gcloud-auth

Login interactively

$ gcloud auth login

$ gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=[key.json]

$ gcloud auth list

$ gcloud auth print-access-token

$ gcloud auth revoke [account]

gcloud auth command [options]

gcloud auth manages authentication and authorization for Google Cloud Platform access. All gcloud operations require valid credentials, which this command group provides and maintains.
For interactive use, the login command initiates a browser-based OAuth flow where you authenticate with your Google account. For automation and server environments, service accounts can be activated using JSON key files, providing non-interactive authentication suitable for CI/CD pipelines.
The command supports multiple concurrent authenticated accounts, allowing you to switch between different Google accounts or between user accounts and service accounts. Only one account is active at a time, but switching is quick and preserves all credentials. Access tokens can be printed for use with external tools that need to authenticate to Google Cloud APIs.

COMMAND

Operation: login, list, revoke, etc.

Authenticate with user account.

Authenticate with service account.

List authenticated accounts.

Output current access token.

Revoke credentials.

Service account key file.

Display help information.

Browser required for user login. Service account keys are sensitive. Token expiration requires re-authentication.

gcloud auth is part of the Google Cloud SDK, providing unified authentication management for all gcloud commands and GCP API access.

gcloud(1), gcloud-config(1)