Accessing Google Sheets API v4 without OAuth authentication methods

Other Questions Google Sheets
1

I want to set up automated access to a publicly shared Google spreadsheet from my Linux workstation using bash scripts for daily data operations.

I have created a publicly accessible Google sheet with ID 2G8kj9867yOEmEZJwAn_4UsYc60GHGHIHD8keEx-Oy1 that permits open editing.

When I attempt the standard API approach:

curl 'https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/2G8kj9867yOEmEZJwAn_4UsYc60GHGHIHD8keEx-Oy1/values/Data!B1:B3'

I receive this error response:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 403,
    "message": "The request is missing a valid API key.",
    "status": "PERMISSION_DENIED"
  }
}

I found a temporary workaround using OAuth playground to generate tokens, which works with:

curl 'https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/2G8kj9867yOEmEZJwAn_4UsYc60GHGHIHD8keEx-Oy1/values/Data!B1:B3' -H "Authorization: Bearer za30.HmwcCMksUettTvTmms4v3BjD-CPtkvJPF2y6bgV4yjbgC-GUPeeMEugbcvJNHG2rJe6CtAyjUYysy8WEFuyxw5R2vwX0tSeelgn4J3MAoU2IL3uUXzY_7pYv-OBH"

This returns the expected data:

{
  "range": "Data!B1:B3",
  "majorDimension": "ROWS",
  "values": [
    ["value1"],
    ["value2"],
    ["value3"]
  ]
}

However, these tokens keep expiring and refresh tokens become invalid after several hours. Since my spreadsheet is publicly editable, why do I need complex authentication? Is there a simpler method using API keys or service account credentials for permanent access?

2

actually had the same issue last month with my data scraping script. the api key method john mentioned is definetly the way to go - much easier than dealing with oauth tokens that keep expiring every hour or so. just make sure to restrict your api key to only sheets api in the console for security reasons.

3

The OAuth playground tokens expire because they’re designed for testing purposes, not production use. Even though your sheet is publicly editable through the web interface, the API still enforces authentication requirements - this is a security measure Google implements across all their APIs. From my experience running automated sheet operations for about 18 months, the API key approach is definitely your best bet for simple read operations. Once you have the key from Google Cloud Console, your curl command becomes: bash curl 'https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/YOUR_SHEET_ID/values/Data!B1:B3?key=YOUR_API_KEY' One thing to note though - if you plan to write data back to the sheet later, you’ll need service account credentials since API keys only work for read operations. But for your current use case of daily data retrieval, a simple API key should handle everything without the token refresh headaches you’re dealing with now.

4

You’re experiencing this because the Sheets API v4 requires authentication regardless of whether your spreadsheet is publicly accessible. Even public sheets need an API key at minimum when accessed through the official API endpoints.

The simplest permanent solution is creating a Google Cloud project and generating an API key. Go to the Google Cloud Console, enable the Sheets API, and create credentials selecting “API key” rather than OAuth. Then append ?key=YOUR_API_KEY to your curl requests.

Alternatively, service account authentication works well for automated scripts. Create a service account, download the JSON credentials file, and use tools like gcloud auth to handle token management automatically. This approach eliminates token expiration issues since the service account can refresh tokens programmatically.

I’ve been using service accounts for similar automation tasks for over two years without authentication interruptions. The initial setup takes about 10 minutes but saves considerable maintenance time compared to managing OAuth tokens manually.