Your application needs to identify itself every time it sends a request to
the Cloud SQL Admin API, by including an [API key](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys) with each
request.

## Acquiring and using an API key

To acquire an API key:

1. Open the [Credentials page](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials) in the Google Cloud console.
2. This API supports two types of credentials. Create whichever credentials are appropriate for your project:
   - **OAuth 2.0:** Whenever your application requests private user
     data, it must send an OAuth 2.0 token along with the request. Your
     application first sends a client ID and, possibly, a client secret to
     obtain a token. You can generate OAuth 2.0 credentials for web
     applications, service accounts, or installed applications.

     **Note:** Since this API doesn't have any methods
     that require OAuth 2.0 authorization, you might only need to obtain
     [API keys](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/admin-api/how-tos/authorizing#console_public_api_keys), which are described
     below. However, if your application calls other APIs that require user
     authorization, then you still need OAuth 2.0 credentials.

     For more information, see the [OAuth 2.0 documentation](https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/OAuth2).
   - **API keys:**

     A request that does not provide an OAuth 2.0 token must send an API
     key.

     The key identifies your project and provides API access, quota, and
     reports.

     The API supports several types of restrictions on API keys. If the API key that you
     need doesn't already exist, then create an API key in the Console by
     clicking **[Create credentials](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials) \> API key** . You can restrict the key before using it
     in production by clicking **Restrict key** and selecting one of the
     **Restrictions**.

To keep your API keys secure, follow the [best practices for
securely using API keys](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys).

After you have an API key, your application can append the query parameter
`key=yourAPIKey` to all request URLs.

The API key is safe for embedding in URLs; it doesn't need any encoding.