Before you begin

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

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If 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.

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

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project .

Enable the Vision API.

Enable the API

Create a service account:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create service account page.

   Go to Create service account
2. Select your project.

3. In the Service account name field, enter a name. The Google Cloud console fills in the Service account ID field based on this name.

   In the Service account description field, enter a description. For example, Service account for quickstart .

4. Click Create and continue .

5. Grant the Project > Owner role to the service account.

   To grant the role, find the Select a role list, then select Project > Owner .

6. Click Continue .

7. Click Done to finish creating the service account.

   Do not close your browser window. You will use it in the next step.

Create a service account key:

1. In the Google Cloud console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
2. Click Keys .
3. Click Add key , and then click Create new key .
4. Click Create . A JSON key file is downloaded to your computer.
5. Click Close .

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

Example:Linux or macOS

 export 
  
 GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS 
 = 
 "  KEY_PATH 
 
" 

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your credentials.

For example:

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

Example:Windows

For PowerShell:

 $env 
:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = 
 "  KEY_PATH 
 
" 

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your credentials.

For example:

 $env 
:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = 
 "C:\Users\username\Downloads\service-account-file.json" 

For command prompt:

 set 
  
 GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS 
 = 
  KEY_PATH 
 

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your credentials.

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

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project .

Enable the Vision API.

Enable the API

Create a service account:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create service account page.

   Go to Create service account
2. Select your project.

3. In the Service account name field, enter a name. The Google Cloud console fills in the Service account ID field based on this name.

   In the Service account description field, enter a description. For example, Service account for quickstart .

4. Click Create and continue .

5. Grant the Project > Owner role to the service account.

   To grant the role, find the Select a role list, then select Project > Owner .

6. Click Continue .

7. Click Done to finish creating the service account.

   Do not close your browser window. You will use it in the next step.

Create a service account key:

1. In the Google Cloud console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
2. Click Keys .
3. Click Add key , and then click Create new key .
4. Click Create . A JSON key file is downloaded to your computer.
5. Click Close .

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

Example:Linux or macOS

 export 
  
 GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS 
 = 
 "  KEY_PATH 
 
" 

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your credentials.

For example:

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

Example:Windows

For PowerShell:

 $env 
:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = 
 "  KEY_PATH 
 
" 

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your credentials.

For example:

 $env 
:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = 
 "C:\Users\username\Downloads\service-account-file.json" 

For command prompt:

 set 
  
 GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS 
 = 
  KEY_PATH 
 

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your credentials.