Change the default storage class of a bucket

This page shows you how to change the default storage class for a bucket. When you upload an object to the bucket, if you don't specify a storage class for the object, the object is assigned the bucket's default storage class. To learn more about storage classes, see Storage Classes.

Required roles

In order to get the required permissions for changing a bucket's storage class, ask your administrator to grant you the Storage Admin (roles/storage.admin) IAM role on the bucket.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to change a bucket's storage class. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

  • storage.buckets.get
    • This permission is only required if you plan on using the Google Cloud console to perform the instructions on this page.
  • storage.buckets.list
    • This permission is only required if you plan on using the Google Cloud console to perform the instructions on this page.
  • storage.buckets.update

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles.

For instructions on granting roles on buckets, see Use IAM with buckets.

Change the default storage class of a bucket

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Storage Buckets page.

    Go to Buckets

  2. In the list of buckets, click the name of the bucket whose storage class you want to change.

  3. In the Bucket details page, click the Configuration tab.

  4. Click the Edit icon () for Default storage class.

  5. In the overlay window, select the new default storage class you would like for your bucket.

  6. Click Save.

To learn how to get detailed error information about failed Cloud Storage operations in the Google Cloud console, see Troubleshooting.

Command line

Use the gcloud storage buckets update command with the --default-storage-class flag:

gcloud storage buckets update gs://BUCKET_NAME --default-storage-class=STORAGE_CLASS

Where:

  • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the relevant bucket. For example, my-bucket.
  • STORAGE_CLASS is the new storage class you want for your bucket. For example, nearline.

The response looks like the following example:

Setting default storage class to "nearline" for bucket gs://my-bucket

Client libraries

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
using ::google::cloud::StatusOr;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::string const& storage_class) {
  StatusOr<gcs::BucketMetadata> original =
      client.GetBucketMetadata(bucket_name);
  if (!original) throw std::move(original).status();

  gcs::BucketMetadata desired = *original;
  desired.set_storage_class(storage_class);

  StatusOr<gcs::BucketMetadata> patched =
      client.PatchBucket(bucket_name, *original, desired);
  if (!patched) throw std::move(patched).status();

  std::cout << "Storage class for bucket " << patched->name()
            << " has been patched to " << patched->storage_class() << "."
            << "\nFull metadata: " << *patched << "\n";
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 


using Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data;
using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;

public class ChangeDefaultStorageClassSample
{
	public Bucket ChangeDefaultStorageClass(string bucketName = "your-bucket-name", string storageClass = StorageClasses.Standard)
	{
	    var storage = StorageClient.Create();
	    var bucket = storage.GetBucket(bucketName);

	    bucket.StorageClass = storageClass;

	    bucket = storage.UpdateBucket(bucket);
	    Console.WriteLine($"Default storage class for bucket {bucketName} changed to {storageClass}.");
	    return bucket;
	}
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
)

// changeDefaultStorageClass changes the storage class on a bucket.
func changeDefaultStorageClass(w io.Writer, bucketName string) error {
	// bucketName := "bucket-name"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	bucket := client.Bucket(bucketName)
	newStorageClass := "COLDLINE"
	bucketAttrsToUpdate := storage.BucketAttrsToUpdate{
		StorageClass: newStorageClass,
	}
	if _, err := bucket.Update(ctx, bucketAttrsToUpdate); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Bucket(%q).Update: %w", bucketName, err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Default storage class for bucket %v has been set to %v\n", bucketName, newStorageClass)
	return nil
}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

import com.google.cloud.storage.Bucket;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageClass;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;

public class ChangeDefaultStorageClass {
  public static void changeDefaultStorageClass(String projectId, String bucketName) {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    // See the StorageClass documentation for other valid storage classes:
    // https://googleapis.dev/java/google-cloud-clients/latest/com/google/cloud/storage/StorageClass.html
    StorageClass storageClass = StorageClass.COLDLINE;

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();
    Bucket bucket = storage.get(bucketName);
    bucket = bucket.toBuilder().setStorageClass(storageClass).build().update();

    System.out.println(
        "Default storage class for bucket "
            + bucketName
            + " has been set to "
            + bucket.getStorageClass());
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The name of a storage class
// See the StorageClass documentation for other valid storage classes:
// https://googleapis.dev/java/google-cloud-clients/latest/com/google/cloud/storage/StorageClass.html
// const storageClass = 'coldline';

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function changeDefaultStorageClass() {
  await storage.bucket(bucketName).setStorageClass(storageClass);

  console.log(`${bucketName} has been set to ${storageClass}`);
}

changeDefaultStorageClass().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * Change the default storage class for the given bucket.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 *        (e.g. 'my-bucket')
 */
function change_default_storage_class(string $bucketName): void
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);

    $storageClass = 'COLDLINE';

    $bucket->update([
        'storageClass' => $storageClass,
    ]);

    printf(
        'Default storage class for bucket %s has been set to %s',
        $bucketName,
        $storageClass
    );
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

from google.cloud import storage
from google.cloud.storage import constants


def change_default_storage_class(bucket_name):
    """Change the default storage class of the bucket"""
    # bucket_name = "your-bucket-name"

    storage_client = storage.Client()

    bucket = storage_client.get_bucket(bucket_name)
    bucket.storage_class = constants.COLDLINE_STORAGE_CLASS
    bucket.patch()

    print(f"Default storage class for bucket {bucket_name} has been set to {bucket.storage_class}")
    return bucket

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

def change_default_storage_class bucket_name:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket = storage.bucket bucket_name

  bucket.storage_class = "COLDLINE"

  puts "Default storage class for bucket #{bucket_name} has been set to #{bucket.storage_class}"
end

REST APIs

JSON API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Create a JSON file that contains the following information:

    {
  "storageClass": "STORAGE_CLASS"
}

    Where STORAGE_CLASS is the new storage class you want for your bucket. For example, nearline.

  3. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a PATCH Bucket request:

    curl -X PATCH --data-binary @JSON_FILE_NAME \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME?fields=storageClass"

    Where:

    • JSON_FILE_NAME is the path for the JSON file that you created in Step 2.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the relevant bucket. For example, my-bucket.

XML API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Create an XML file that contains the following information:

    <StorageClass>STORAGE_CLASS</StorageClass>

    Where STORAGE_CLASS is the name of the new storage class you want for your bucket. For example, nearline.

  3. Use cURL to call the XML API with a PUT Bucket request scoped to ?storageClass:

    curl -X PUT --data-binary @XML_FILE_NAME \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/BUCKET_NAME?storageClass"

    Where:

    • XML_FILE_NAME is the path for the XML file that you created in Step 2.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the relevant bucket. For example, my-bucket.

What's next