Accessing gcp compute instances via gcloud sdk You have a bunch of options to ‘ssh’ into gcp VM instances: open in browser window open in browser window on custom port open in browser window using provided ssh key another ssh client (putty, termius, etc) I personally find the ‘gcloud sdk’ way much more convenient to use since I can just launch it from my terminal without having to open the browser, log into cloud console, locate the vm instance and then ssh’ing into it.