Google Cloud announced on November 5, 2026, that date-based versioning for the Compute Engine API is generally available across its regions. Teams with existing /v1 integrations do not have to migrate: calls that omit a dated version continue to use /v1. The dated contracts give teams another way to choose when their integrations adopt API changes.

How the dated versions differ from /v1

The existing channel-based versioning model, or CBV, uses long-lived /v1, /beta, and /alpha channels that receive in-place updates. Google’s interface-based versioning, or IBV, assigns versions to individual interfaces, methods, and resources so they can evolve independently. Google named 2026-09-01 as the initial stable version and 2026-10-01-preview as a preview version.

Stable versions use the YYYY-MM-DD format and are planned quarterly. They maintain strict compatibility under Google’s standard deprecation policy. Preview versions add experimental features to the latest stable capabilities and may be released at any time.

Existing integrations can stay on /v1

Google says migration is optional and IBV is enabled by default with the Compute Engine API. Existing CBV requests continue to work; teams that stay on CBV won’t get features available only through IBV. Requests without a dated version default to the CBV /v1 endpoint. Google’s Compute Engine versioning guide explains these defaults and the version policies.

REST callers can select a dated version with the X-Goog-Api-Version header or the $apiVersion query parameter. The base path remains /compute/v1/. Client library releases bind to specific dated versions; stable gcloud compute commands target stable APIs, while gcloud preview compute targets previews. In Terraform, the google provider targets stable APIs and google-beta targets previews.

Keep preview versions out of critical production paths

Google does not guarantee that preview versions will remain compatible with earlier or future releases. Preview features may change or be removed before they reach stable release, so Google does not recommend previews for mission-critical production. Stable versions maintain strict compatibility, subject to Google’s standard deprecation policy.