Find unused service accounts

Preview

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see thelaunch stage descriptions.

This page shows how to manage service account insights, which arefindings about which service accounts in your project haven't authenticated in the past90 days. We recommend disabling or deleting these unused service accounts andkeys because they create an unnecessary security risk.

Requests authenticated byAPI keys bound to service accounts aren't recorded inservice account usage metrics. As a result, these service accounts might be reported as unused.

Before you begin

Enable the Recommender API.
Roles required to enable APIs
To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains theserviceusage.services.enable permission.Learn how to grant roles.
Enable the API
Optional: Read aboutRecommender insights.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to manage service account insights, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project that you want to manage insights for:

To view service account insights:IAM Recommender Viewer (roles/recommender.iamViewer)
To modify service account insights:IAM Recommender Admin (roles/recommender.iamAdmin)

For more information about granting roles, seeManage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to manage service account insights. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand theRequired permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to manage service account insights:

To view service account insights:
- recommender.iamServiceAccountinsights.get
- recommender.iamServiceAccountinsights.list
To modify service account insights: recommender.iamServiceAccountinsights.update

You might also be able to get these permissions withcustom roles or otherpredefined roles.

List service account insights

To list all service account insights for your project, use one of the following methods:

gcloud

Use thegcloud recommender insights list command to view all service account insights for your project.

Before you run the command, replace the following values:

PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that you want to list insights for.

gcloudrecommenderinsightslist--insight-type=google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight\--project=PROJECT_ID\--location=global

The output lists all of the service account insights for your project. For example:

INSIGHT_ID                            CATEGORY  INSIGHT_STATE  LAST_REFRESH_TIME     SEVERITY  INSIGHT_SUBTYPE        DESCRIPTION446303ba-2a14-49cc-b9fa-e2d2499d4f82  SECURITY  ACTIVE         2022-05-24T07:00:00Z  LOW       SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE  Service account sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.4cfd82c3-7320-4dc6-9b67-ca0756bbd54c  SECURITY  ACTIVE         2022-05-24T07:00:00Z  LOW       SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE  Service account sa-2@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.a627bed7-c8f4-4611-89c9-2a9a8618ca1b  SECURITY  ACTIVE         2022-05-24T07:00:00Z  LOW       SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE  Service account sa-3@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.a922dd59-df0a-422d-a2a4-096195e1dae5  SECURITY  ACTIVE         2022-05-24T07:00:00Z  LOW       SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE  Service account sa-4@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.

REST

The Recommender API'sinsights.list method lists all service account insights for your project.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that you want to list insights for.

HTTP method and URL:

GET https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to thegcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init orgcloud auth login , or by usingCloud Shell, which automatically logs you into thegcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by runninggcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

curl -X GET \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project:PROJECT_ID" \
     "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to thegcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init orgcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by runninggcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method GET `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights" | Select-Object -Expand Content

The response lists all of the service account insights for your project. For example:

{  "insights": [    {      "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/446303ba-2a14-49cc-b9fa-e2d2499d4f82",      "description": "Service account sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.",      "content": {        "serviceAccountId": "103185812403937829397",        "email": "sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com",        "lastAuthenticatedTime": "2020-09-11T07:00:00Z"      },      "lastRefreshTime": "2022-05-24T07:00:00Z",      "observationPeriod": "19008000s",      "stateInfo": {        "state": "ACTIVE"      },      "category": "SECURITY",      "targetResources": [        "//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012"      ],      "insightSubtype": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE",      "etag": "\"9d797dd04263c855\"",      "severity": "LOW"    },    {      "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/4cfd82c3-7320-4dc6-9b67-ca0756bbd54c",      "description": "Service account sa-2@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.",      "content": {        "serviceAccountId": "105496400997178042131",        "email": "sa-2@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com"      },      "lastRefreshTime": "2022-05-24T07:00:00Z",      "observationPeriod": "16070400s",      "stateInfo": {        "state": "ACTIVE"      },      "category": "SECURITY",      "targetResources": [        "//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012"      ],      "insightSubtype": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE",      "etag": "\"783a32b635d79a4e\"",      "severity": "LOW"    }  ]}

To learn more about the components of an insight, seeReview service account insights on this page.

Get a single service account insight

To get more information about a single insight, including the insight's description, status, and any recommendations it's associated with, use one of the following methods:

gcloud

Use thegcloud recommender insights describe command with your insight ID to view information about a single insight.

INSIGHT_ID: The ID of the insight that you want to view. To find the ID,list the insights for your project.
PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that you want to manage insights for.

gcloudrecommenderinsightsdescribeINSIGHT_ID\--insight-type=google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight\--project=PROJECT_ID\--location=global

The output shows the insight in detail. For example,the following insight indicates that the service accountsa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com has not authenticated sinceOctober 11, 2020.

category:SECURITYcontent:email:sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.comlastAuthenticatedTime:'2020-10-11T07:00:00Z'serviceAccountId:'103185812403937829397'description:Service account sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.comwas inactive.etag:'"9d797dd04263c855"'insightSubtype:SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGElastRefreshTime:'2022-05-24T07:00:00Z'name:projects/123456789012/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/446303ba-2a14-49cc-b9fa-e2d2499d4f82observationPeriod:19008000sseverity:LOWstateInfo:state:ACTIVEtargetResources:-//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012

To learn more about the components of an insight, seeReview service account insights on this page.

REST

The Recommender API'sinsights.get method gets a single insight.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that you want to manage insights for.
INSIGHT_ID: The ID of the insight that you want to view. If you don't know the insight ID, you can find it bylisting the insights in your project. The ID of an insight is everything afterinsights/ in thename field for the insight.

HTTP method and URL:

GET https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Execute the following command:

curl -X GET \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project:PROJECT_ID" \
     "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID"

PowerShell (Windows)

Execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method GET `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID" | Select-Object -Expand Content

The response contains the insight. For example,the following insight indicates that the service accountsa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com has not authenticated sinceOctober 11, 2020.

{  "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/446303ba-2a14-49cc-b9fa-e2d2499d4f82",  "description": "Service account sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.",  "content": {    "serviceAccountId": "103185812403937829397",    "email": "sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com",    "lastAuthenticatedTime": "2020-09-11T07:00:00Z"  },  "lastRefreshTime": "2022-05-24T07:00:00Z",  "observationPeriod": "19008000s",  "stateInfo": {    "state": "ACTIVE"  },  "category": "SECURITY",  "targetResources": [    "//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012"  ],  "insightSubtype": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE",  "etag": "\"9d797dd04263c855\"",  "severity": "LOW"}

To learn more about the components of an insight, seeReview service account insights on this page.

Review service account insights

After you get a single insight, you can review its contents to understand the pattern of resource usage that it highlights.

An insight's content is determined by its subtypes. Service account insights (google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight) insights have theSERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE subtype.

SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE insights have the following components, not necessarily in this order:

associatedRecommendations: The identifiers for any recommendations associated with the insight. If there are no recommendations associated with the insight, this field is empty.
category: The category for IAM insights is alwaysSECURITY.
content: Reports the last time the service account was authenticated. This field contains the following components:
- email: The email address of the service account.
- lastAuthenticatedTime: The most recent time that the service account was authenticated. If the service account does not have any recorded authentications, this field is not included.
- serviceAccountId: The unique numeric ID of the service account.
description: A human-readable summary of the insight.
etag: A unique identifier for the current state of an insight. Each time the insight changes, a newetag value is assigned.
To change the state of an insight, you must provide theetag of the existing insight. Using theetag helps ensure that any operations are performed only if the insight has not changed since you last retrieved it.
insightSubtype: The insight subtype.
lastRefreshTime: The date when the insight was last refreshed, which indicates the freshness of the data used to generate the insight.
name: The name of the insight, in the following format:
```
projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID
```
The placeholders have the following values:
- PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project where the insight was generated.
- INSIGHT_ID: A unique ID for the insight.
observationPeriod: The time period leading up to the insight. The source data used to generate the insight ends atlastRefreshTime and begins atlastRefreshTime minusobservationPeriod.
stateInfo: Insights go through multiple state transitions after they are proposed:
- ACTIVE: The insight has been generated, but either no actions have been taken, or an action was taken without updating the insight's state. Active insights are updated when the underlying data changes.
- ACCEPTED: Some action has been taken based on the insight. Insights become accepted when an associated recommendation was markedCLAIMED,SUCCEEDED, orFAILED, or the insight was accepted directly. When an insight is in theACCEPTED state, the content of the insight cannot change. Accepted insights are retained for 90 days after they are accepted.
targetResources: Thefull resource name of the project that the insight is for. For example,//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012.

Mark a service account insight as`ACCEPTED`

If you take action based on an active insight, you can mark that insight asACCEPTED. TheACCEPTED state tells the Recommender API that you have taken action based on this insight, which helps refine your recommendations.

Accepted insights are retained for 90 days after they are marked asACCEPTED.

gcloud

Use thegcloud recommender insights mark-accepted command with your insight ID to mark an insight asACCEPTED.

INSIGHT_ID: The ID of the insight that you want to view. To find the ID,list the insights for your project.
PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that you want to manage insights for.
ETAG: An identifier for a version of the insight. To get theetag, do the following:
1. Get the insight using thegcloud recommender insights describe command.
2. Find and copy theetag value from the output, including the enclosing quotes. For example,"d3cdec23cc712bd0".

gcloudrecommenderinsightsmark-acceptedINSIGHT_ID\--insight-type=google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight\--project=PROJECT_ID\--location=global\--etag=ETAG

The output shows the insight, now with the state ofACCEPTED:

category:SECURITYcontent:email:sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.comlastAuthenticatedTime:'2020-10-11T07:00:00Z'serviceAccountId:'103185812403937829397'description:Service account sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.comwas inactive.etag:'"39c4199dcec92848"'insightSubtype:SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGElastRefreshTime:'2022-05-24T07:00:00Z'name:projects/123456789012/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/446303ba-2a14-49cc-b9fa-e2d2499d4f82observationPeriod:19008000sseverity:LOWstateInfo:state:ACCEPTEDtargetResources:-//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012

To learn more about the state info of an insight, seeReview service account insights on this page.

REST

The Recommender API'sinsights.markAccepted method marks an insight asACCEPTED.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

PROJECT_ID: The ID of the project that you want to manage insights for.
INSIGHT_ID: The ID of the insight that you want to view. If you don't know the insight ID, you can find it bylisting the insights in your project. The ID of an insight is everything afterinsights/ in thename field for the insight.
ETAG: An identifier for a version of the insight. To get theetag, do the following:
1. Get the insight using theinsights.get method.
2. Find and copy theetag value from the response.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID:markAccepted

Request JSON body:

{  "etag": "ETAG"}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Save the request body in a file namedrequest.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project:PROJECT_ID" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID:markAccepted"

PowerShell (Windows)

Save the request body in a file namedrequest.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/INSIGHT_ID:markAccepted" | Select-Object -Expand Content

The response contains the insight, now with the state ofACCEPTED:

{  "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/insightTypes/google.iam.serviceAccount.Insight/insights/446303ba-2a14-49cc-b9fa-e2d2499d4f82",  "description": "Service account sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com was inactive.",  "content": {    "serviceAccountId": "103185812403937829397",    "email": "sa-1@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com",    "lastAuthenticatedTime": "2020-10-11T07:00:00Z"  },  "lastRefreshTime": "2022-05-24T07:00:00Z",  "observationPeriod": "19008000s","stateInfo": {    "state": "ACCEPTED"    },  "category": "SECURITY",  "targetResources": [    "//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/123456789012"  ],  "insightSubtype": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_USAGE",  "etag": "\"39c4199dcec92848\"",  "severity": "LOW"}

To learn more about the state info of an insight, seeReview service account insights on this page.

What's next

Review the other availabletools to understand service account usage.
Use theActive Assist to view and manage all recommendations for your project, including IAM recommendations.

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under theApache 2.0 License. For details, see theGoogle Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2026-02-19 UTC.

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Before you begin

Required roles

Required permissions

List service account insights

gcloud

REST

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

PowerShell (Windows)

Get a single service account insight

gcloud

REST

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

PowerShell (Windows)

Review service account insights

Mark a service account insight asACCEPTED

gcloud

REST

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

PowerShell (Windows)

What's next

Find unused service accounts

Mark a service account insight as`ACCEPTED`