---
description: Deploy Cloudflare Tunnel on Google Cloud Platform.
title: GCP
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/guides/google-cloud-platform/og.png?v=cfa97e9886604354
---

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# GCP

Last updated Sep 11, 2026|Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/guides/google-cloud-platform/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

This guide covers how to connect a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) virtual machine to Cloudflare using `cloudflared` and publish a web application through a Cloudflare Tunnel.

### Prerequisites

- [A Google Cloud Project ↗︎](https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/creating-managing-projects#creating_a_project)
- [A zone on Cloudflare](https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/manage-domains/add-site/)

## 1. Create a VM instance

1. In your [Google Cloud Console ↗︎](https://console.cloud.google.com/), [create a new project ↗︎](https://developers.google.com/workspace/guides/create-project).
2. Go to **Compute Engine** > **VM instances**.
3. Select **Create instance**.
4. Name your VM instance. In this example we will name it `http-test-server`.
5. Choose your desired operating system and specifications. For this example, you can use the following settings:
   - **Machine family:** General Purpose
   - **Series:** E2
   - **Machine type:** e2-micro
   - **Boot disk image:** Debian GNU/Linux 12
   - **Firewalls**: Allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic
6. Under **Advanced options** > **Management** > **Automation**, add the following startup script. This example deploys a basic Apache web server on port `80`.

   ```bash
   #!/bin/bash
   apt update
   apt -y install apache2
   cat <<EOF > /var/www/html/index.html
   <html><body><h1>Hello Cloudflare!</h1>
   <p>This page was created for a Cloudflare demo.</p>
   </body></html>
   EOF
   ```


7. Select **Create**.
8. The operating system automatically starts the Apache HTTP server. To verify that the server is running:
   1. Copy the **External IP** for the VM instance.
   2. Open a browser and go to `http://<EXTERNAL IP>`. You should see the **Hello Cloudflare!** test page.
9. To login to the VM instance, open the dropdown next to **SSH** and select *Open in browser window*.

## 2. Create a tunnel

1. In the [Cloudflare dashboard ↗︎](https://dash.cloudflare.com/), go to **Networking** > **Tunnels**.
2. Select **Create Tunnel** and enter a name (for example, `gcp-tunnel`).
3. Select **Create Tunnel**.
4. Under **Setup Environment**, select **Debian 64-bit**.
5. SSH into your VM and run the install commands shown in the dashboard.
6. Once the tunnel connects, select **Continue**.

## 3. Publish an application

1. Under **Routes**, select **Add route** > **Published application**.
2. Enter a hostname (for example, `hellocloudflare.<your-domain>.com`).
3. Under **Service**, enter `http://localhost:80`.
4. Select **Add route**.

To test, open a browser and go to the hostname you configured.

You can optionally add [Cloudflare Access](https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/integrations/#cloudflare-access) to control who can reach the service.

Looking for private network access?

To connect to your VM via private IP using the Cloudflare One Client, refer to the [Cloudflare One Tunnel documentation](https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/private-net/).

## Firewall configuration

To secure your VM instance, you can [configure your VPC firewall rules ↗︎](https://cloud.google.com/firewall/docs/using-firewalls) to deny all ingress traffic and allow only egress traffic to the [Cloudflare Tunnel IP addresses](https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/configuration/#required-ports). Since GCP denies ingress traffic by [default ↗︎](https://cloud.google.com/firewall/docs/firewalls#default_firewall_rules), you can delete all ingress rules and leave only the relevant egress rules.

Note

If you delete the default `allow-ssh` rule, you will be unable to SSH back into the VM.

After configuring your VPC firewall rules, verify that you can still access the service through Cloudflare Tunnel via its [public hostname](#3-publish-an-application). The service should no longer be accessible from outside Cloudflare Tunnel -- for example, if you go to `http://<EXTERNAL IP>` the test page should no longer load.

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