About Cloud Storage buckets  |  Google Cloud (2024)

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This page describes buckets, a resource in Cloud Storage. For a generaloverview of how Cloud Storage works, see theCloud Storage product overview.

Buckets

Buckets are the basic containers that hold your data. Everything that youstore in Cloud Storage must be contained in a bucket. You can usebuckets to organize your data and control access to your data, but unlikedirectories and folders, you cannot nest buckets.

• There is no limit to the number of buckets you can have in a project orlocation.

  • There are, however,limits to the rate you can create or delete buckets.

• When you create a bucket, you give it a globally-unique name and ageographic location where the bucket and its contents are stored.

  • You cannot change the name or location of an existing bucket. Instead, youcan create a new bucket with the properties you want and move the contentsfrom the old bucket to the new bucket. SeeMoving and Renaming Buckets for a step-by-step guide.

• Pricing (such as charges for data storage, data processing, and networkoutbound data transfer) depends on factors such as the bucket's location andthe storage classes of objects within it. For more details, seeCloud Storage pricing.

• You can use Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to individualbuckets.

Enable hierarchical namespace in buckets

When you create a bucket, you have the option to enablehierarchical namespace (preview) foryour bucket. Buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled have an optimizedstorage structure similar to a file system, organizing objects within ahierarchy of folders. This provides improved performance, consistency, and easeof management, especially for data-intensive and file-oriented workloads. Forinformation about enabling hierarchical namespace, see Create andmanage buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled.

Bucket names

Your bucket names must meet the following requirements:

• Bucket names can only contain lowercase letters, numeric characters, dashes (-), underscores (_), and dots (.). Spaces are not allowed. Names containing dots require verification.
• Bucket names must start and end with a number or letter.
• Bucket names must contain 3-63 characters. Names containing dots can contain up to 222 characters, but each dot-separated component can be no longer than 63 characters.
• Bucket names cannot be represented as an IP address in dotted-decimal notation (for example, 192.168.5.4).
• Bucket names cannot begin with the "goog" prefix.
• Bucket names cannot contain "google" or close misspellings, such as "g00gle".

Bucket name considerations

• Bucket names reside in a single namespace that is shared by allCloud Storage users. This means that:

  • Every bucket name must be globally unique.

    If you try to create a bucket with a name that already belongs to anexisting bucket, such as example-bucket, Cloud Storageresponds with an error message.

  • Bucket names are publicly visible.

    Don't use user IDs, email addresses, project names, project numbers, orany personally identifiable information (PII) in bucket names becauseanyone can probe for the existence of a bucket.

• Once you delete a bucket, anyone can reuse its name for a new bucket.

  The time it takes a deleted bucket's name to become available again istypically on the order of seconds; however, keep in mind the following:

  • If you delete the project that contains the bucket, which effectivelydeletes the bucket as well, the bucket name may not be released for weeksor longer.
  • If a new bucket with the same name is created in a different location andwithin 10 minutes of the old bucket's deletion, requests made to the newbucket during this 10 minute timeframe might fail with a404-Bucket Not Found error.
  • If your requests go through the XML API, attempts to create a bucketthat reuses a name in a new location might fail with a404-Bucket Not Found error for up to 10 minutes after the old bucket'sdeletion.

• You can use a bucket name in a DNS record as part of a CNAME or Aredirect.

  In order to do so, your bucket name should conform to standard DNS namingconventions. This means that your bucket name should not use underscores(_) or have a period next to another period or dash. For example, ..,-., and .- are invalid character combinations within DNS names.

Example bucket names

The following are examples of valid bucket names:

• my-travel-maps
• 0f75d593-8e7b-4418-a5ba-cb2970f0b91e
• test.example.com (Requires verification of ownership for example.com)

The following are examples of invalid bucket names:

• My-Travel-Maps (contains uppercase letters)
• my_google_bucket (contains "google")
• test bucket (contains a space)

What's next

• Create Cloud Storage buckets.
• Rename an existing bucket.
• Learn about the metadata associated with a bucket.
• Upload an object.