Before you begin

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

  1. 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.

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

    Go to project selector

  3. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  4. Enable the Vision API.

    Enable the API

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

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

    Go to project selector

  9. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  10. Enable the Vision API.

    Enable the API

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.