Google Cloud Certificate Authority Service
Certificate lifecycle management (CLM) software
Confidentiality software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$20 per CA per month
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
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- Banking and insurance
- Transportation and logistics
- Information technology and software
What is Google Cloud Certificate Authority Service
Google Cloud Certificate Authority Service is a managed public key infrastructure (PKI) service for creating and operating private certificate authorities and issuing X.509 certificates. It is used by cloud and security teams to provision certificates for internal services, workloads, and devices, and to automate issuance and rotation through APIs. The service integrates with Google Cloud IAM, audit logging, and key management options, and supports hierarchical CA structures and policy controls for certificate issuance.
Managed private CA operations
The service manages core CA infrastructure tasks such as CA provisioning, certificate issuance, and revocation workflows through a cloud-managed control plane. This reduces the operational burden compared with running and patching self-managed CA software. It supports building CA hierarchies (root and subordinate CAs) to align with common enterprise PKI designs.
API-driven certificate automation
Certificate issuance and lifecycle actions are available via APIs and can be integrated into deployment pipelines and service provisioning workflows. This supports automated certificate rotation for internal services and workloads where manual issuance does not scale. It is well-suited for organizations standardizing certificate workflows across multiple teams using consistent programmatic controls.
GCP-native identity and auditing
Access control integrates with Google Cloud IAM, enabling role-based permissions for CA administration and certificate issuance. Activity can be monitored using Google Cloud logging and auditing capabilities, supporting operational oversight and compliance evidence. These integrations help centralize governance for PKI actions within the broader Google Cloud security model.
Primarily GCP-centric deployment
The service is designed around Google Cloud identity, networking, and operational tooling, which can increase dependency on GCP for PKI operations. Organizations with significant on-premises or multi-cloud PKI requirements may need additional integration work to standardize processes across environments. This can complicate governance if different platforms use different certificate services and controls.
Not a full CLM suite
Certificate Authority Service focuses on operating private CAs and issuing certificates rather than providing broad discovery and inventory of certificates across heterogeneous infrastructure. Enterprises that need centralized visibility into certificates issued by multiple internal and external CAs may require complementary tooling. Some lifecycle functions (e.g., cross-environment certificate discovery and remediation) are typically handled outside the CA service.
PKI design expertise required
While managed, the service still requires customers to design CA hierarchies, issuance policies, and operational procedures that fit their risk and compliance needs. Misconfiguration of templates, validity periods, or permissions can create security and operational issues. Teams without established PKI practices may face a learning curve when implementing governance and lifecycle standards.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| DevOps | $20 per CA per month + per-certificate fees: $0.30 (0-50,000), $0.03 (50,001-100,000), $0.0009 (100,001+) | Monthly CA fee is separate from per-certificate one-time issuance fee. Pay-as-you-go model; tiered per-certificate pricing; consider subscription for >1M certificates. |
| Enterprise | $200 per CA per month + per-certificate fees: $0.50 (0-50,000), $0.05 (50,001-100,000), $0.001 (100,001+) | Monthly CA fee is separate from per-certificate one-time issuance fee. Enterprise tier has higher monthly CA fee but different per-certificate rates; contact sales for subscription pricing and high-volume discounts. |
Notes: Certificate fees are one-time charges for each certificate issued. Google Cloud offers a subscription model for very high volumes (recommended if you require more than 1 million certificates) — contact sales for custom quotes. All pricing taken from Google Cloud's official Certificate Authority Service pricing page.
Seller details
Google LLC
Mountain View, CA, USA
1998
Subsidiary
https://cloud.google.com/deep-learning-vm
https://x.com/googlecloud
https://www.linkedin.com/company/google/
