# How to Setup Google Cloud Project and Store Images in Google Cloud — Liran Tal

Step-by-step tutorial on configuring a Google Cloud project and storing images in Google Cloud Storage.

Canonical: https://lirantal.com/blog/how-to-setup-google-cloud-project-and-store-images-in-google-cloud

In this write-up I will describe how to setup a Google Cloud project (on GCP) and use it to store images in Google Cloud Storage. If you’re looking into storing uploaded images via an S3-like alternative with Google through a step-by-step tutorial and this is a write-up for you.

## Init a new Google Cloud project with the `glcoud` CLI

*   1.  Install the `gcloud` CLI
*   2.  Initiate a new project:

    ```
    gcloud projects create credster --name="Credster project" --labels=type=credster
    ```

*   3.  Set the active project from now on to the rest of the usage for `gcloud`:

    ```
    gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
    ```

*   4.  Link the project to a billing account so you can open up APIs. This has to be done from the UI as follows:

    *   4.1. Choose the project to be active:

        ![google cloud firebase project setup 1](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-1.png)

    *   4.2. Click on `Billing` from the available boxes:

    *   4.3. Then choose `Link a billing account`:

        ![google cloud firebase project setup 2](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-2.png)

    *   4.4. Then set and choose the existing one already (if not, then create one):

        ![google cloud firebase project setup 3](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-3.png)


## Store images in Google Cloud Storage

In this case we need to achieve 3 things:

*   1.  Create a bucket to hold all image files
*   2.  Create a credentials API key in JSON format that we can load on the backend server to access and perform operations on the storage bucket
*   3.  Update the bucket permissions to allow public access

### Create images bucket

Create a bucket to hold uploaded images:

```
gcloud storage buckets create gs://cert_images --project credster
```

With an output of:

```
Creating gs://cert_images/...
```

### Create service account for cloud storage

![google cloud firebase project setup 2](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-2.png) ![google cloud firebase project setup 3](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-3.png)

*   1.  Go to `API & Services` → `Credentials` and click on `Create Credentials` and choose `Service account`:

    ![google cloud firebase project setup 4](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-4.png)

*   2.  Give it a name (`backend-storage-access`)
*   3.  Assign it the role `Storage admin`:

    ![google cloud firebase project setup 5](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-5.png)

*   4.  Save it with `Done`
*   5.  Now edit the service account and go to `KEYS` tab and create a new key and choose `JSON` key:

    ![google cloud firebase project setup 6](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-6.png)

    and then

    ![google cloud firebase project setup 7](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-7.png)

    it now downloaded a JSON file to your computer and gave the following dialog to draw attention on keeping it secure:

    ![google cloud firebase project setup 8](/images/blog/google-cloud-firebase-project-setup-8.png)


### Update bucket permissions to view-all

Add `allUsers` to members of the bucket resource and give them role `Storage object viewer`.

```
gsutil iam ch allUsers:objectViewer gs://$BUCKET_NAME
```

### Update bucket permissions to allow CORS

Read about [CORS here](https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/cross-origin) and why it is needed

Create a local temporary JSON file to define allowed CORS for the bucket called `cors-bucket-policy.json`

```
[
    {
      "origin": ["*"],
      "method": ["GET", "PUT"],
      "responseHeader": ["Content-Type"],
      "maxAgeSeconds": 3600
    }
]
```

We can then update it properly to something like this when we go to production:

```
[
    {
      "origin": ["<https://your-example-website.appspot.com>"],
      "method": ["GET", "PUT"],
      "responseHeader": ["Content-Type"],
      "maxAgeSeconds": 3600
    }
]
```

```
gcloud storage buckets update gs://$BUCKET_NAME --cors-file=$CORS_CONFIG_FILE
```

View the CORS configuration for a bucket and confirm:

```
gcloud storage buckets describe gs://$BUCKET_NAME --format="default(cors)"
```

If needed to remove CORS completely:

```
gcloud storage buckets update gs://$BUCKET_NAME --clear-cors
```

## Google Cloud Static Website Hosting

More information about Google Cloud static website hosting, with Firebase and otherwise can be found in the following resources:

*   [Host a static website | Cloud Storage | Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/hosting-static-website)

*   [Host a static website | Cloud Storage | Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/hosting-static-website)

*   [Host a Static Website on GCP With Load Balancer and CDN](https://medium.com/google-cloud/host-a-static-website-on-gcp-with-loadbalancer-and-cdn-e1ce71d38d07)

*   [How to Host a Static Website on Google Cloud](https://www.fullstaq.com/knowledge-hub/blogs/how-to-host-static-website-google-cloud)


## More writing

[All writing →](/blog)

*   Sep 5, 2026

    ### [Self-Hosting Hermes Agent with Matrix E2EE on Proxmox](/blog/self-host-hermes-agent-matrix-e2ee-proxmox)

*   Aug 2, 2026

    ### [The Practical Second Brain: Building an LLM-Operated Markdown Knowledge Graph](/blog/practical-second-brain-llm-markdown-knowledge-graph)

*   Aug 1, 2026

    ### [Building a Second Brain with LLMs and AI Agents](/blog/building-second-brain-llms-ai-agents)


* * *

Liran Tal is the author of the book [Node.js Secure Coding: Defending Against Command Injection Vulnerabilities](https://www.nodejs-security.com/)

[Start Building Secure Node.js Applications ↗](https://www.nodejs-security.com/)

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