---
title: "Guide: Connect Google Cloud billing"
canonical_url: "https://tokenobserve.com/guides/connect-google-cloud-billing"
published: 2026-10-15
last_updated: 2026-10-15
---

# Guide: Connect Google Cloud billing

The question: How do I connect Google Cloud billing to Token Observe?

## The answer, in one paragraph

Use the Read-only OAuth token or service account JSON for the billing connection in your cloud workspace. Check collection status and the source period before treating any figure as reported spend. Model calls use a separate inference key.

## Facts

- Reporting credential: Read-only OAuth token or service account JSON
- Evidence basis: Provider-reported costs, with currency and daily periods
- Automatic collection: Scheduler checks every 15 minutes; normally no more often than every six hours
- Trial: 30 days from workspace creation; no card or automatic paid conversion

## The limit

Check the scope: A complete retrieval does not make the provider bill final or recover historical conversations.

### Prepare the reporting access

Enable the Cloud Billing export and identify the query project, project containing the export table, dataset, standard or detailed export table, dataset location and one to ten service IDs. Grant BigQuery jobs.create in the query project and read access to the export dataset. Use a service account JSON credential or an unexpired read-only OAuth credential.

Create and confirm your Token Observe account, sign in and create a workspace. In Connect billing, choose the provider, give the connection a useful name and enter its reporting credential. Enter credentials only in the hosted portal’s masked field, never in a chat, worksheet or support message.

### Collect and inspect the source

Choose Connect and collect costs. A saved credential can still have a failed or partial collection. Open Coverage details and check source status, reporting window, last successful collection and any reason for incomplete evidence. Use Collect latest 30 days after fixing permissions or configuration.

The connector queries a configured Cloud Billing BigQuery export for explicitly selected service IDs. It preserves each currency, includes credits in exported cost calculations and retains source dimensions. It is not a feed for every Gemini product or consumer subscription.

### Keep the evidence usable

The credential field accepts service account JSON or an OAuth JSON object with type, access_token and expires_at. An OAuth expiry needs replacement through Rotate credential for the same account. Service accounts obtain short-lived tokens. Query scans can incur your own BigQuery charges: maximumBytesBilled defaults to 100,000,000 and is capped at 1,000,000,000 per query. These are query byte limits, not a fixed money cap.

The collectors bound a run to 31 completed UTC days, 20 requests or pages and 10,000 rows. A partial or failed collection keeps previous evidence with its status. Missing evidence remains unknown. One billing connection per provider per workspace prevents overlapping account connections.

To replace a credential, choose Rotate credential and confirm it accesses the same account. Changing accounts requires disconnecting first; disconnecting removes that connection’s retained costs. Scheduled collection stops when the trial expires. Retained authorized reads and exports remain subject to the shared traffic quota.

## Resources

- Start with a cloud workspace: https://tokenobserve.com/get-started
- Check billed and metered variance: https://tokenobserve.com/guides/reconcile-ai-provider-spend

## The capabilities behind this

- https://tokenobserve.com/platform/estate-spend
- https://tokenobserve.com/platform/conversation-evidence

## Questions and answers

Q: Does billing setup give agents a model key?
A: No. Billing credentials read reports. Optional model calls need a separate inference key plus a workspace-issued agent identity, permissions and gateway credential.

Q: Can I upload an invoice instead?
A: The workspace has an existing invoice-import path, but the new cloud portal does not provide its own CSV upload or automatic synchronization of those imports. Ask for setup help if your plan does not expose the supported reporting source.