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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T12:08:11+00:00

I am just getting started working with Google API and OAuth2. When the client

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I am just getting started working with Google API and OAuth2. When the client authorizes my app I am given a “refresh token” and a short lived “access token”. Now every time the access token expires, I can POST my refresh token to Google and they will give me a new access token.

My question is what is the purpose of the access token expiring? Why can’t there just be a long lasting access token instead of the refresh token?

Also, does the refresh token expire?

See Using OAuth 2.0 to Access Google APIs for more info on Google OAuth2 workflow.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This is very much implementation specific, but the general idea is to allow providers to issue short term access tokens with long term refresh tokens. Why?

    • Many providers support bearer tokens which are very weak security-wise. By making them short-lived and requiring refresh, they limit the time an attacker can abuse a stolen token.
    • Large scale deployment don’t want to perform a database lookup every API call, so instead they issue self-encoded access token which can be verified by decryption. However, this also means there is no way to revoke these tokens so they are issued for a short time and must be refreshed.
    • The refresh token requires client authentication which makes it stronger. Unlike the above access tokens, it is usually implemented with a database lookup.
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