002:2000::.

   • For restricted.googleapis.com:

     1. Create an A record for restricted.googleapis.com pointing to the following IP addresses: 199.36.153.4, 199.36.153.5, 199.36.153.6, 199.36.153.7.

     2. To connect to APIs using IPv6 addresses, also create an AAAA record for restricted.googleapis.com pointing to 2600:2d00:0002:1000::.

3. In the DOMAIN zone, create a CNAME record for *.DOMAIN that points to DOMAIN. For example, create a CNAME record for *.gcr.io that points to gcr.io.

Routing options

Your VPC network must have appropriate routes whose next hops are the default internet gateway. Google Cloud does not support routing traffic to Google APIs and services through other VM instances or custom next hops. Despite being called default internet gateway, packets sent from VMs in your VPC network to Google APIs and services remain within Google's network.

• If you select the default domains, your VM instances connect to Google APIs and services using a subset of Google's external IP addresses. These IP addresses are publicly routable, but the path from a VM in a VPC network to those addresses remains within Google's network.

• Google doesn't publish routes on the internet to any of the IP addresses used by either the private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com domains. Consequently, these domains can only be accessed by VMs in a VPC network or on-premises systems connected to a VPC network.

If your VPC network contains a default route whose next hop is the default internet gateway, you can use that route to access Google APIs and services, without needing to create custom routes. See routing with a default route for details.

If you have replaced an IPv4 default route (destination 0.0.0.0/0) with a custom route whose next hop is not the default internet gateway, you can meet the routing requirements for Google APIs and services using custom routing instead.

If your VPC network does not have an IPv6 default route, you won't have IPv6 connectivity to Google APIs and services. Add an IPv6 default route to allow IPv6 connectivity.

Routing with a default route

Each VPC network contains an IPv4 default route (0.0.0.0/0) when it is created. If you enable external IPv6 addresses on a subnet, a system-generated IPv6 default route (::/0) is added to that VPC network.

The default routes provides a path to the IP addresses for the following destinations:

• The default domains

• private.googleapis.com: 199.36.153.8/30 and 2600:2d00:0002:2000::/64.

• restricted.googleapis.com: 199.36.153.4/30 and 2600:2d00:0002:1000::/64.

To check the configuration of a default route in a given network, follow these directions.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Routes page.

   Go to Routes

2. Filter the list of routes to show just the routes for the network you need to inspect.

3. Look for a route whose destination is 0.0.0.0/0 for IPv4 traffic or ::/0 for IPv6 traffic and whose next hop is default internet gateway.

gcloud

Use the following gcloud command, replacing NETWORK_NAME with the name of the network to inspect:

gcloud compute routes list \
    --filter="default-internet-gateway NETWORK_NAME"

If you need to create a replacement default IPv4 route, see Adding a static route.

If you need to create a replacement default IPv6 route, see Adding an IPv6 default route.

Custom routing

As an alternative to a default route for IPv4 traffic, you can use custom static routes, each having a more specific destination, and each using the default internet gateway next hop. The number of routes you need and their destination IP addresses depend on the domain you choose.

Note: Custom static routes with IPv6 destination ranges are not supported. If you are using the IPv6 address range for private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com, your VPC network must have an IPv6 default route whose next hop is the default internet gateway.

To check the configuration of custom routes for Google APIs and services in a given network, follow these directions.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Routes page.

   Go to Routes

2. Use the Filter table text field to filter the list of routes using the following criteria, replacing NETWORK_NAME with the name of your VPC network.

   • Network: NETWORK_NAME
   • Next hop type: default internet gateway

3. Look at the Destination IP range column for each route. If you chose the default domains, check for several custom static routes, one for each IP address range used by the default domain. If you chose private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com, look for that domain's IP range.

gcloud

Use the following gcloud command, replacing NETWORK_NAME with the name of the network to inspect:

gcloud compute routes list \
    --filter="default-internet-gateway NETWORK_NAME"

Routes are listed in table format unless you customize the command with the --format flag. Look in the DEST_RANGE column for the destination of each route. If you chose the default domains, check for several custom static routes, one for each IP address range used by the default domain. If you chose private.googleapis.com or restricted.googleapis.com, look for that domain's IP range.

If you need to create routes, see Adding a static route.

Firewall configuration

The firewall configuration of your VPC network must allow access from VMs to the IP addresses used by Google APIs and services. The implied allow egress rule satisfies this requirement.

In some firewall configurations, you need to create specific egress allow rules. For example, suppose you've created an egress deny rule that blocks traffic to all destinations (0.0.0.0 for IPv4 or ::/0 for IPv6). In that case, you must create one egress allow firewall rule whose priority is higher than the egress deny rule for each IP address range used by your chosen domain for Google APIs and services.

To create firewall rules, see Creating firewall rules. You can limit the VMs to which the firewall rules apply when you define the target of each egress allow rule.

IP addresses for default domains

This section describes how to create a list of default domain IP ranges used by Google APIs and services. These ranges are allocated dynamically and change often, so it's not possible to define specific IP ranges for individual services or APIs. To maintain an accurate list, set up automation to run the script every day. For alternatives to maintaining a list of IP address ranges, consider using the private.googleapis.com VIP or Private Service Connect.

Follow these steps to determine the IP address ranges used by the default domains, such as *.googleapis.com and *.gcr.io.

• Google publishes the complete list of IP ranges that it makes available to users on the internet in goog.json.

• Google also publishes a list of global and regional external IP addresses ranges available for customers' Google Cloud resources in cloud.json.

The IP addresses used by the default domains for Google APIs and services fit within the list of ranges computed by taking away all ranges in cloud.json from those in goog.json. These lists are updated frequently.

You can use the following Python script to create a list of IP address ranges that include those used by the default domains for Google APIs and services.

For information about running this script, see How to run.

tools/cidr/cidr.py

View on GitHub

from __future__ import print_function

import json

try:
    from urllib import urlopen
except ImportError:
    from urllib.request import urlopen
    from urllib.error import HTTPError

import netaddr

IPRANGE_URLS = {
    "goog": "https://www.gstatic.com/ipranges/goog.json",
    "cloud": "https://www.gstatic.com/ipranges/cloud.json",
}


def read_url(url):
    try:
        return json.loads(urlopen(url).read())
    except (IOError, HTTPError):
        print("ERROR: Invalid HTTP response from %s" % url)
    except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
        print("ERROR: Could not parse HTTP response from %s" % url)


def get_data(link):
    data = read_url(link)
    if data:
        print("{} published: {}".format(link, data.get("creationTime")))
        cidrs = netaddr.IPSet()
        for e in data["prefixes"]:
            if "ipv4Prefix" in e:
                cidrs.add(e.get("ipv4Prefix"))
            if "ipv6Prefix" in e:
                cidrs.add(e.get("ipv6Prefix"))
        return cidrs


def main():
    cidrs = {group: get_data(link) for group, link in IPRANGE_URLS.items()}
    if len(cidrs) != 2:
        raise ValueError("ERROR: Could process data from Google")
    print("IP ranges for Google APIs and services default domains:")
    for ip in (cidrs["goog"] - cidrs["cloud"]).iter_cidrs():
        print(ip)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Note: In the past, Google Cloud published a list of IP address ranges in the _spf.google.com DNS TXT record (and the records it referenced). While this DNS TXT record continues to be accurate for SPF purposes, it does not contain the complete set of possible IP address ranges used by the default domains for Google APIs and services.

Private Google Access configuration

You can enable Private Google Access after you've met the network requirements in your VPC network.

Enable Private Google Access

Follow these steps to enable Private Google Access:

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VPC networks page.

   Go to VPC networks

2. Click the name of the network that contains the subnet for which you need to enable Private Google Access.

3. For an existing subnet:

   1. Click the name of the subnet. The Subnet details page is displayed.
   2. Click Edit.
   3. In the Private Google Access section, select On.
   4. Click Save.

4. For a new subnet:

   1. Click Add subnet.
   2. Enter a Name.
   3. Select a Region.
   4. For IP stack type, select IPv4 only (single-stack) or IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack).

   5. Enter an IPv4 range. This is the primary IPv4 range for the subnet.

      If you select a range that is not an RFC 1918 address, confirm that the range doesn't conflict with an existing configuration. For more information, see IPv4 subnet ranges.

   6. If you are creating a dual-stack subnet, select an IPv6 access type: Internal or External.

      If you want to set the access type to Internal, but the Internal option is not available, check that an internal IPv6 range is assigned on the network.

   7. Make other selections for the new subnet to meet your needs. For example, you might need to create secondary subnet IP ranges or enable VPC Flow Logs.

   8. Select On in the Private Google Access section.

   9. Click Add.

gcloud

For an existing subnet:

1. Determine the name and region of the subnet. To list the subnets for a particular network, use the following command:

   gcloud compute networks subnets list --filter=NETWORK_NAME
   

2. Run the following command to enable Private Google Access:

   gcloud compute networks subnets update SUBNET_NAME \
   --region=REGION \
   --enable-private-ip-google-access
   

3. Verify that Private Google Access is enabled by running this command:

   gcloud compute networks subnets describe SUBNET_NAME \
   --region=REGION \
   --format="get(privateIpGoogleAccess)"
   

In all above commands, replace the following with valid values:

• SUBNET_NAME: the name of the subnet
• REGION: the region for the subnet
• NETWORK_NAME: the name of the VPC network that contains the subnet

When creating a new subnet, use the --enable-private-ip-google-access flag to enable Private Google Access:

gcloud compute networks subnets create SUBNET_NAME \
    --region=REGION \
    --network=NETWORK_NAME \
    --range=PRIMARY_IP_RANGE \
    [ --stack-type=STACK_TYPE ] \
    [ --ipv6-access-type=IPv6_ACCESS_TYPE ] \
    --enable-private-ip-google-access

Replace the following with valid values:

• SUBNET_NAME: the name of the subnet
• REGION: the region for the subnet
• NETWORK_NAME: the name of the VPC network that contains the subnet
• PRIMARY_IP_RANGE: the subnet's primary IP address range
• STACK_TYPE is the stack type for the subnet: IPV4_ONLY or IPV4_IPV6.
• IPv6_ACCESS_TYPE is the IPv6 access type: EXTERNAL or INTERNAL. Only specify the IPv6 access type if you have also specified --stack-type=IPV4_IPV6.

Disable Private Google Access

Follow these steps to disable Private Google Access for an existing subnet:

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VPC networks page.

   Go to VPC networks

2. Click the name of the network that contains the subnet for which you need to disable Private Google Access.

3. Click the name of an existing subnet. The Subnet details page is displayed.

4. Click Edit.

5. In the Private Google Access section, select Off.

6. Click Save.

gcloud

1. Determine the name and region of the subnet. To list the subnets for a particular network, use the following command:

   gcloud compute networks subnets list \
       --filter=NETWORK_NAME
   

2. Run the following command to disable Private Google Access:

   gcloud compute networks subnets update SUBNET_NAME \
       --region=REGION \
       --no-enable-private-ip-google-access
   

3. Run the following command to verify that Private Google Access is disabled:

   gcloud compute networks subnets describe SUBNET_NAME \
       --region=REGION \
       --format="get(privateIpGoogleAccess)"
   

In all above commands, replace the following with valid values:

• SUBNET_NAME: the name of the subnet
• REGION: the region for the subnet
• NETWORK_NAME: the name of the VPC network that contains the subnet

What's next

• Configure Private Google Access for on-premises hosts