gcloud compute routes create

NAME

gcloud compute routes create - create a new route

SYNOPSIS

gcloud compute routes create NAME --destination-range=DESTINATION_RANGE (--next-hop-address=NEXT_HOP_ADDRESS | --next-hop-gateway=NEXT_HOP_GATEWAY | --next-hop-ilb=NEXT_HOP_ILB | --next-hop-instance=NEXT_HOP_INSTANCE | --next-hop-vpn-tunnel=NEXT_HOP_VPN_TUNNEL) [--description=DESCRIPTION] [--network=NETWORK; default="default"] [--next-hop-ilb-region=NEXT_HOP_ILB_REGION] [--next-hop-instance-zone=NEXT_HOP_INSTANCE_ZONE] [--next-hop-vpn-tunnel-region=NEXT_HOP_VPN_TUNNEL_REGION] [--priority=PRIORITY; default=1000] [--resource-manager-tags=[KEY=VALUE,…]] [--tags=TAG,[TAG,…]] [GCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG …]

DESCRIPTION

gcloud compute routes create is used to create routes. A route is a rule that specifies how certain packets should be handled by the virtual network. Routes are associated with virtual machine instances by tag, and the set of routes for a particular VM is called its routing table. For each packet leaving a virtual machine, the system searches that machine's routing table for a single best matching route.

Routes match packets by destination IP address, preferring smaller or more specific ranges over larger ones (see --destination-range). If there is a tie, the system selects the route with the smallest priority value. The packet is then forwarded as specified by --next-hop-address, --next-hop-instance, --next-hop-vpn-tunnel, or --next-hop-gateway of the winning route. Packets that do not match any route in the sending virtual machine routing table will be dropped.

Exactly one of --next-hop-address, --next-hop-gateway, --next-hop-vpn-tunnel, or --next-hop-instance must be provided with this command.

EXAMPLES

To create a route with the name 'route-name' with destination range '0.0.0.0/0' and with next hop gateway 'default-internet-gateway', run:

gcloud compute routes create route-name --destination-range=0.0.0.0/0 --next-hop-gateway=default-internet-gateway

POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS

NAME: Name of the route to create.

REQUIRED FLAGS

--destination-range=DESTINATION_RANGE: The destination range of outgoing packets that the route will apply to. To match all traffic, use ``0.0.0.0/0´´.
Exactly one of these must be specified: --next-hop-address=NEXT_HOP_ADDRESS Specifies the IP address of an instance that should handle matching packets. The instance must have IP forwarding enabled (i.e., include --can-ip-forward when creating the instance using gcloud compute instances create) --next-hop-gateway=NEXT_HOP_GATEWAY Specifies the gateway that should handle matching packets. Currently, the only acceptable value is default-internet-gateway which is a gateway operated by Google Compute Engine. --next-hop-ilb=NEXT_HOP_ILB Specifies the name or IP address of a forwarding rule for an internal TCP/UDP load balancer. The forwarding rule's --load-balancing-scheme must be INTERNAL. You can use any --destination-range that doesn't exactly match the destination of a subnet route and isn't more specific (has a longer subnet mask) than the destination of a subnet route. For more information, see https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/internal/ilb-next-hop-overview#destination_range. --next-hop-instance=NEXT_HOP_INSTANCE Specifies the name of an instance that should handle traffic matching this route. When this flag is specified, the zone of the instance must be specified using --next-hop-instance-zone. --next-hop-vpn-tunnel=NEXT_HOP_VPN_TUNNEL The target VPN tunnel that will receive forwarded traffic.

OPTIONAL FLAGS

--description=DESCRIPTION

An optional, textual description for the route.

--network=NETWORK; default="default"

Specifies the network to which the route will be applied.

--next-hop-ilb-region=NEXT_HOP_ILB_REGION

The region of the next hop forwarding rule. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a region (interactive mode only).

To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, you can set the compute/region property:

gcloud config set compute/region REGION

A list of regions can be fetched by running:

gcloud compute regions list

To unset the property, run:

gcloud config unset compute/region

Alternatively, the region can be stored in the environment variable CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_REGION.

--next-hop-instance-zone=NEXT_HOP_INSTANCE_ZONE

The zone of the next hop instance. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a zone (interactive mode only). gcloud attempts to identify the appropriate zone by searching for resources in your currently active project. If the zone cannot be determined, gcloud prompts you for a selection with all available Google Cloud Platform zones.

To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, the user can set the compute/zone property:

gcloud config set compute/zone ZONE

A list of zones can be fetched by running:

gcloud compute zones list

To unset the property, run:

gcloud config unset compute/zone

Alternatively, the zone can be stored in the environment variable CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_ZONE.

--next-hop-vpn-tunnel-region=NEXT_HOP_VPN_TUNNEL_REGION

The region of the next hop vpn tunnel. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a region (interactive mode only).

To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, you can set the compute/region property:

gcloud config set compute/region REGION

A list of regions can be fetched by running:

gcloud compute regions list

To unset the property, run:

gcloud config unset compute/region

Alternatively, the region can be stored in the environment variable CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_REGION.

--priority=PRIORITY; default=1000

Specifies the priority of this route relative to other routes with the same specificity. The lower the value, the higher the priority.

--resource-manager-tags=[KEY=VALUE,…]

A comma-separated list of Resource Manager tags to apply to the route.

--tags=TAG,[TAG,…]

Identifies the set of instances that this route will apply to. If no tags are provided, the route will apply to all instances in the network.

GCLOUD WIDE FLAGS

These flags are available to all commands: --access-token-file, --account, --billing-project, --configuration, --flags-file, --flatten, --format, --help, --impersonate-service-account, --log-http, --project, --quiet, --trace-token, --user-output-enabled, --verbosity.

Run $ gcloud help for details.

NOTES

These variants are also available:

gcloud alpha compute routes create

gcloud beta compute routes create

gcloud preview compute routes create

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Last updated 2026-05-27 UTC.