Method: files.create

Creates a file. For more information, see Create and manage files.

This method supports an /upload URI and accepts uploaded media with the following characteristics:

  • Maximum file size: 5,120 GB
  • Accepted Media MIME types: */*

    (Specify a valid MIME type, rather than the literal */* value. The literal */* is only used to indicate that any valid MIME type can be uploaded. For more information, see Google Workspace and Google Drive supported MIME types.)

For more information on uploading files, see Upload file data.

Apps creating shortcuts with the create method must specify the MIME type application/vnd.google-apps.shortcut.

Apps should specify a file extension in the name property when inserting files with the API. For example, an operation to insert a JPEG file should specify something like "name": "cat.jpg" in the metadata.

Subsequent GET requests include the read-only fileExtension property populated with the extension originally specified in the name property. When a Google Drive user requests to download a file, or when the file is downloaded through the sync client, Drive builds a full filename (with extension) based on the name. In cases where the extension is missing, Drive attempts to determine the extension based on the file's MIME type.

HTTP request

  • Upload URI, for media upload requests:
    POST https://www.googleapis.com/upload/drive/v3/files
  • Metadata URI, for metadata-only requests:
    POST https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files

The URL uses gRPC Transcoding syntax.

Query parameters

Parameters
enforceSingleParent
(deprecated)

boolean

Deprecated: Creating files in multiple folders is no longer supported.
ignoreDefaultVisibility

boolean

Whether to ignore the domain's default visibility settings for the created file. Domain administrators can choose to make all uploaded files visible to the domain by default; this parameter bypasses that behavior for the request. Permissions are still inherited from parent folders.
keepRevisionForever

boolean

Whether to set the keepForever field in the new head revision. This is only applicable to files with binary content in Google Drive. Only 200 revisions for the file can be kept forever. If the limit is reached, try deleting pinned revisions.
ocrLanguage

string

A language hint for OCR processing during image import (ISO 639-1 code).
supportsAllDrives

boolean

Whether the requesting application supports both My Drives and shared drives.
supportsTeamDrives
(deprecated)

boolean

Deprecated: Use supportsAllDrives instead.
uploadType

string

The type of upload request to the /upload URI. If you are uploading data with an /upload URI, this field is required. If you are creating a metadata-only file, this field isn't required. Additionally, this field isn't shown in the "Try this method" widget because the widget doesn't support data uploads.

Acceptable values are:

  • media - Simple upload. Upload the media only, without any metadata.
  • multipart - Multipart upload. Upload both the media and its metadata, in a single request.
  • resumable - Resumable upload. Upload the file in a resumable fashion, using a series of at least two requests where the first request includes the metadata.
useContentAsIndexableText

boolean

Whether to use the uploaded content as indexable text.
includePermissionsForView

string

Specifies which additional view's permissions to include in the response. Only published is supported.
includeLabels

string

A comma-separated list of IDs of labels to include in the labelInfo part of the response.

Request body

The request body contains an instance of File.

Response body

If successful, the response body contains an instance of File.

Authorization scopes

Requires one of the following OAuth scopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file

Some scopes are restricted and require a security assessment for your app to use them. For more information, see the Authorization guide.