Variable Interest Entities (VIEs) (Narrative) (Details) - USD ($) $ in Billions	Mar. 31, 2020	Dec. 31, 2019
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Assets not available for use	$ 5.2	$ 3.1
Liabilities with no recourse	2.2	1.2
Noncontrolling interest	2.8	$ 1.2
Waymo
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Noncontrolling interest	$ 2.2

Portion of equity (net assets) in a variable interest entity (VIE) not attributable, directly or indirectly, to the parent entity. That is, this is the portion of equity in a VIE that is attributable to the noncontrolling interest (previously referred to as minority interest).

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of consolidated variable interest entity's (VIE) assets that can only be used to settle obligations of VIE.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 25
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116870748&loc=SL6758485-165988

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (bb)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=118582676&loc=d3e5710-111685

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of consolidated variable interest entity's (VIE) liabilities that do not have recourse to general credit of primary beneficiary.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 25
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116870748&loc=SL6758485-165988

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=118582676&loc=d3e5710-111685

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntityConsolidatedLiabilitiesNoRecourse
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntityLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntitiesByClassificationOfEntityAxis=goog_WaymoMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: