diff --git a/docs/sources/features/datasources/stackdriver.md b/docs/sources/features/datasources/stackdriver.md
index 103a58587b1..166ee9bcf68 100644
--- a/docs/sources/features/datasources/stackdriver.md
+++ b/docs/sources/features/datasources/stackdriver.md
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@ Grafana ships with built-in support for Google Stackdriver. Just add it as a dat
 
 ## Authentication
 
-### Service Account Credentials - Private Key File
+There are two ways to authenticate the Stackdriver plugin - either by uploading a Google JWT file, or by automatically retrieving credentials from Google metadata server. The latter option is only available when running Grafana on GCE virtual machine.
+
+### Using a Google JWT File
 
 To authenticate with the Stackdriver API, you need to create a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Service Account for the Project you want to show data for. A Grafana datasource integrates with one GCP Project. If you want to visualize data from multiple GCP Projects then you need to create one datasource per GCP Project.
 
@@ -74,6 +76,16 @@ Click on the links above and click the `Enable` button:
 
     {{< docs-imagebox img="/img/docs/v53/stackdriver_grafana_key_uploaded.png" class="docs-image--no-shadow" caption="Service key file is uploaded to Grafana" >}}
 
+### Using GCE Default Service Account
+
+If Grafana is running on a Google Compute Engine (GCE) virtual machine, it is possible for Grafana to automatically retrieve default credentials from the metadata server. This has the advantage of not needing to generate a private key file for the service account and also not having to upload the file to Grafana. However for this to work, there are a few preconditions that needs to be met.
+
+1. First of all, you need to create a Service Account that can be used by the GCE virtual machine. See detailed instructions on how to do that [here](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-for-instances#createanewserviceaccount).
+2. Make sure the GCE virtual machine instance is being run as the service account that you just created. See instructions [here](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-for-instances#using).
+3. Allow access to the `Stackdriver Monitoring API` scope. See instructions [here](changeserviceaccountandscopes).
+
+Read more about creating and enabling service accounts for GCE VM instances [here](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-for-instances).
+
 ## Metric Query Editor
 
 {{< docs-imagebox img="/img/docs/v53/stackdriver_query_editor.png" max-width= "400px" class="docs-image--right" >}}