Artifact Registry — Container & package storage

Artifact Registry is the closet where your Docker images live. It's GCP's private Docker Hub. Cloud Build puts images in, Cloud Run takes images out.

You create a repository (think of it as a folder), pick a format (docker, npm, maven, python, apt, yum, …), pick a region, and you're done. You get a URL like europe-west1-docker.pkg.dev/my-project/my-repo.

Why use it instead of Docker Hub? It's private by default (authenticated via IAM, not Docker credentials). It's in the same region as your Cloud Run — pulls are fast and free of egress fees. It supports vulnerability scanning automatically.

It replaces the older Container Registry (gcr.io). For new projects, always use Artifact Registry.

Comparison: Artifact Registry = AWS ECR = Azure Container Registry. Same role: private image storage, scoped to your project, billed per GB stored + per GB pulled outside your region.