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This page describes the interfaces that you can use to interact with
Vertex AI and when you should use them. You can use these interfaces
along with one of Vertex AI's
notebook solutions.
Some Vertex AI operations are only available through specific
interfaces, so you may need to switch between interfaces during your workflow.
For example, in Vertex AI Experiments, you must use the API to log data
to an experiment run, but you can view the results in the console.
Console
The Google Cloud console is a graphical user interface that you can use to
work with your machine learning resources.
In the Google Cloud console, you can manage your managed datasets,
models, endpoints, and jobs. You can also access other Google Cloud services,
such as Cloud Storage and BigQuery, through the console.
Use the Google Cloud console if you prefer to view and manage your
Vertex AI resources and visualizations through a graphical user
interface.
For more information, see the Dashboard page of the Vertex AI section:
Terraform is an infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that you can use to
provision the infrastructure, such as resources and permissions, for multiple
Google Cloud services, including Vertex AI.
You can define the Vertex AI resources and permissions for your Google Cloud
project in a Terraform configuration file. You can then use Terraform to apply
the configuration to your project by creating new resources and updating
existing resources.
Use Terraform if you want to standardize the infrastructure for Vertex AI
resources in your Google Cloud project and update the existing Google Cloud
project infrastructure while fulfilling resource dependencies.
The Vertex AI SDK for Python is similar to the Vertex AI Python client
library, except the SDK is higher-level and less granular. For more
information, see the Understand the SDK and client library
differences.
The Vertex AI REST API provides RESTful services for managing jobs,
models, and endpoints, and for making inferences with hosted models
on Google Cloud.
Use the REST API if you need to use your own libraries to call the
Vertex AI API from your application.
[[["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 2025-08-28 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Interfaces for Vertex AI\n\nThis page describes the interfaces that you can use to interact with\nVertex AI and when you should use them. You can use these interfaces\nalong with one of Vertex AI's\n[notebook solutions](/vertex-ai/docs/workbench/notebook-solution).\n\nSome Vertex AI operations are only available through specific\ninterfaces, so you may need to switch between interfaces during your workflow.\nFor example, in Vertex AI Experiments, you must use the API to log data\nto an experiment run, but you can view the results in the console. \n\n### Console\n\nThe Google Cloud console is a graphical user interface that you can use to\nwork with your machine learning resources.\n\nIn the Google Cloud console, you can manage your ,\nmodels, endpoints, and jobs. You can also access other Google Cloud services,\nsuch as Cloud Storage and BigQuery, through the console.\n\nUse the Google Cloud console if you prefer to view and manage your\nVertex AI resources and visualizations through a graphical user\ninterface.\n\nFor more information, see the **Dashboard** page of the Vertex AI section:\n\n[Go to the Dashboard](https://console.cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/)\n\n### gcloud\n\nThe [Google Cloud command-line interface (CLI)](/sdk/gcloud) is a set of tools for\ncreating and managing Google Cloud resources using the `gcloud` command.\n\nUse the Google Cloud CLI when you want to manage your Vertex AI\nresources from the command line or through scripts and other automation.\n\nFor more information, see [Install the gcloud CLI](/sdk/docs/install) and the\n[`gcloud ai`](/sdk/gcloud/reference/ai) reference.\n\n### Terraform\n\nTerraform is an (IaC) tool that you can use to\nprovision the infrastructure, such as resources and permissions, for multiple\nGoogle Cloud services, including Vertex AI.\n\nYou can define the Vertex AI resources and permissions for your Google Cloud\nproject in a Terraform configuration file. You can then use Terraform to apply\nthe configuration to your project by creating new resources and updating\nexisting resources.\n\nUse Terraform if you want to standardize the infrastructure for Vertex AI\nresources in your Google Cloud project and update the existing Google Cloud\nproject infrastructure while fulfilling resource dependencies.\n\nTo get started, see [Terraform support for Vertex AI](/vertex-ai/docs/start/use-terraform-vertex-ai).\n\n### Python\n\nUse the [Vertex AI SDK for Python](/vertex-ai/docs/python-sdk/use-vertex-ai-python-sdk) to programmatically automate your\nVertex AI workflow.\n\nThe Vertex AI SDK for Python is similar to the Vertex AI Python client\nlibrary, except the SDK is higher-level and less granular. For more\ninformation, see the [Understand the SDK and client library\ndifferences](/vertex-ai/docs/python-sdk/use-vertex-ai-python-sdk#sdk-vs-client-library).\n\nTo get started, see [Install the Vertex AI SDK](/vertex-ai/docs/start/install-sdk).\n\n### Client libraries\n\nClient libraries use each supported language's natural conventions to call the\nVertex AI API and reduce boilerplate code that you have to write.\n\nThe following languages are supported for Vertex AI:\n\n- Python. The Vertex AI Python client library is installed when you\n install the [Vertex AI SDK for Python](/vertex-ai/docs/python-sdk/use-vertex-ai-python-sdk).\n\n- Java\n\n- Node.js\n\n- C#\n\n- Go\n\nFor more information, see [Install the Vertex AI client libraries](/vertex-ai/docs/start/client-libraries).\n\n### REST\n\nThe Vertex AI REST API provides RESTful services for managing jobs,\nmodels, and endpoints, and for making inferences with hosted models\non Google Cloud.\n\nUse the REST API if you need to use your own libraries to call the\nVertex AI API from your application.\n\nTo get started, see the [Vertex AI API REST reference](/vertex-ai/docs/reference/rest).\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- [Set up a project and a development environment](/vertex-ai/docs/start/cloud-environment).\n- [Choose a training method](/vertex-ai/docs/start/training-methods).\n- Tutorials for [Image](/vertex-ai/docs/tutorials/image-classification-automl/overview), [Tabular](/vertex-ai/docs/tutorials/tabular-automl/overview), and [Custom training](/vertex-ai/docs/tutorials/image-classification-custom/overview).\n- Learn [best practices for implementing custom-trained ML models on\n Vertex AI](/architecture/ml-on-gcp-best-practices)."]]
