An API endpoint, or service endpoint, is a URL that specifies the network
address of a Google Cloud API service, such as `bigquery.googleapis.com`.
Google Cloud services allow access to resources using different types of API
endpoints, including regional, multi-regional, global, and locational. Support
for each type of endpoint depends on the service.

This document briefly describes each type of endpoint to provide
clarity about how they differ and guidance about which type of endpoint to use.

## Regional endpoints

Regional API endpoints provide access to Google Cloud services through an API
endpoint that is scoped to a single Google Cloud region. Traffic sent to a
regional endpoint is processed and TLS terminated entirely within the specified
region.

For most Google Cloud services, you can use regional endpoints to work with
regional resources within the specified region. Operations on global resources,
multi-regional resources, and out-of-region regional resources are typically not
supported from the regional endpoint.

Regional API endpoints specify the location as a subdomain. Public regional
endpoints have the following format:

`SERVICE.REGION.rep.googleapis.com`

- `SERVICE`: the name of the Google Cloud service, such as `storage`, `compute`, or `bigquery`.
- `REGION`: the Google Cloud region name, such as `us-central1` or `europe-west1`.

Private regional API endpoints have the following format:

`SERVICE.REGION.p.rep.googleapis.com`

- `SERVICE`: the name of the Google Cloud service, such as `storage`, `compute`, or `bigquery`.
- `REGION`: the Google Cloud region name, such as `us-central1` or `europe-west1`.
- `.p.`: indicates a private target intended for Private Service Connect connectivity.

## Multi-regional endpoints

Multi-regional API endpoints provide access to Google Cloud services through an
API endpoint that is scoped to a set of Google Cloud regions within the same
country, such as the United States, India, or Canada, or jurisdiction, such as
the European Union. Traffic sent to a multi-regional endpoint is processed and
TLS terminated entirely within the specified jurisdiction.

For most Google Cloud services, you can use multi-regional endpoints to work
with multi-regional resources within the specified multi-region. Operations on
global resources, regional resources, and multi-regional resources from other
jurisdictions are typically not supported.

Multi-regional API endpoints specify the jurisdiction as a subdomain. Public
multi-regional endpoints have the following format:

`SERVICE.MULTI_REGION.rep.googleapis.com`

- `SERVICE`: the name of the Google Cloud service, such as `storage`, `compute`, or `bigquery`.
- `MULTI_REGION`: the Google Cloud multi-region name, such as `us` or `eu`.

Private multi-regional API endpoints have the following format:

`SERVICE.MULTI_REGION.p.rep.googleapis.com`

- `SERVICE`: the name of the Google Cloud service, such as `storage`, `compute`, or `bigquery`.
- `MULTI_REGION`: the Google Cloud name of the multi-region, such as `us` or `eu`.
- `.p.`: indicates a private target intended for Private Service Connect connectivity.

## Global endpoints

Global API endpoints don't specify the location in the URL hostname. These
globally scoped endpoints provide high-availability service endpoints that
terminate the TLS session as close to the client as possible, which minimizes
latency when serving API calls from a dispersed client population over the
internet. However, these endpoints don't provide any regional isolation or data
residency compliance.

For applications that can handle global dependencies and need fast performance
from Google's global network, you can use global endpoints.

Global endpoints have the following format:

`SERVICE.googleapis.com`

Where `SERVICE` is the name of the Google Cloud service, such as `storage`,
`compute`, or `bigquery`.

## Locational endpoints

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** Locational API endpoints are supported by a limited number of services, and their availability varies.

Regional API endpoints are replacing locational endpoints.
Locational endpoints are regional or multi-regional service hostnames
that you can use to access data in a given location.

However, locational endpoints don't support the following features:

- Data residency compliant connections from on-premises through the internet
- Failure domain isolation

Locational endpoints specify the location in the URL hostname and have the
following format:

`LOCATION-SERVICE.googleapis.com`

- `LOCATION`: the Google Cloud region name, such as `us-central1`, `europe-west1`, or `us`.
- `SERVICE`: the name of the Google Cloud service, such as `storage`, `compute`, or `bigquery`.

## Reference documentation

- Use the [Google Cloud CLI to manage regional endpoints](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/network-connectivity/regional-endpoints).
- See the [`regionalEndpoints` REST documentation](https://docs.cloud.google.com/network-connectivity/docs/reference/networkconnectivity/rest/v1/projects.locations.regionalEndpoints).

## What's next

- Learn [about regional and multi-regional endpoints](https://docs.cloud.google.com/docs/security/compliance/about-regional-endpoints).
- [Access regional Google APIs through backends](https://docs.cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/configure-private-service-connect-controls).
- See the Google Cloud [supported regional service endpoints](https://docs.cloud.google.com/docs/security/compliance/regional-service-endpoints).