GCP - Google API vs Cloud API

This is a common point of confusion, largely because of how Google has structured its services and consoles over time.

• Google APIs is the giant umbrella term for all APIs that Google offers for its vast ecosystem of products and services. Most of them are hosted on the googleapis.com domain.
• Google Cloud APIs are a specific subset of those Google APIs that relate directly to the services offered on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

All Google Cloud APIs are Google APIs, but not all Google APIs are Google Cloud APIs.

More specifically: Cloud APIs are Google APIs under the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service (GCP ToS).

Google APIs

This is the all-encompassing category. It includes programmatic interfaces for nearly every Google product, whether it's a consumer-facing app or an enterprise-level service.

• Purpose: To allow developers to integrate with and extend the functionality of Google's wide range of products.
• Target Audience: A very broad range of developers, from hobbyists and web developers to large enterprise teams.
• Examples:
  • Google Workspace APIs: Gmail API, Google Calendar API, Google Drive API, Sheets API.
  • Google Maps Platform APIs: Maps JavaScript API, Geocoding API, Places API.
  • YouTube APIs: YouTube Data API, YouTube Analytics API.
  • Other Consumer APIs: Photos Library API, Google Fit API.
  • ...and this category also includes all the Google Cloud APIs.

Google Cloud APIs

This is the specific set of APIs for interacting with the infrastructure and services that make up Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You use these APIs to build, deploy, and manage applications and infrastructure on Google's cloud.

• Purpose: To programmatically control, configure, and interact with Google Cloud resources. This is the foundation of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automation on GCP.
• Target Audience: Cloud architects, DevOps engineers, software developers, data scientists, and anyone building solutions directly on GCP.
• Examples:
  • Compute: Compute Engine API, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) API.
  • Storage: Cloud Storage API, Filestore API.
  • Databases: Cloud SQL Admin API, Bigtable API, Spanner API.
  • Networking: Cloud DNS API, Cloud Load Balancing API.
  • Data & Analytics: BigQuery API, Pub/Sub API, Dataflow API.
  • AI/ML: Vertex AI API, Cloud Natural Language API, Cloud Vision API.
  • Management: Identity and Access Management (IAM) API, Cloud Resource Manager API.

Why Is It Confusing?

The confusion arises from three main sources:

1. Unified Console: Both Cloud APIs and other Google APIs are enabled and managed in the same place: the Google Cloud Console, under "APIs & Services". You enable the Gmail API right next to the Compute Engine API.
2. Unified Billing: All billable API usage, whether it's for the Maps API or the BigQuery API, is tied to a single Google Cloud project and its associated billing account.
3. Unified Authentication: The authentication methods (OAuth 2.0, API Keys, Service Accounts) are the same across the board and are managed within a Google Cloud project.