This document describes how to manage Cloud Billing for each of your Google Cloud projects and teaches you how to link and unlink projects and Cloud Billing accounts.
To learn how to create, modify, or close your Cloud Billing account, visit Manage your Cloud Billing account.
A Google Cloud project is a top-level container for all your cloud resources, acting as the foundational element required to use any Google Cloud services. All service-level resources for Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform, Google AI Studio, and Firebase are parented by Google Cloud projects. A Cloud Billing account accrues and calculates costs for your usage of resources and services in each of the projects linked to the Cloud Billing account. The accrued costs are routed to a Google payments account to pay your bill.
A Cloud Billing account defines who pays for a given set of resources, and it can be linked to one or more projects. Project usage costs are accrued by the linked Cloud Billing account and charged to the linked Google payments account.
If you create or have access to multiple Cloud Billing accounts, you can change the Cloud Billing account that a Google Cloud project is billed to. This document describes how to change the Cloud Billing account for your project, as well as how to enable and disable billing for a project.
In this document, you can learn how to:
If you want to receive invoices by email, or you want to change who receives them, see Change payments contacts and notifications.
The permissions required to accomplish the various tasks described in this document depend on the task and are noted at the start of each topic.
For more information about Cloud Billing permissions, see:
Billing is enabled on a project if the following are true:
See Verify the billing status of your projects to learn how to determine if billing is enabled on a project.
Switching a project to a different Cloud Billing account shouldn't result in any service interruption or server downtime. However, your projects might be affected in the following ways:
Committed use discounts (CUDs): If you purchased resource-based commitments for Compute Engine resources in your project, then moving the project has the following effects on your CUDs:
For any commitments in the project that you're moving, you receive CUDs only in the destination Cloud Billing account.
If the destination Cloud Billing account doesn't have CUD sharing enabled, then CUDs from resource-based commitments in the project that you're moving apply to eligible usage only in that project. You can enable CUD sharing by updating the CUD scope for the destination Cloud Billing account.
If the destination Cloud Billing account already has CUD sharing enabled, then any resource-based CUDs from commitments in the project that you're moving apply to eligible usage across all projects in the destination Cloud Billing account.
Even if you enabled CUD sharing in the original Cloud Billing account, resource-based CUDs from the project that you're moving won't apply anymore to projects linked to that Cloud Billing account.
If you set up prioritized attribution for the commitment, you might need to update the prioritized attribution configuration after you change the project's Cloud Billing account.
Learn about setting up prioritized attribution for your commitments.
After you change the Cloud Billing account for the project, any resource-based CUDs start applying to the new Cloud Billing account at midnight in the US and Canadian Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8) time zone.
Some usage costs are owned by the Cloud Billing account and aren't included in a project (for example, Support costs). To identify these charges before you switch your projects to a different Cloud Billing account, view the Cost table report or cost Reports:
Google Cloud Marketplace customers: If you've made purchases from Google Cloud Marketplace in your project, consider the following before you move a project to a different Cloud Billing account:
Cloud Armor customers: If your Cloud Billing account is subscribed to Cloud Armor Enterprise Annual, and you migrate your project from that billing account to another, but your new Cloud Billing account isn't subscribed to Cloud Armor Enterprise Annual, your project reverts to Cloud Armor Standard after the migration completes. Learn how to keep your project in Cloud Armor Enterprise Annual without downtime.
Google AI Studio customers: If you change the Cloud Billing account that is linked to your project, you might be prompted to configure a Prepay account and buy credits before you can use Gemini API in AI Studio services.
To change the Cloud Billing account for a project, you need to be able to move a project from one Cloud Billing account to another. To accomplish this task, you need permissions to unlink the project from the current Cloud Billing account AND to link the project to the target Cloud Billing account.
You need both project permissions and billing account permissions. These predefined roles have adequate permissions to perform this task:
| On the project | ||
|---|---|---|
| Project Billing Manager + Project Browser + Service Usage Viewer | OR | Project Owner |
AND
| On the current and target Cloud Billing accounts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Billing Account User + Billing Account Viewer | OR | Billing Account Administrator |
Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the following permissions.
| Action | Permission | Roles with permission | Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| View projects and Cloud Billing account associations |
billing.resourceAssociations.list |
Billing Account Viewer, Billing Account Costs Manager, or Billing Account Administrator | Billing account |
| AND | |||
resourcemanager.projects.get |
Project Browser, Project Viewer, Project Editor, or Project Owner | Project | |
| Unlink project from its current Cloud Billing account |
billing.resourceAssociations.delete |
Billing Account Administrator | Current billing account |
| OR | |||
resourcemanager.projects.deleteBillingAssignment |
Project Billing Manager or Project Owner | Project | |
| Link project to the target Cloud Billing account |
billing.resourceAssociations.create |
Billing Account User or Billing Account Administrator | Target billing account |
| AND | |||
serviceusage.services.listserviceusage.effectivepolicy.get |
Service Usage Viewer, Project Viewer, Project Editor, or Project Owner | Project | |
resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignment |
Project Billing Manager or Project Owner | Project | |
To change the project's Cloud Billing account, do the following.
In the Billing section of the Google Cloud console, locate the project using one of the following methods:
| Method 1: Start with your list of projects | Method 2: Start with a billing account |
|---|---|
| Access the My Projects page to view a list of
all of your projects and their associated
Cloud Billing account.
This method works best if you have the Project Owner, Project Editor, Project Viewer, or Project Billing Manager IAM role on the project you want to manage. To view a list of all of your projects and their associated Cloud Billing account, take the following steps:
|
Open the Account management page for a selected
billing account to view the list of all the projects
linked to the Cloud Billing account.
This method works well when you have access to an active Cloud Billing account that you know by name. To view the list of projects linked to a specific billing account, take the following steps:
|
In the project row, open the Actions menu (), select Change billing, then choose the destination Cloud Billing account.
Click Set account.
(Optional) After you link a project to a billing account, you can lock the link to prevent the project from unintentionally being moved (linked) to a different billing account or the project link being deleted from the billing account.
After you change the Cloud Billing account on a project, charges already incurred prior to moving the project are billed to the former Cloud Billing account. This can include charges that haven't yet been reported in the transaction history. Depending on the service, it might take up to two days for charges to be reported to the transaction history.
For example: If you move your project from Account A to Account B on May 15, charges incurred May 1 to May 15 will be billed to Account A (old), and charges incurred May 16 to May 31 will be billed to Account B (new).
How you enable billing depends on whether you're creating a new project or you're enabling billing for an existing project, and which platform you are on when you enable billing.
Depending on which platform you are using when you create a new project, during the project creation process, you might be prompted to link a billing account to the project to enable billing.
| Project-creation platform | Billing account linked? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud console | Yes | From the Google Cloud console, when you create a new Google Cloud project for use with Google Cloud or Google Maps Platform products and services, you're prompted to choose which of your Cloud Billing accounts you want to link to the project. If you have only one Cloud Billing account, that account is automatically linked to your project. If you don't have a Cloud Billing account, you must create one and enable billing for your project before you can use many Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform services. To create a new Cloud Billing account and enable billing for your project, follow the instructions in Create a new Cloud Billing account. |
| Firebase console | No | From the Firebase console, when you create a new project to use for Firebase, you create a new Google Cloud project that isn't linked to a Cloud Billing account. By default, new projects that are created in the Firebase console are connected to the no-cost Spark plan, which provides full usage of free services, plus limited usage and quota for paid Firebase services. |
| Google AI Studio console | No | From the Google AI Studio console, when you create a new project for your Gemini API in AI Studio usage, you create a new Google Cloud project that isn't linked to a Cloud Billing account. By default, new projects begin on the Free tier, which allows access to certain models in the Gemini API in AI Studio, up to the models' rate limits. |
To use Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform resources and services in a project, billing must be enabled on the project.
For Firebase, billing must be enabled on the project to upgrade to the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan, to access more services and higher usage levels.
For Google AI Studio, billing must be enabled on the project to upgrade to a paid tier, to access higher rate limits and use advanced Gemini API models.
Billing is enabled when the project is linked to an active Cloud Billing account in good standing. Billing can become disabled on a project for one of the following reasons:
If you have a project where billing has been disabled, for Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform, all billable services within that project are stopped; for Firebase and Google AI Studio, your usage is downgraded to the limited free use plans. Re-enable billing on the project to restart the resources or continue to access the elevated features of a paid plan.
To enable billing for a project, you need permissions to link the project to the target Cloud Billing account.
You need both project permissions and billing account permissions. These predefined roles have adequate permissions to perform this task:
| On the project | ||
|---|---|---|
| Project Billing Manager + Project Browser + Service Usage Viewer | OR | Project Owner |
AND
| On the target Cloud Billing account | ||
|---|---|---|
| Billing Account User + Billing Account Viewer | OR | Billing Account Administrator |
Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the following permissions.
| Action | Permission | Roles with permission | Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| View projects and Cloud Billing account associations |
billing.resourceAssociations.list |
Billing Account Viewer, Billing Account Costs Manager, or Billing Account Administrator | Billing account |
| AND | |||
resourcemanager.projects.get |
Project Browser, Project Viewer, Project Editor, or Project Owner | Project | |
| Link project to the target Cloud Billing account |
billing.resourceAssociations.create |
Billing Account User or Billing Account Administrator | Target billing account |
| AND | |||
serviceusage.services.listserviceusage.effectivepolicy.get |
Service Usage Viewer, Project Viewer, Project Editor, or Project Owner | Project | |
resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignment |
Project Billing Manager or Project Owner | Project | |
You can follow the procedure described here to access the Google Cloud console to enable billing on any of your Google Cloud projects.
Alternatively, for your Firebase and AI Studio projects, you can access those platforms directly to enable billing on your projects:
In the Google Cloud console, to enable billing on a project, do the following:
Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud console.
Select the My projects tab to view a list of projects and the associated Cloud Billing account for each project.
From the list of projects, locate the project for which you want to re-enable billing. Tip: In the Billing account column, for projects that aren't linked to a billing account, look for "Billing is disabled".
In the project row, open the Actions menu (), select Change billing, then choose the destination Cloud Billing account.
Click Set account.
(Optional) After you link a project to a billing account, you can lock the link to prevent the project from unintentionally being moved (linked) to a different billing account or the project link being deleted from the billing account.
If you're re-enabling billing on a recently
restored project,
you might encounter an error similar to: User missing permission
'resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignment' to link a billing account to
project. The attempted action failed, please try again.
Due to latency issues during the project recovery process, it might take some time for the restored project to propagate to the Cloud Billing system. You can't successfully link a Cloud Billing account to a restored project until the project is fully propagated to the billing system.
If you receive an error message when attempting to link a billing account to a newly restored project, retry after about 10 minutes. If it still doesn't work, wait a few hours to assign billing. In rare instances, it might take up to 36 hours before you can re-enable billing on a restored project.
To stop automatic payments for a project, you can disable billing for the project by unlinking the project from the billing account. You're still responsible for all outstanding charges for the project. Your listed form of payment on your Cloud Billing account is used to pay for any outstanding charges.
Your projects and services are impacted in different ways when you disable billing, based on the services in use in your projects.
To disable billing for a project, you need permissions to unlink the project from the Cloud Billing account.
You need both project permissions and billing account permissions. These predefined roles have adequate permissions to perform this task:
| On the project | ||
|---|---|---|
| Project Billing Manager + Project Browser | OR | Project Owner |
AND
| On the target Cloud Billing account | ||
|---|---|---|
| Billing Account Viewer | OR | Billing Account Administrator |
Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the following permissions.
| Action | Permission | Roles with permission | Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| View projects and Cloud Billing account associations |
billing.resourceAssociations.list |
Billing Account Viewer, Billing Account Costs Manager, or Billing Account Administrator | Billing account |
| AND | |||
resourcemanager.projects.get |
Project Browser, Project Viewer, Project Editor, or Project Owner | Project | |
| Unlink project from a Cloud Billing account |
billing.resourceAssociations.delete |
Billing Account Administrator | Billing account |
| OR | |||
resourcemanager.projects.deleteBillingAssignment |
Project Billing Manager or Project Owner | Project | |
To disable billing for a project, do the following:
In the Billing section of the Google Cloud console, locate the project using one of the following methods:This method works best if you have the Project Owner, Project Editor, Project Viewer, or Project Billing Manager IAM role on the project you want to manage.
To view a list of all of your projects and their associated Cloud Billing account, take the following steps:
This method works well when you have access to an active Cloud Billing account that you know by name.
To view the list of projects linked to a specific billing account, take the following steps:
In the project row, open the Actions menu (), and then select Disable billing. You're prompted to confirm that you want to disable billing for this project.
Click Disable billing.
After you disable billing on a project, usage charges that accrue prior to disabling billing on the project are billed to the previously linked Cloud Billing account. This can include charges that haven't yet been reported in the transaction history. Google Cloud and other eligible products such as Google Maps Platform, Google AI Studio, and Firebase report usage data to Cloud Billing at varying intervals. Due to the complexity of our billing and processing systems, it might take up to two days for usage charges in the project to be reported to the transaction history and billed to the previously linked Cloud Billing account.
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Last updated 2026-07-17 UTC.
