Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::billing_budgets_v1::BudgetServiceClient(
google::cloud::billing_budgets_v1::MakeBudgetServiceConnection(
options));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other *Client classes:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis webpage provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials in Google Cloud C++ client libraries, using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe content details how to explicitly load a service account key file for authentication, replacing the use of Application Default Credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate version for billing-override-authentication is 2.37.0-rc, with a history of versions dating back to 2.11.0 available for reference.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe page includes code examples demonstrating how to implement service account authentication with various client classes like \u003ccode\u003eBudgetServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eCloudBillingClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eCloudCatalogClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided documentation directs users to best practices for managing service account keys and additional information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]