How do I delete my Google Cloud Platform Account?

Question

I have 2 cloud accounts and only need one, how do I delete or cancel my account so I do not have to pay for the one?

Answer 1

1. "Disable" the billing. You can find the partly-accurate instructions here: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6288653?hl=en
2. Find the "IAM" panel in the hamburger menu, where you have to copy-paste the names of the services (random numbers and letters) and then wait several seconds for the confirm button to turn from gray to black. For some reason, you have to delete these one at a time, in a specific order. (Note: Even if you didn't use the service, you should double-check this, because there was a lot here that I did not create.)
3. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/projects and trashbin the projects. Again, there was a project here called "numeric-abbey-xxxxxx" that I did not create, nor did I accept any invitations or join any groups.

4. To "close" your billing account:

   a. Go to the Cloud Platform Console https://console.cloud.google.com/

   b. Hamburger menu: select Billing.

   c. Select the billing account name. (Do this twice.)

   d. Click "Close billing account."

   e. Type "close" to confirm.

Note: Google will not entirely "delete" your billing information:

"Upon checking, your billing account is still active. You will need to close it to prevent notifications being sent to your email. We cannot delete the details on your billing account for auditing purposes. Though rest assured that we take privacy very seriously. Once your billing account is closed, all the information will be encrypted and moved to a cold storage."

https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6288653?hl=en

For some industry perspective, in terms of complexity, this is very unusual. Both as a consumer, developer, working at ISPs, I have never seen such a complex process to close a business account in my 20+ years of hosting. (Academia is another story.) This is not meant to be disparaging or a "rant." Depending on the type of work that you do, maybe complexity is exactly what you're looking for. I believe it's important to know what you're getting into ahead of time.