I am wanting to use my Google OAuth 2 credential with the Google Sheets nodes so I can use my own API limits as my flow keeps erroring due to too many requests even when I am only sending around 5 per minute, if that.
When I try and add the details on the node it only asks me to sign in with Google? I have added my credentials separately as well but it doesn’t give me an option to select them? Google Docs and Google Sides has the option to enter credentials so I do not understand why I cannot add to Sheets? I have set the scope to https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets but it still isn’t displaying.
I am using n8n cloud on the starter plan. Does anyone have any ideas as to why I can’t use my own credentials? How do I increase the API limits to prevent the errors from happening?
In all honesty, I don’t understand why it is erroring anyway as like I say, I will not be sending any more than 5 per minute which is much less than 60 per minute limit.
You’re encountering a limitation of n8n Cloud — We understand on that platform Google Sheets credentials are managed using a pre-verified OAuth app, and you’re only given the “Sign in with Google” button, not fields to manually enter your Client ID, Client Secret—or configure scopes like you can with Docs or Slides
Why You Can’t Use Your Own Credentials on n8n Cloud
n8n Cloud uses its own Google OAuth app, so you can’t inject your own OAuth credentials (Client ID/Secret or Scope settings).
That’s why your custom credentials aren’t visible or selectable within the Sheets node UI—even though Docs and Slides might allow them.
Even setting the scope (e.g. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets) manually doesn’t change this.
Since no manual-fields are shown for cloud users. if you prefer or need to use your own Google OAuth2 credentials I think you’ll need to self-host n8n. In a self-hosted environment, n8n allows you to manually input your Client ID, Client Secret, and other OAuth2 parameters. n8n Community, n8n Docs.
