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This page explains how to create service accounts using the Identity and Access Management (IAM) API, the Google Cloud console, and the gcloud
command- line tool.
By default, each project can have up to 100 service accounts that control access to your resources. You can request a quota increase if necessary. Learn more about quotas and limits.
Before you beginEnable the IAM API.
Set up authentication.
Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:
ConsoleWhen you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.
gcloudIn the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.
At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
To use the .NET samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
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.
If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
C++To use the C++ samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
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.
If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
GoTo use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
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.
If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
JavaTo use the Java samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
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.
If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
PythonTo use the Python samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:
gcloud init
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.
If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
RESTTo use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.
After installing the Google Cloud CLI, initialize it by running the following command:
gcloud init
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
Understand IAM service accounts
To get the permissions that you need to create service accounts, ask your administrator to grant you the Create Service Accounts (roles/iam.serviceAccountCreator
) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.
Note: IAM basic roles might also contain permissions to create service accounts. You shouldn't grant basic roles in a production environment, but you can grant them in a development or test environment.If you want to grant newly created service accounts access to your project, you also need the Project IAM admin (roles/resourcemanager.projectIamAdmin
) role.
When you create a service account, you must provide an alphanumeric ID (SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME
in the samples below), such as my-service-account
. The ID must be between 6 and 30 characters, and can contain lowercase alphanumeric characters and dashes. After you create a service account, you cannot change its name.
The service account's name appears in the email address that is provisioned during creation, in the format SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
.
Each service account also has a permanent, unique numeric ID, which is generated automatically.
You also provide the following information when you create a service account:
DESCRIPTION
is an optional description for the service account.DISPLAY_NAME
is a friendly name for the service account.PROJECT_ID
is the ID of your Google Cloud project.After you create a service account, you might need to wait for 60 seconds or more before you use the service account. This behavior occurs because read operations are eventually consistent; it can take time for the new service account to become visible. If you try to read or use a service account immediately after you create it, and you receive an error, you can retry the request with exponential backoff.
ConsoleThe remaining steps appear in the Google Cloud console.
The Google Cloud console generates a service account ID based on this name. Edit the ID if necessary. You cannot change the ID later.
In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.
At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
To create the service account, run the gcloud iam service-accounts create
command:
gcloud iam service-accounts create SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME \ --description="DESCRIPTION" \ --display-name="DISPLAY_NAME"
Replace the following values:
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME
: the name of the service account
DESCRIPTION
: an optional description of the service account
DISPLAY_NAME
: a service account name to display in the Google Cloud console
Optional: To grant your service account an IAM role on your project, run the gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding
command:
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \ --member="serviceAccount:SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \ --role="ROLE_NAME"
Replace the following values:
PROJECT_ID
: the project ID
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME
: the name of the service account
ROLE_NAME
: a role name, such as roles/compute.osLogin
Optional: To allow users to attach the service account to other resources, run the gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding
command to grant a user the Service Account User role (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser
) on the service account:
gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding \ SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com \ --member="user:USER_EMAIL" \ --role="roles/iam.serviceAccountUser"
Replace the following values:
PROJECT_ID
: the project ID
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME
: the name of the service account
USER_EMAIL
: the email address for the user
To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM C++ API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
C#To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM C# API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
GoTo learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Go API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
JavaTo learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Java API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
PythonTo learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Python API reference documentation.
To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.
RESTThe serviceAccounts.create
method creates a service account.
Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:
PROJECT_ID
: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project
.SA_NAME
: The alphanumeric ID of your service account. This name must be between 6 and 30 characters, and can contain lowercase alphanumeric characters and dashes.SA_DESCRIPTION
: Optional. A description for the service account.SA_DISPLAY_NAME
: A human-readable name for the service account.HTTP method and URL:
POST https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts
Request JSON body:
{ "accountId": "SA_NAME", "serviceAccount": { "description": "SA_DESCRIPTION", "displayName": "SA_DISPLAY_NAME" } }
To send your request, expand one of these options:
curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell) Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to thegcloud
CLI with your user account by running gcloud init
or gcloud auth login
, or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud
CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list
.
Save the request body in a file named request.json
, and execute the following command:
curl -X POST \PowerShell (Windows) Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the
-H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
-d @request.json \
"https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts"
gcloud
CLI with your user account by running gcloud init
or gcloud auth login
. You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list
.
Save the request body in a file named request.json
, and execute the following command:
$cred = gcloud auth print-access-tokenAPIs Explorer (browser)
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }Invoke-WebRequest `
-Method POST `
-Headers $headers `
-ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
-InFile request.json `
-Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts" | Select-Object -Expand Content
Copy the request body and open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Paste the request body in this tool, complete any other required fields, and click Execute.
You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:
{ "name": "projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/my-service-account@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com", "projectId": "my-project", "uniqueId": "123456789012345678901", "email": "my-service-account@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com", "displayName": "My service account", "etag": "BwUp3rVlzes=", "description": "A service account for running jobs in my project", "oauth2ClientId": "987654321098765432109" }
After you create a service account, grant one or more roles to the service account so that it can act on your behalf.
Also, if the service account needs to access resources in other projects, you usually must enable the APIs for those resources in the project where you created the service account.
What's nextIf you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
Get started for freeExcept as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-07-02 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-02 UTC."],[[["This document guides users through creating service accounts using the IAM API, Google Cloud console, and the `gcloud` command-line tool, offering various methods to suit different development environments."],["Each Google Cloud project can support up to 100 service accounts by default, but the ability to request a quota increase is provided for those who need more."],["Creating a service account involves providing an alphanumeric ID, an optional description, and a display name, and it is important to note that the service account ID cannot be changed once it is set."],["Before using the service account, a delay of 60 seconds or more may be required due to the eventual consistency of read operations, and a retry with exponential backoff can be used if encountering errors immediately after creation."],["To create a service account you need to have the Create Service Accounts role granted to you, and to grant access to the service accounts to other users, you will also need the Project IAM admin role."]]],[]]
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