---
id: gcloud
version: "0.18.3"
license: Apache 2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# gcloud — API Client library for Google Cloud

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 513.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

gcloud was a unified Python client library for multiple Google Cloud Platform services, providing idiomatic interfaces to Datastore (NoSQL database), Cloud Storage (object storage), Pub/Sub (messaging), BigQuery (data warehouse), Resource Manager, and Stackdriver Logging. It abstracted away the low-level REST API details and offered Pythonic object models for common cloud operations.

However, this package is deprecated and has been officially renamed to google-cloud on PyPI. No new releases will be made for gcloud. The last release (0.18.3) dates to 2016-09-23, making it nearly a decade old. Installing this package will not receive security patches, bug fixes, or support for new GCP services. Any new project should use the google-cloud package instead.

Use it for:

- Querying and storing entities in Google Cloud Datastore (legacy projects only)
- Uploading and downloading files from Google Cloud Storage buckets (legacy projects only)
- Publishing and subscribing to messages via Google Cloud Pub/Sub (legacy projects only)
- Running SQL queries against BigQuery datasets (legacy projects only)

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides Python client libraries for Google Cloud Platform services including Datastore, Storage, Pub/Sub, BigQuery, Resource Manager, and Stackdriver Logging.

No. Do not install gcloud. The package is deprecated, unmaintained since 2016, and officially superseded by google-cloud on PyPI. Any new project should use google-cloud instead. Existing projects using gcloud should migrate to the current package to receive security updates and ongoing support.

## Install

pip install gcloud
uv add gcloud
poetry add gcloud

## Installing gcloud

Before you install: High install friction; package is deprecated and no longer maintained. The description explicitly warns that this package has been renamed to google-cloud on PyPI with no new releases planned for gcloud. Last release was 2016-09-23, making it significantly outdated.

License in practice: Licensed under Apache 2.0 (permissive), which allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, but this is moot given the package's deprecated status.

Quickstart:

# gcloud is deprecated; use google-cloud instead
# For reference, the old pattern was:
# pip install gcloud
# from gcloud import datastore
# entity = datastore.Entity(key=datastore.Key('Kind'))
# query = datastore.Query(kind='Kind')
# for result in query.fetch():
#     print(result)

This package is deprecated and unmaintained. Google has moved all development to the google-cloud package on PyPI. Installing gcloud will not receive security updates or bug fixes.

Verify before relying:

- Whether any production systems still depend on gcloud 0.18.3 and what migration path exists to google-cloud
- Whether the repository remains archived or if any maintenance has resumed since the last recorded commit

## Package facts

- License: Apache 2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 513.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

google cloud platform python client, gcp datastore storage pubsub, google cloud api wrapper, cloud datastore python, google bigquery client, cloud storage python sdk, google cloud messaging, deprecated, legacy, gcp-client

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/gcloud) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/gcloud/)