Google Cloud Asset Inventory
Google Cloud Asset Inventory is a free cloud service for viewing, searching, exporting, monitoring, and analyzing Google Cloud asset metadata.
What Google Cloud Asset Inventory is
Google Cloud Asset Inventory is a free cloud service for viewing, searching, exporting, monitoring, and analyzing Google Cloud asset metadata. It supports resource management, compliance tracking, scheduled audits, analytics, and security or cost audits through web access and an API. Filters can narrow resources by location, creation time, tags, and status, helping identify over-permissioned, publicly exposed, or unused resources. Users can search resources and IAM allow policies, query assets with BigQuery SQL, and export metadata to BigQuery or Cloud Storage. Change monitoring uses feeds that can be subscribed to, with Pub/Sub described for monitoring. Creation, update, and deletion history is retained for up to 35 days. IAM controls access, and viewing metadata requires permissions such as Cloud Asset Viewer and Service Usage Consumer. VPC Service Controls can add security controls. The service is free, but storage for generated data may cost extra. It is not designed for real-time queries where stale or missing information could affect production availability or security enforcement. Policy Analyzer allows 20 analysis queries per organization per day without Security Command Center Premium or Enterprise access.
Good
- Free use through API and web
- Filters assets by useful metadata
- Exports data to BigQuery or Cloud Storage
- Supports Pub/Sub change monitoring
- Retains change history up to 35 days
Watch out
- Not intended for real-time enforcement decisions
- Storage costs may apply
- Policy Analyzer has daily query limits
- Requires appropriate IAM permissions
Who it suits
It suits cloud administrators, security teams, and auditors managing Google Cloud resources. It is useful for inventory, compliance, scheduled audits, analytics, and security or cost reviews.
Verdict
Cloud Asset Inventory provides broad metadata discovery, querying, export, and change monitoring for Google Cloud. Teams should account for its freshness limits, IAM requirements, storage costs, and Policy Analyzer quota.
Plans and prices
From Google Cloud Asset Inventory's own pricing page, checked 8 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Asset Inventory | Free | Storage costs may apply · All use is free of charge; you are responsible for costs associated with storing data it produces, such as data written to Cloud Storage buckets. |
The facts
Each one read from Google Cloud Asset Inventory's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Access control
- Cloud Asset Inventory uses IAM, and viewing asset metadata requires appropriate permissions such as the Cloud Asset Viewer role and Service Usage Consumer role.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Change monitoring
- You can monitor asset changes by setting up and subscribing to a feed; the documentation describes monitoring with Pub/Sub.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Consistency limitation
- Cloud Asset Inventory is not designed for real-time asset queries where missing or stale data could affect production availability or security enforcement.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Discovery and audits
- You can filter resources by metadata such as location, creation time, tags, and status, and use inventory data to find over-permissioned, publicly exposed, or unused resources.checked 8 Oct 2026
- History
- Asset create, update, and delete history is kept for up to 35 days.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Cloud Asset Inventory provides exports to BigQuery and Cloud Storage and asset change monitoring with Pub/Sub.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- Google describes the service for work such as resource management, monitoring, compliance tracking, scheduled audits, analytics, and security or cost audits.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Cloud Asset Inventory lets you view, search, export, monitor, and analyze Google Cloud asset metadata for tasks such as compliance tracking, scheduled audits, and analytics.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Queries and exports
- The service supports searching resources and IAM allow policies, querying assets with BigQuery SQL, and exporting metadata to BigQuery or Cloud Storage.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Quota limitation
- Policy Analyzer allows 20 analysis queries per organization per day without organization-level Security Command Center Premium or Enterprise access.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Security controls
- VPC Service Controls can be used with Cloud Asset Inventory to provide additional security for assets.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- Google Cloud offers support packages with options such as 24/7 coverage, phone support, and access to a technical support manager.checked 8 Oct 2026
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