GCP Project Name vs ID vs Number: Key Differences

Every project in Google Cloud Platform is tracked using three separate identifiers: Project Name, Project ID, and Project Number. While this might seem redundant at first, each serves a distinct purpose within GCP's infrastructure. Understanding these GCP project identifiers is essential for developers, architects, and administrators working with Google Cloud services, as you'll encounter all three when configuring resources, writing scripts, and troubleshooting issues.

The confusion around these identifiers is understandable. When you create a project in the Google Cloud Console, you're immediately asked to provide both a name and an ID, while the system silently generates a number in the background. Each identifier appears in different contexts throughout the platform, from billing reports to API calls to service account configurations. Knowing which identifier to use in which situation saves time and prevents errors that can be difficult to diagnose.

Overview of GCP Project Identifiers

Google Cloud assigns three identifiers to distinguish between these aspects of project identity. The Project Name serves as a human-readable label that helps teams organize and recognize projects. The Project ID functions as a globally unique, permanent identifier used in commands, APIs, and resource paths. The Project Number acts as an internal numeric identifier that Google Cloud uses for backend operations and certain service integrations.

These identifiers are not interchangeable. While they all reference the same project, they appear in different contexts and serve different technical requirements. The organizing principle here is purpose: one for humans, one for developers and APIs, and one for internal Google Cloud systems.

Project Name: The Human-Readable Label

The Project Name is the most flexible of the three GCP project identifiers. It exists purely as a display label to help you and your team recognize projects in the Google Cloud Console and other interfaces. Unlike the other identifiers, you can change the Project Name at any time without affecting any technical integrations or configurations.

When you view your project list in the GCP Console, the Project Name appears prominently. For example, a genomics research lab might name their project "Genome Sequencing Production" while a mobile game studio might use "Puzzle Game Backend Services." These names can include spaces, special characters, and mixed case, making them easy to read and understand.

The Project Name does not need to be globally unique. Multiple organizations can use the same Project Name for their projects because this identifier never appears in technical configurations or API calls. This flexibility allows teams to adopt consistent naming conventions across environments without worrying about conflicts with other Google Cloud users.

You'll use the Project Name primarily when browsing projects in the console, generating reports for stakeholders, or organizing projects in folders within your Google Cloud organization hierarchy. It appears in billing reports alongside other identifiers, helping finance teams understand costs by business unit or application.

To change a Project Name, navigate to the IAM & Admin section in the Google Cloud Console, select Project Settings, and edit the name field. The change takes effect immediately across all interfaces. This editability makes the Project Name ideal for projects that evolve over time or get reassigned to different teams.

Project ID: The Permanent Unique Identifier

The Project ID is the most commonly used identifier for developers and automation. This globally unique string serves as the primary reference point for projects in gcloud commands, Terraform configurations, API calls, and service-to-service authentication. Once set during project creation, the Project ID cannot be changed.

When you create a project, Google Cloud requires you to specify a Project ID that meets specific constraints. The ID must be between 6 and 30 characters, contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens, and start with a letter. It must be globally unique across all of Google Cloud Platform. For a freight logistics company, an appropriate Project ID might be "freight-tracking-prod" or "logistics-data-pipeline-2024."

The permanence of the Project ID has important implications. If you need to rename a project significantly, you cannot simply change the ID. Instead, you must create a new project with the desired ID and migrate resources. This design decision ensures stability in configurations, scripts, and infrastructure-as-code definitions that reference the Project ID.

You'll use the Project ID extensively in command-line operations. When running gcloud commands, you typically specify the project using this identifier:

gcloud config set project freight-tracking-prod
gcloud compute instances list --project=freight-tracking-prod

API calls to Google Cloud services also use the Project ID. When calling the BigQuery API to list datasets, for example, you include the Project ID in the resource path. Service account email addresses incorporate the Project ID, following the format service-account-name@project-id.iam.gserviceaccount.com.

The Project ID appears in resource paths throughout GCP. A Cloud Storage bucket might be named freight-tracking-prod-data-lake, embedding the Project ID to ensure global uniqueness. Pub/Sub topics follow similar patterns, such as projects/freight-tracking-prod/topics/shipment-events.

When writing Terraform or other infrastructure-as-code configurations, you reference the Project ID to specify where resources should be created. This makes the Project ID the foundational identifier for automation and deployment pipelines.

Project Number: The Internal Numeric Identifier

The Project Number is automatically generated by Google Cloud when you create a project. This numeric identifier serves primarily for internal GCP operations, though you'll occasionally need it for specific configurations and integrations. Unlike the Project ID and Project Name, you have no control over the Project Number value.

The Project Number is a large integer, typically 12 digits long, such as 123456789012. Google Cloud assigns this number sequentially as projects are created across the entire platform. You cannot customize or predict what number your project will receive.

While less visible than the other identifiers, the Project Number appears in several important contexts. Service accounts created automatically by Google Cloud services often use the Project Number in their email addresses. For example, when you enable the Compute Engine API, GCP creates a default service account with an address like 123456789012-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com.

The Project Number is also used in certain IAM policies and access control configurations. When granting permissions to Google-managed service accounts, you sometimes need to reference the Project Number rather than the Project ID. Some API responses return the Project Number instead of or alongside the Project ID, particularly in service-to-service communications.

In Cloud Storage bucket permissions, you might see principals that reference the Project Number. When configuring cross-project access between Google Cloud services, some documentation specifically requests the Project Number to establish proper authentication.

To find your Project Number, open the Google Cloud Console and view the project dashboard. The number appears prominently alongside the Project Name and Project ID. You can also retrieve it programmatically using the gcloud command:

gcloud projects describe freight-tracking-prod --format="value(projectNumber)"

A video streaming service using Google Cloud might encounter the Project Number when configuring Cloud Pub/Sub push subscriptions that need to authenticate with Cloud Run services. The subscription configuration might require specifying the Project Number to properly identify the service account used for authentication.

Finding and Using Project Identifiers in GCP

All three identifiers appear together in several locations within the Google Cloud Console. The project dashboard, accessible from the home screen after selecting a project, displays all three values clearly. The IAM & Admin settings page also shows these identifiers when you view project information.

In the project selector dropdown at the top of the console, you'll see the Project Name displayed prominently with the Project ID shown in smaller text beneath it. This helps you select the correct project when working across multiple environments.

When using the gcloud command-line tool, you typically interact with projects using the Project ID. The default project for your current session is set with:

gcloud config set project freight-tracking-prod

However, you can list all projects accessible to your account and see all three identifiers with:

gcloud projects list

This command outputs a table showing the Project ID, Project Name, and Project Number for each project you can access.

In Terraform configurations for Google Cloud Platform, you reference the Project ID in provider configurations and resource definitions:

provider "google" {
  project = "freight-tracking-prod"
  region  = "us-central1"
}

resource "google_bigquery_dataset" "logistics_data" {
  dataset_id = "shipment_analytics"
  project    = "freight-tracking-prod"
  location   = "US"
}

When working with service accounts, you'll see different identifiers depending on the account type. User-created service accounts use the Project ID in their email addresses, while Google-managed service accounts often use the Project Number.

Comparison of Project Identifiers

Characteristic	Project Name	Project ID	Project Number
Format	Free-form text, any characters	6-30 lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens	12-digit integer
Uniqueness	Not unique (can duplicate)	Globally unique across all GCP	Globally unique across all GCP
Mutability	Can change anytime	Permanent, cannot change	Permanent, cannot change
Assignment	User-chosen during creation	User-chosen during creation	Auto-generated by Google Cloud
Primary Use	Display in console and reports	Commands, APIs, resource paths	Internal operations, service accounts
Appears In	Console UI, billing reports	gcloud commands, API calls, Terraform	Service account emails, some API responses

Relationships Between Identifiers

These three identifiers exist in a one-to-one-to-one relationship. Every project has exactly one of each, and they all reference the same project. You cannot have multiple Project IDs or Project Numbers for a single project, nor can you reuse a deleted Project ID or Project Number for a new project.

When a project is deleted, all three identifiers become permanently unavailable. Google Cloud prevents reuse of Project IDs to avoid security and configuration issues that could arise if resources or permissions were accidentally applied to the wrong project. The Project Number also becomes permanently retired.

The identifiers do not form a hierarchy. The Project Number is not derived from the Project ID, and the Project Name has no technical relationship to either. They simply coexist as three independent ways to reference the same project entity.

You can map between identifiers when needed. If you know the Project ID, you can retrieve the Project Number and current Project Name through the GCP API or gcloud commands. Similarly, if you only have the Project Number, you can look up the corresponding Project ID.

In practice, most developers work primarily with the Project ID while occasionally needing to reference the Project Number for specific integrations. The Project Name remains useful for human communication but rarely appears in technical implementations.

Choosing the Right Identifier

The choice of which identifier to use depends entirely on context rather than preference. In most situations, the decision is predetermined by the tool or interface you're using.

Use the Project Name when communicating with team members, creating documentation for non-technical stakeholders, or organizing projects visually in the console. A hospital network managing multiple Google Cloud projects might use Project Names like "Patient Portal Production" and "Medical Records Archive" to clearly communicate purpose without technical jargon.

Use the Project ID for all technical work involving commands, scripts, APIs, and infrastructure code. When you write deployment scripts, configure CI/CD pipelines, or build applications that call Google Cloud APIs, the Project ID is your primary reference. This identifier appears in authentication configurations, resource naming, and access control policies.

Use the Project Number when specifically required by Google Cloud services or documentation. If you're configuring service-to-service authentication, working with default service accounts, or following Google Cloud documentation that explicitly requests the Project Number, that's when you need this identifier. Some APIs return the Project Number in responses, requiring you to handle it in your application logic.

When troubleshooting issues, knowing all three identifiers can be helpful. Support documentation might reference any of the three, and error messages occasionally display the Project Number instead of the more familiar Project ID.

Relevance to Professional Data Engineer Certification

The Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer certification exam tests understanding of project structure and organization. Questions might present scenarios where you need to configure access between projects, set up data pipelines spanning multiple projects, or troubleshoot authentication issues involving service accounts.

Exam scenarios could describe situations where choosing the wrong identifier causes failures. Understanding that service accounts use the Project ID in user-created accounts but the Project Number in Google-managed accounts helps you select correct answers about cross-project permissions.

The exam also covers infrastructure-as-code and automation, where knowing how to reference projects correctly in Terraform and gcloud commands is essential. Questions about BigQuery, Dataflow, or Cloud Composer might include project identifier references in code snippets.

Practical Implications for GCP Projects

Understanding GCP project identifiers prevents common mistakes and streamlines your work with Google Cloud Platform. When you create a new project, choose a meaningful Project ID that follows your organization's naming conventions, knowing that you cannot change it later. Many teams adopt patterns like company-product-environment to create consistent, recognizable Project IDs across their portfolio.

Set a clear Project Name that helps team members identify the project's purpose at a glance. Since you can change this later, you have flexibility to update names as projects evolve or get reassigned.

Document all three identifiers in your project inventory. When creating runbooks, architecture diagrams, or configuration management databases, include the Project ID, Project Name, and Project Number. This comprehensive documentation helps when troubleshooting issues or onboarding new team members.

The distinction between these identifiers becomes particularly important in multi-project architectures. A solar farm monitoring company might operate separate projects for data ingestion, processing, and analytics, each with descriptive names, unique IDs, and individual Project Numbers. Service accounts and IAM policies connecting these projects need correct identifiers to function properly.

These three identifiers provide flexibility and precision in how you reference and organize Google Cloud projects. The Project Name offers human-friendly labeling, the Project ID enables consistent technical implementation, and the Project Number supports internal platform operations. Knowing which identifier serves which purpose ensures smooth operations across your Google Cloud infrastructure.