To use Earth Engine, you need access either via a Google Cloud project that's registered to use Earth Engine or via an individually signed-up account.
Choosing a mechanism
Cloud projects are the recommended mechanism, since they provide the ability to:
- add many additional service accounts without having to register them separately
- access usage tracking and performance monitoring via Cloud Monitoring
- delegate access to human collaborators without them separately registering for Earth Engine access (e.g., in a classroom, training, or team environment)
- use Earth Engine for commercial or operational use
In some cases, your organization's IT policy may prevent you from creating Google Cloud projects. In that case, we recommend reaching out to your admins to grant you the correct permissions (or to create a project for you).
Getting access
A role in a Cloud project
If you have access to an existing project, either one you own or someone else's in which you have the correct set of permissions, ensure that it:
- has the Earth Engine API enabled
- has been registered for use with Earth Engine
- has you listed as an owner or a collaborator
The registration process is how you choose the type (free non-commercial usage, paid operational usage, etc.) and level of access.
Request an exception
All new Earth Engine users are expected to access the platform using Cloud projects. We no longer support new individual direct signups. If you have a strictly noncommercial use case and your organization does not allow you to use Google Cloud projects, you can apply for temporary legacy individual access as an exception. We aim to respond to most requests within two weeks, but some may take longer to process or require additional information.
Additional compute quota and storage uplift are only granted at the Cloud project level.
Configuring access
Code Editor
A role in a Cloud project
The primary tool for selecting a project in the Code Editor is account widget in the top right corner of the page. If you have individual access, it may be blank. Selecting a project is as simple as clicking on the gray icon and choosing a Cloud project.
Individual signup
Log in with your account and access the Code Editor. If you encounter errors, please refresh the page. If errors persist, you may need to log out of other Google accounts in the browser.
Client libraries (Python, JavaScript)
A role in a Cloud project
Specify a project via the project parameter on ee.Initialize().
Individual signup
Use your credentials with ee.Initialize().
Service accounts
A role in a Cloud project
Service accounts automatically have access once their parent project is registered and has the Earth Engine API enabled. They also need the correct permissions within the project. Any number of service accounts on a project can be configured to use Earth Engine.
Individual signup
Users with individual access (i.e., without registered Cloud projects) must manually register each service account to use Earth Engine using the Service Account registration page. There's a limit of five registered service accounts per user, and, once registered, a service account permanently occupies a slot. It's not possible to revoke Earth Engine access for a service account registered through the non-Cloud flow.
Working with other humans
A role in a Cloud project
Cloud projects use Cloud IAM to manage roles and permissions. In order for other humans to access Earth Engine via your project, you'll need to use the Cloud Console. to grant them the correct roles and permissions.
Individual signup
Individual signup only grants access to an individual human account, so, if you want to work with other human users, they'll need to have their own access to Earth Engine (by signing up as individuals, or, preferably, via a Cloud project).
Common scenarios
I already have individual access, but I want to use a project...
Great! Registering a project doesn't affect your individual signup access, and using projects are the recommended mechanism for sending requests to Earth Engine.
I'm teaching an educational class...
Great! If you register a noncommercial project, no billing configuration is required. Then, you can add your students to the project.
I'm part of an operational team/commercial organization...
Great! You're able to register a project for commercial use, and add your collaborators to it. Please also pay attention to the seat limit in the Earth Engine subscription that you select.
Earth Engine data deletion
Account-level deletion
Account-level deletion will remove all Earth Engine data from your account.
If your account is part of a Google Workspace organization, your administrator controls your account data. When an administrator deletes a Google Account, all associated Earth Engine data are wiped out within approximately 30 days.
It's not possible for the Earth Engine team to recover data once they're deleted.
Cloud projects
When a Cloud project is deleted, it triggers the deletion of Earth Engine data associated with that project (including, for example, any assets stored in the project root, any project-level EE Apps, Monitoring data, etc.). This process may be reversible for up to 30 days, but it's never possible to recover those data after 30 days.
Legacy assets
The simplest method for deleting your legacy assets is to use the "Assets" tab in the Code Editor to view and manually delete your Earth Engine assets.
For programmatic asset deletion of an asset with ID users/{username}/{assetId}
(e.g., users/myUserName/myCollection/myAsset):
Python client
ee.data.deleteAsset('users/myUserName/myCollection/myAsset')
JavaScript client
Note that the Code Editor's security sandbox prevents this call from working in that environment.
ee.data.deleteAsset('users/myUserName/myCollection/myAsset')
Command-line tool
Use the rm command:
earthengine rm users/myUserName/myCollection/myAsset
Scripts
To delete your Earth Engine scripts:
Code Editor
From the "Scripts" tab in the Code Editor, select a script or repository and delete it. Once a repository has been marked as deleted, it becomes unrecoverable within 30 days.
Using Git
Advanced users can use Git to manage their scripts. See https://earthengine.googlesource.com/ to list the repositories that you can view.
EE Apps
To delete your Earth Engine Apps, use the "Apps" button in the Code Editor to manage your Apps.
"Get Link" references
Use the Manage Links page to view and delete your "Get Link" links from the Code Editor. This page can be found by navigating to the "Manage Links" option in the drop-down menu next to the "Get Link" button.
Terminating commercial access
If you are a direct customer of Earth Engine and want to stop using Earth Engine in a paid context, there are several changes needed to stop incurring charges:
Stop subscription charges
- To terminate the Earth Engine subscription on your billing account, you need to use the "Manage Plans" page (accessible from the user settings drop-down menu in the top right of the Code Editor when using a registered Cloud project linked to that billing account).
You can also access the "Manage Plans" page directly for a billing account:
https://code.earthengine.google.com/manage/plans?billing=YOUR_BILLING_ACCT_IDChoosing the "Limited" plan stops your billing account from incurring any further Earth Engine platform subscription fees after your current billing cycle.
Stop compute charges
- To prevent new charges related to compute (EECU-time), disable the Earth Engine API on your Cloud project(s). Note that this doesn't terminate in-progress requests or delete stored objects, so you may still incur Earth Engine charges even with the API disabled.
- See the API Console Help for information about disabling APIs.
Stop storage charges
- Stored Earth Engine assets continue to drive costs even if the API is disabled. Deleting your assets stops you from incurring further EE storage fees.