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Where Does gcloud Store Config and Credentials?

gcloud ~/.config/gcloud folder with credentials.db, legacy_credentials and per config properties.

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The gcloud CLI keeps credentials.db, legacy_credentials and named configurations in a gcloud folder under .config in your home folder on every OS.

Application default credentials for app code live in a separate application_default_credentials.json in the same tree. Deleting the folder logs everything out at once.

Where Google Cloud SDK stores this, by platform

Windows
%USERPROFILE%\.config\gcloud

Same layout on all OSes. CLOUDSDK_CONFIG relocates it; check the env var when the folder seems missing.

macOS
~/.config/gcloud

Configurations subfolder holds one dir per named config with its properties file. Switch with config configurations activate.

Linux
~/.config/gcloud

Same layout. Keep permissions owner only; the credentials files grant project access.

Frequently asked questions

How do I wipe all gcloud logins on a shared machine?

Revoke auth logins, then delete the gcloud folder. Both steps matter; files alone leave tokens valid server side.

Where are app default credentials for code?

application_default_credentials.json inside the same gcloud folder, created by the application default login command.

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