How to Install Google Cloud CLI (Command-Line Interface) on Mac, Windows, and Linux

Google Cloud CLI, known as gcloud, is an essential tool for managing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) resources from the command line. Installing gcloud allows you to interact with various GCP services and automate tasks efficiently. This guide covers the installation process for gcloud on Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

• An active Google Cloud account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up at Google Cloud Console: https://console.cloud.google.com/
• A terminal or command prompt window to execute commands.

Installing Google Cloud CLI on Mac

Steps:

1. Confirm that you have a supported version of Python:

• To check your current Python version, run python3 -V or python -V. Supported versions are Python 3.8 to 3.12.
• The main install script offers to install CPython’s Python 3.11.
• Otherwise, to install a supported Python version, please visit the Python.org Python Releases for macOS: https://www.python.org/downloads/macos/
• If you have multiple Python interpreters installed on your machine, set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable within your shell to point to the path of your preferred interpreter.
• For more information on how to choose and configure your Python interpreter, see gcloud topic startup.

2. Download one of the following:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Google Cloud SDK download page: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

• Note: To determine your machine hardware name, run uname -m from a command line.

2. Extract the archive to any location on your file system (preferably your Home directory). On macOS, this can be achieved by opening the downloaded .tar.gz archive file in the preferred location.

3. To replace an existing installation, remove the existing google-cloud-sdk directory and then extract the archive to the same location.

4. (Optional) Use the install script to add gcloud CLI tools to your PATH. You can also opt-in to command-completion for your shell, usage statistics collection, and install Python 3.11.

• Run the script (from the root of the folder you extracted in the last step) using this command:

./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh

• This can also be done non-interactively (for example, using a script) by providing preferences as flags. To describe the available flags, run:

./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --help

• To run the install script with screen reader mode on:

./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --screen-reader=true

5. Open a new terminal so that the changes take effect.

6. Initialize the gcloud CLI, run gcloud init:

./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud init

7. (Optional) Install additional components using the component manager.

Installing Google Cloud CLI on Windows

Steps:

1. Download Google Cloud SDK Installer:

• Open a web browser and go to the Google Cloud SDK download page: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install
• Download the Google Cloud CLI installer.
• Alternatively, you can open a PowerShell terminal and run the following commands:

(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe", "$env:Temp\GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe") & $env:Temp\GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe

2. Launch the Installer:

• Launch the installer and follow the prompts. The installer is signed by Google LLC.
• If you’re using a screen reader, check the “Turn on screen reader mode” checkbox. This option configures gcloud to use status trackers instead of unicode spinners, display progress as a percentage, and flatten tables.

3. Complete Installation:

• Google Cloud CLI requires Python; supported versions are Python 3.8 to 3.12. By default, the Windows version of Google Cloud CLI comes bundled with Python 3.
• After installation is complete, the installer gives you the option to create Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts, start the Google Cloud CLI shell, and configure the gcloud CLI. Make sure that you leave the options to start the shell and configure your installation selected. The installer starts a terminal window and runs the gcloud init command.

4. Install Additional Components:

• The default installation doesn’t include the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands. These components can be installed using the gcloud CLI component manager.

6. Troubleshooting Tips:

• If your installation is unsuccessful due to the find command not being recognized, ensure your PATH environment variable is set to include the folder containing find. Usually, this is C:\WINDOWS\system32.
• If you uninstalled the gcloud CLI, you must reboot your system before installing the gcloud CLI again.
• If unzipping fails, run the installer as an administrator.

Installing Google Cloud CLI on Linux (Ubuntu)

Package contents

The gcloud CLI is available in package format for installation on Debian and Ubuntu systems. This package contains the gcloud, gcloud alpha, gcloud beta, gsutil, and bq commands only. It doesn't include kubectl or the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands. If you want these components, you must install them separately.

Before you begin

Before you install the gcloud CLI, make sure that your operating system meets the following requirements:

• It is an Ubuntu release that hasn’t reached end-of-life or a Debian stable release that hasn’t reached end-of-life.
• It has recently updated its packages:

sudo apt-get update

• It has apt-transport-https and curl installed:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg curl

Installation

1. Import the Google Cloud public key.

• For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+) run the following command:

curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg

• For older distributions, run the following command:

curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg add -

• If your distribution’s apt-key command doesn't support the `---keyring` argument, run the following command:

```bash
 curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
 ```

If you can’t get the latest updates due to an expired key, obtain the latest apt-get.gpg key file.

2. Add the gcloud CLI distribution URI as a package source.

• For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+), run the following command:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list

• For older distributions that don’t support the signed-by option, run the following command:

echo "deb https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list

• Note: Make sure you don’t have duplicate entries for the cloud-sdk repo in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list.

3. Update and install the gcloud CLI:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli

• For additional apt-get options, such as disabling prompts or dry runs, refer to the apt-get man pages.

4. Docker Tip: If installing the gcloud CLI inside a Docker image, use a single RUN step:

RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list && curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-cli -y

• For older base images that do not support the gpg --dearmor command:

RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list && curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg add - && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-cli -y

5. (Optional) Install any of the following additional components:

sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python google-cloud-cli-kubectl google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator

6. Run gcloud init to get started:

7. Downgrading gcloud CLI versions:

• To revert to a specific version of the gcloud CLI, where VERSION is of the form 123.0.0, run the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli=123.0.0-0

• The ten most recent releases are always available in the repo.
• NOTE: For releases prior to 371.0.0, the package name is google-cloud-sdk.

Other Installation Options

Depending on your development needs, instead of the recommended installation, you can use an alternative method of installing the gcloud CLI:

• Using the gcloud CLI with scripts or Continuous Integration/Deployment? Download a versioned archive for a non-interactive installation of a specific version of the gcloud CLI.
• Need to run the gcloud CLI as a Docker image? Use the gcloud CLI Docker image for the latest release (or a specific version) of the gcloud CLI.
• Running Ubuntu and prefer automatic updates? Use a snap package to install the gcloud CLI.
• For Windows and macOS interactive installations, and all other use cases, run the interactive installer to install the latest release of the gcloud CLI.

Manage an Installation

After you have installed the gcloud CLI, you can use commands in the gcloud components command group to manage your installation. This includes viewing installed components, adding and removing components, and upgrading to a new version or downgrading to a specific version of the gcloud CLI.

By following these steps, you can successfully install and manage Google Cloud CLI on your Mac, Windows, or Linux (Ubuntu) machine. For more detailed information and additional installation options, refer to the official Google Cloud CLI documentation.