We would like to have easy/cheaper access to the artifacts etc. that will be output from the experiments

I see, but you have two different points in the system that use the storage:
Where the experiment is being executed - that can be your machine, or a remote machine (using ClearML Agent) - you need to make sure clearml.conf contains the correct credentials there in order to be able to upload the data to Google Storage. However, if you're not running the experiment in k8s, there's no need to configure these credentials there Where you view your experiment (and artifacts, and possibly download them) - that's the browser, which is running on your own machine in any case. There are different ways to make sure the ClearML WebApp can access your files (in the Google Storage case, I believe that's being handled automatically when your browser is signed into your Google account, and your user has the required permissions in Google Storage). This will not involve clearml.conf as the browser is running the WebApp in a sandbox and it has no access to local files on your machine.